The Dictator (2012) - Larry Charles

Like any of Sacha Baron Cohens movies hype has been built for months using smart advertising and even smarter publicity stunts which had left me and everyone else itching to get into the cinema as soon as possible to sit through eighty three minutes of guilty belly laughs.

The story follows Dictator General Aladeen (Baron Cohen)'Beloved Oppressor' of North African country Wadiya in his struggle to take back his seat as evil dictator of his beloved country following a plot to assasinate him on a trip to New York to address the United Nations. Like both his previous films the plot follows an outlandish foreigner being thrown onto American Soil.

The jokes are in bad taste, and some of the references are absolutely shocking, but of course we all knew what we were in for as soon as we paid to see the movie, and i cannot complain one bit. As soon as the movie opened with 'In loving memory of Kim Jong Il' how could i not be hooked already.

Unlike the last two Cohen movies, Borat and Bruno The Dictator is an ordinary (If you can call it that) conventionaly structured fictional comedy which strangely, unlike the predecessors The Dictator has more of a Romcom element to it whereas the other two where filled with 'Candid Camera' style scenes which unfortunately this film has none of, which ultimately led me to finding this film less enjoyable than the previous.

Saying that the movie was an enjoyable one with not a little bit predictable. If perhaps Cohen and Charles had kept to the same type of live action situation gags we saw before this film might have been the best of the bunch. All in all though, defiantly worth a watch or two.

Overall Grade: B-

The Hunger Games (2012) - Gary Ross

Touted as 'The next twilight' to the delight of thousands, and the dismay of millions The Hunger Games is the first film released deriving from a series of book adaptations written by Suzzane Collins aimed at Teens and young adults. Set in a post apocalyptic United States split into twelve districts made to live in terrible conditions to maintain civil order as the price to pay for mass revolts against the government.

Each year the government holds the famed and feared gladitoral event 'The Hunger Games' where two randomly selected 12-18 year-olds from each district are selected to take part in a fight to the death with members of the other districts until all but those from one single district remain, all televised for the millions to watch.(Somewhat of a high-octane I'm a celebrity get me out of here!).

The film is centered on District 12's Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) a young lady who was not picked to take part in the annual games, but instead volunteered herself in the place of her younger sister who almost surely would not have lasted a day. Katniss is joined by male counterpart Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutchinson).

With the two youngsters selected, they are thrown into somewhat insanity as they are put under the guidance of Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) a former winner turned uninterested alcoholic (Don't worry he grows on you as does all of Harrelsons characters) and a host of others who groom, preen and train the youngsters so that they are at their very best ready to be paraded in front of thousands of the excenteric, rich and famous in the Capitol city before they are put into the games so that the rich can throw countless ammounts of money into the games.

I'm not going to go into any detail about the games itself as not to spoil anything for anyone yet to see the film, but all i can say is it's everything i hoped and more as their is a little bit for everyone, thrilling action, romance and a little bit of comedy thrown in here and there. The Hunger Games is one of the must see films of the summer without a doubt.

Just a final note, to those of you who really enjoyed the film, look up Battle Royale online and watch it! It's a Japanese film made in 2000 which pretty much follows the exact same plot as The Hunger Games, just one thousand times more brutal and gory.

Overall Grade: A+