Sacha Baron Cohen

News, Reviews & Features
  • Review: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm arrives on time, but is it too little, or too much?

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 29th October 2020

    How do you lift the veil from someone who doesn't care what people think of them? This is the challenge facing Sacha Baron Cohen as he resurrects his Borat character, 14 years after the first film, in an attempt to snare the big figures of American politics prior to the upcoming election. The knowingly flimsy premise for this return is a meta plot in which Borat has now become so famous he has to continue his interview series in disguise - a process he's putting himself through in order to deliver a gift to U S. Vice President Michael Pence, otherwise he faces execution back home. Although you'd be mistaken for thinking Borat had turned up dead already.

  • Les Misérables

    Movie Review | Ali | 10th January 2013

    Let me tell you straight off, I'm not really a 'theatre person'. I'm exactly the sort of philistine who would probably walk out of a matinee showing of The Mousetrap at The Windmill if the concessions stand was closed. The last thing I saw in a theatre was Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. The time before that was The Woman In Black, but only because I knew it was considered exciting enough to be made into a film. The time before that was probably Garfield: Live!, although to my credit, I was about six at the time (even so, I still remember being terrified of Garfield's perennially glassy, non-blinking eyes and fixed, rictus grin. Maybe I caught him on a Monday).

  • Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 19th October 2012

    They left New York. They went to Madagascar. Then they ended up somewhere else in Africa. Now they're in Europe, trying to get back home to New York. It's the Circle of Life. No, hang on, that's ... anyway, here's a pleasant surprise: this animated threequel from DreamWorks is a whole heap of fun. What's more, it represents a film's most effective use of the song 'I Like To Move It' by Reel 2 Reel (feat. The Mad Stuntman) since it was first popularised in the work of Truffaut.

  • 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.

  • Why Martin Scorsese's Hugo will flop

    Movie Feature | Ali | 22nd November 2011

    Martin Scorsese has a new film out next weekend! Goodfellas! Mean Streets! Casino! The Departed! A new movie from one of America's greatest living directors! Then... how come nobody cares?

  • Madagascar

    Movie Review | Ali | 16th July 2005

    It must suck knowing that you can hire all the celebrity voiceovers in the world and create some of the most wonderful computer animation ever seen, and still have to play second fiddle to another company - compare any DreamWorks movie to any Pixar movie and they come off distinctly second-rate. Why? Pixar simply have a much b...