Tuesday Releases: The Dictator

August 21, 2012 / Leave a Comment

AUGUST 21ST, 2012

One Academy Award winning film and two mediocre comedies are all you get this week. “A Separation”, the foreign language film winner at last year’s Oscars comes out this week. Coming from Iran, the film delves into the life of a couple that is splitting with a child who has the choice of staying with her father or leaving the country with her mother. Though I was much more a fan of the foreign contender, “Bullhead” (which has almost been released on DVD), this was still a great film worthy of checking out.

A film not so worthy of checking out is “The Dictator” which ends up being the biggest release this week. Yet another Sacha Baron Cohen comedy, alongside “Borat” and “Bruno”, this is his first cinematic film rather than candid camera joint. About a foreign political leader coming to America, the film’s best laughs are in the trailers and the comedy really goes no further than that. Throw in a tom-boy looking Anna Faris and there’s very little to see this film for.

“Bernie” also clocks in this week, starring Jack Black and Matthew MacCaughney, in this dark comedic drama entitled “Bernie”. About a mortician getting romantically involved with a wealthy widow (Shirley Maclaine), the town is swept into an uproar when she mysteriously dies. Bent on proving the mortician committed the crime, a local attorney gets involved. Though I feel this film will be enjoyable, there’s not much incentive to run out and grab it.

What I did run out and grab immediately was the eighth and final season of House M.D., probably one of my all-time favorite television shows ever. Though I missed most of its run on television during this final season, nothing is better than getting to catch up with the cast of characters in mine own time.

Some other smaller releases to take note of are:

“Chimpanzee” – the latest Disney-nature documentary about a chimp named Oscar
“Freelancers” – starring Robert De Niro, Forest Whitaker, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, the trailer for this film actually makes it look quite interesting, despite its almost straight-to-DVD release
“Pocahontas: Two-Movie Collection” – having grown-up on most of the Disney classics, seeing them getting a blu-ray release is quite enjoyable. The day I went out to buy this, the Best Buy I was at were sold out. Can’t wait to relive this film. (Never seen the second one).