Larry Charles

News, Reviews & Features
  • The Dictator

    Movie Review | Ali | 11th May 2012

    Jokes are funny, aren't they? I don't mean in the 'Ha ha, Jimmy Carr is totes a legend LOL' kind of way; more I find them a strange way to get a laugh – painstakingly constructing sentences and cadences to maximise hilarity. It's a far more traditional, way more precise craft than surrealist, situational or observational comedy, and not one that's overly-familiar to Sacha Baron Cohen, who has thus far mostly traded on the comedy of embarrassment – the exquisite awkwardness that hidden cameras and unsuspecting participants provide. The Dictator represents his return to scripted comedy after the Borat/Bruno double-header, but any fears that Cohen's appeal would effectively be neutered while working with a safety net are swiftly allayed – this showcases his talents on the page as well as on the screen.

  • Bruno

    Movie Review | Rob | 12th July 2009

    Let's get this out of the way early ' I didn't care too much for Bruno when he appeared on Da Ali G Show. He was nothing more than just a bit of filler between the funnier skits of Ali G and Borat. It may have been his hair, his general demeanour or just my total lack of interest in the industry he's mocking, but Sacha Baron Coh...

  • Religulous

    Movie Review | Mark | 18th April 2009

    There's a new kind of film on the block. And Religulous is it. To call it a documentary is a palpable nonsense: it's a documentary in the same way that a film without any CGI is a documentary - a record of staged events engineered to create and further an opinion. In effect, Religulous is a filmed thesis; a visual presentation o...

  • Borat

    Movie Review | Mark | 15th November 2006

    All you need is a cliché. A walking, talking cardboard cut out of extremism. Clueless wannabe suburban gangster? Boyakasha, me be Ali G! Ignorant, sexist pig from a country most people haven't heard of? My name-a Borat! A dayglo east European camp fashionista? Ich bin Bruno, coming to ein multiplex near you! Borat: Cultura...