Good "clever" comedic writing isn’t easy, but I’d be willing to wager that writing good l"ow-brow" comedy is even more difficult. Granted, I’m pretty lousy at gambling — I owe my roommate $10 for a lost bet that Blue October was to blame for the 1995 hit “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (turns out it was Deep Blue Something, another Texas band with the color blue in the name). But consider the fine line walked between a simple fart joke and a memorable one like Dumb and Dumber or Bridesmaids.

Or, consider the least known of Sacha Baron Cohen’s films, 2003’s Ali G Indahouse, the first scripted Ali G movie and one that is not particularly funny or what some people might call “good.” (Indahouse is the only other SBC film besides The Dictator to not be done in mockumentary style. It’s also 90 minutes of proof that waiting a few years to get Ali G in the States courtesy of HBO was worth it considering the U.S. version of Da Ali G Show was sans scripted skits.) 

There was a time when I could think of few people funnier than Mr. SBC; then he gave us Brüno.

Fortunately, The Dictator proves there are some signs of life for SBC in a post-Ali G world, which is a relief as Ali G and the two other quirky characters from his eponymous TV series, Borat and Brüno, have been retired. Dictator Admiral General Aladeen may be the weakest of SBC’s characters thus far but still provides a vessel for delivering outrageous material, the best of which comes thanks to some incredible wingman work from Jason Mantzoukas (Rafi from FX’s The League). When the two are going back and forth it makes for the film’s funniest moments. 

The laughs take a bit to get going, but once The Dictator hits its raucous high point (with a woman giving birth in a grocery store) there’s enough delightfully shocking, brilliantly stupid and oh-so-right offensive moments to keep the laughs coming.

Those not amused by SBC's hijinks from his Ali G days will have similar complaints here. "Is he drawing awareness to sensitive subjects or making light of them?" It's the type of heavy question that caused Dave Chappelle to leave his show and causes uptight critics to toss around words and phrases like "misogyny" or "too soon" instead of answering the only question that matters in comedy: Is it funny?

If you consider yourself sensitive, there's plenty in The Dictator that may offend or outrage, and for you, the answer to that simple question may very well be no. At it's worse, The Dictator feels reminiscent of a bad SNL movie with a handful of rape jokes added in. But, at times, it brings back fond memories of Sunday nights spent watching HBO — a simpler day when The Wire was still on the air and Entourage was just a bad idea bouncing around in Marky Mark's head.

While The Dictator appears to be about 99 percent scripted, there is at least one brief scene where SBC talks to an unwitting extra or two on the streets of New York. And, some of the exchanges between characters — particularly SBC and Mantzoukas — feel at least partially ad libbed. Though The Dictator is missing the kind of back and forth between comedian and oblivious interviewee that made Ali G so magical, a majority of what made that so memorable was SBC knowing how to ask the right questions. It’s clear that SBC still has a few tricks up his sleeve to delight and disgust, even if he’s not making celebrities look like fools while the audience squirms in their seats.

--Eric Pulsifer

The way I feel about Tim Burton movies is not so unlike the way I feel about vanilla ice cream. It’s not bad, but I know what it’s going to taste like, and I feel like if I’m going to waste the waist space on frozen creamy goodness it should have some candy bars or molten chocolate or coffee beans or crazy jazz in it. Even when vanilla ice cream is really good — Mexican vanilla with little bits of vanilla bean in it — it’s still vanilla ice cream. In this way, Dark Shadows is a familiar thing. Not bad, but not particularly exciting. Not exactly funny, scary or dramatic. Slightly campy and a tad creepy. (I’ve moved on from talking about ice cream now.)

Dark Shadows is based on the ‘60s soap opera of the same name. Johnny Depp plays Barnabas, a wealthy playboy from the 1700s who crosses a witch, who in turn transforms him into a vampire and buries him alive, where he remains undisturbed for 200 years. He is inadvertently freed in 1972 and returns to his former estate to check up on his descendants and the town his family built.

Assuming that the words pouring into your eye holes right now are being consumed to help you decide whether or not to see this film, I’ve decided to introduce someone who sees Burton flicks as more of a chocolate ice cream. (Back to dessert again. I know — I’ve got a problem.) Hopefully this vanilla-chocolate swirl will help with your movie-going decision making. And with that, I humbly submit for your reader’s consideration this real post-viewing conversation.

Johnny Depp gets creepy, goth teenage girls, Andy Warhol, Downton Abbey and more after the jump!

Me: Favorite Tim Burton film?

Her: [Pauses for a moment.] I’m going to name a few.

Me: No. The first one that comes to mind.

Her: Edward Scissorhands.

Me: Fair enough. Would you say in general that you like Tim Burton movies?

Her: Mm-hmm. I like Tim Burton movies a lot.

Me: How about your favorite Johnny Depp movie?

Her: [Long pause. She scrapes at a bowl of popcorn and smiles.] What if I said Sleepy Hollow? How mad would you be? [She laughs; I shake my head in disapproval. She turns to the Internet.] Ohh... he was really good in Blow. Donnie Brasco maybe? What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Oh! Or Fear and Loathing... [This continues on for some time but I stopped typing.]

Me: So you don’t have one favorite?

Her: I liked him in Finding Neverland, too... I don’t have a favorite.

Me: How would you say Dark Shadows compared to your expectations based off previews and other pre-release materials you’d seen?

Her: It exceeded my expectations. I thought the previews made it look more like a comedy, and I’m glad it wasn’t just a comedy.

Me: So you think it was a comedy though?

Her: It was a... dramedy.

Me: How’s that though?

Her: It felt to me like Death Becomes Her, and that’s considered a comedy — a dark comedy maybe. But [Dark Shadows is] not really that dark. It reminded me of Warhol’s movies of Dracula and Frankenstein. They just end up being funny. One of my favorite parts was when [Depp] pops up out of the grave and [spoiler removed]... That was laugh-out-loud funny.

Me: I’m not going to the ruin that bit for anyone. Let’s get more broad here. What did you think of Johnny Depp?

Her: I thought he was excellent. I liked the attention to detail with his makeup and costuming. Giving him long fingers made him look creepy, but he wasn’t really. He was only drinking blood because he needs it. Also, he looks this way, but no one is scared of him either. It was this juxtaposition of expectations.

Me: What about the other characters? At about a quarter of the way through the movie, Depp’s love interest disappears...

Her: She’s busy being a governess. She’s there to do a job. [She is hired to work at Barnabas' family manor to watch after a troubled child.] We’re not going to watch her do her job, are we?

Me: Ha — but we never see any kind of relationship between them. It all happens off camera. Just all of a sudden they’re in love with each other and I don’t know why [other than the fact that the girl bares a resemblance to Barnabas' dead wife, which just feels kind of wrong] or if I should care [I don’t].

Her: That’s true. Maybe that was a bit disappointing.

Me: Looking at the first reviews that are out on this — a majority of them aren’t exactly kind.

Her: Are you going to have me respond to their reviews?

Me: No, I don’t want to do that. Some of their arguments are pretty good; I’m not sure how you’d be able to come back against them.

Her: “Shut up. I love this movie.”

Me: That's actually a brilliant response. But, if someone hears this movie is kind of weak, what would you say to them? Why is this movie not terrible?

Her: I think it’s for people who are fans of kitsch — if you appreciate movies that you can laugh at the type of movies they are. It’s not for you if you take vampires really seriously or want a romantic comedy in the traditional sense — it’s for people who like things a little off. I feel like the people who like this are in on a joke that other people don’t get. It’s there, you just have to look for it. It won’t be for everybody.

Me: So you would say that people should go see this movie?

Her: I would say that some people should go see this movie.

Me: What people is that?

Her: Teenage girls...

Me: Wait. You know not all or most — or really any — teenage girls are like how you were? [I’ll spare the gory details, but let’s just say she had a bit of what mainstream folks would call a "goth" phase. She also really loves The Crow.]

Her: If you liked The Crow... Did you ever see Death Becomes Her? I loved that movie. I rented it like eight times. It’s got that same feeling to me. I thought that movie was hilarious. Not in the subject matter; I haven’t seen it in years so maybe I’m misremembering it, but it’s the way they treat death I suppose.

Me: I see

Her: Also, here’s my biggest unresolved question: How is he actually related to those people [who live in his former estate]? He didn’t have kids. He didn’t have siblings. He and his family move over from Liverpool and start this business, but he doesn’t have any relatives.

Me: What about cousins? I’m sure there were other relatives. When he died, the estate went to an heir. I thought you understood how this worked now because of Downton Abbey.

Her: I’m glad you’re bringing up Downton Abbey.

Me: My pleasure. Maybe 40 years from now, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp can team up to redo Downton Abbey as a movie.

Her: They’ll be really old by then.

Me: I could see Depp as the Dowager Countess.

--Eric Pulsifer

Hands down, Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is the best movie to come out of a Marvel comic. It’s not brilliant, but it’s mighty entertaining. And, dammit if Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible) doesn’t make it hard to hate him. His fingerprints are all over this epic superhero tale with an ensemble cast of superheroes, and you’ll love him for it. As goofy as the action and actors on the screen should be, each character — even the crap ones like Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) — feel real, likable and relatable. The dialogue and the action is sharp and often funny bordering on hilarious.

A handful of Marvel films over the past five years back have paved the way for The Avengers. Whether you’re just getting into the universe now or need a brief refresher, here’s a (mostly) spoiler-free recap of what came before.

Thor — The god of thunder lives with his dad/king Odin in a galaxy where science has become so advanced there is no discernible difference between technology and magic. (Plus, Stringer Bell is still alive.) Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the heir to the throne, gets exiled to Earth thanks to his jerk-hole adopted brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Thor bumps into and befriends a group of scientists (Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgård). Quickly learning the ways of our planet, Thor takes up the goal of every Earth male and attempts to bed Natalie Portman. Back in bizarro space world, Loki tries to do bad stuff and Thor stops him. Along the way we get our first peek at the definitely-not-a-real-super hero Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), an archer who plays a big role in The Avengers. Should you watch it? Sure, but is it necessary? Depends. It does lay the groundwork for The Avengers main nemesis Loki, but it’s nothing the uninitiated won’t be able to follow.

Captain America: The First Avenger — Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a scrawny, Small Town, USA, kid determined to serve his country in World War II. While he’s barely strong enough to hold up a rifle, his quick wits and ferocious loyalty make him the perfect candidate for a secret U.S. super soldier program. He gets strong, gets an indestructible shield from Iron Man’s pops, takes out some Nazis and steals their magical space cube, which is later recovered by the senior Stark. Things go down, and Rogers wakes up 70 years later, where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson)  tells him he has a job for him. Should you watch it? Do it. It’s good all-American fun and basically ends where The Avengers starts off.

Iron Man — Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a smart-ass,, over-sexed billionaire genius — think a less emo Bruce Wayne/Batman — who creates a robot suit and becomes Iron Man. He has a magnet in his chest that keeps shrapnel in his blood stream from hitting his heart and killing him. Should you watch it? Hell yes. Iron Man is the stuff of summer blockbuster gold.

Iron Man 2 — We pick up where the first film left off: Tony Stark announcing to the world he’s Iron Man, but now, instead of being all fun and super-cool, he’s just a whiny prick who drinks too much. The Black Widow is an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who poses as Stark’s assistant. Stark cleans up his act and saves the day, but he hears from Nick Fury that he isn’t making the cut for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s superhero team. Should you watch it? Nope. Even RDJ’s charm, the addition of Don Cheadle and a bunch of shiny special effects can save this sorry excuse for a sequel.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer — There’s a minor connection to The Avengers here with a bunch of the trippy space crap that Marvel did in the ‘60s: Silver Surfer and Galactus, who appears in this — the worst (or second worst if you want to pull the Ghost Rider card) of the worst Marvel comic book films — as a cloud. Should you watch it? Dear me, no. This is a connection that will probably remain unconnected in the Marvel film universe.

The Hulk — Ang Lee’s take on the not-so-jolly green giant was pretty much universally (probably more so than is deserved, really) hated. Should you watch it? Egh... And there’s no good reason to if you’re prepping for The Avengers. The only bits of Hulk backstory relevant to The Avengers are in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which rebooted the character for the current Marvel film universe.

The Incredible Hulk — Just five years after Ang Lee’s take, we get an lighter reboot of the Hulk. Here, we learn the Hulk is born out of a military experiment to create a super solider. Living in hiding, Banner struggles to control the Hulk through meditation. Important note: When he turns all big and green, he’s not just strong — he has limitless physical strength. Should you watch it? If you like seeing Hulk smash shit, go for it. It’s big and dumb and there’s not much you need to know here for The Avengers unless you want to see how Norton stacks up to his Hulk replacement Mark Ruffalo. (Ruffalo is way better.)

Everything else Marvel-ous — While they could very easily be made to fit in the same world, there’s no explicit connections made to X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, or any of the other Marvel properties turned into films.

So there you have it. That’s everything you could possibly need to know. Now go see The Avengers. It’s as good as superhero movies get this side of The Dark Knight.

--Eric Pulsifer