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Back to Weekend Film Reviews

Weekend Film Reviews

The Dictator; Battleship

Joe Morgenstern considers Sacha Baron Cohen’s gleefully scabrous portrait of a fictional North African tyrant, and a board game gone megabudget-ballistic.

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By Joe Morgenstern • May 19, 2012 • 3m Listen

The Dictator starts high, with a tribute to the memory of Kim Jong Il, and tosses off some sensationally funny stuff, but soon descends into a rat-a-tat rhythm of random insult and ritual vulgarity…

In Battleship, there comes a time when the fate of our planet seems to have been sealed by an attack from outer space…

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    Joe Morgenstern

    Host, 'Film Reviews'

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