Dear Dictator (2017) Reviews

• Great cast does an excellent job

  igorashu2018-04-13

  Surprisingly, I enjoyed it a lot - even though the premise didn't excite me at first. But, I love mother-daughter movies, especially when the daughter is a snotty but vulnerable teenager. The cast is great, especially the two females leads. Clever and cute - but not too cute. Reminded me of Mrs. Doubtfire - without the drag impersonations.

• Its a shame

  markhappyboy2018-03-16

  A comedy about a Dictator meeting his young female pen pal perhaps has the premise to be a fairly funny film, unfortunately this movie completely misses the mark. As much as I wanted to enjoy this film it simply is not funny and one has to wonder why Sir Michael Cane would find himself co-starring in such a poorly scripted and low budget film.

• Pretty good if you know what you're in for

  go_titans2018-03-19

  Boy, the other reviews here are scathing, but as far as I'm concerned, this film ain't so bad. From the opening credits I could see that this movie was extremely low budget and so I set my expectations equally low. In the end I was surprised on two counts: firstly, the film wasn't that bad; and secondly, that 4 of the other 5 reviewers here on IMDB rated it so badly. The story is ridiculous. A dictator gets overthrown and flees to the US where he knows he can hide with a young girl who has chosen him to be her pen-pal and who he believes will protect him. Choosing Michael Caine for the role is equally ridiculous, as is the rest of the film's story line. But that's what I think the other reviewers here have missed: the whole story is so ridiculous that you cannot take any of it seriously, and it therefore becomes an amusing romp through a series of intentionally absurd scenarios. This in itself is not enough however, and the actors need to treat the film with just the right amount of enthusiasm to make it work. Caine's acting? He's long been one of my favourites, but in this he doesn't even bother to hide his cockney accent...but who cares! Brilliant acting is not what this film is about, so having Caine in the role becomes an amusement in itself (Caine not even remotely attempting to hide his cockney accent should have tipped off the other reviewers over the intentions of this film). I've never liked Katie Holmes, but in this I thought she was excellent. She had me totally believing in her selfish stupidity, and she appears to have treated this film to a fair degree of effort in bringing her desperate-for-a-man character to life. Odesya also handles herself well, as does Seth Green, and together the four of them manage to make this an entertaining low budget production. What gets me though is that the other reviewers here seem to have been expecting something greater. Why? The poorly done backdrop of a crowd during Caine's speech made it clear that this film was meant to be a joke, as did his responses to her letters, and I found myself chuckling over the intentional ridiculousness of it all a number of times during the film. The story is easy to follow, the editing is well handled, the casting was fine, the acting ranged from adequate to really good, so anybody who thinks this film is worth only 1/10 must have only just started watching movies yesterday, having started with Ben Hur. I have seen a hundred films way worse than this, and so I think these low ratings are missing the mark. Trust me, if you recognise the movie for what it's meant to be you should find it fun, and I personally give it a 6/10.

• I enjoyed it.

  Trupiaar2018-06-10

  I think there is a special post-BS 2018 stage that some people have come to, that you may have to be in to enjoy this movie. That having been said, I enjoyed it. Was going in hoping for light fun B movie and was not disappointed. I saw they murdered this movie on tomatoes, which is silly, cause not terrible. Probably it's also notable on afterthought that it was not overly cliche anywhere I recall. Maybe the first intro to dictator scene could have been done a tad better. The two starring ladies were believable and fun, and Michael Cain did it just right as far as I'm concerned. Not the blockbuster of the year or anything, but I laughed enough times for it to be worth it.

• Easy Money For Caine.

  grey-crow2018-03-19

  Michael Caine said of "Jaws: The Revenge": "I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific." I have a feeling that "Dear Dictator" just paid for a conservatory.