Dear Dictator

OK, so there were no superheroes, just Michael Caine as a cranky old dictator and Katie Holmes as a stressed-out mom. It was a bit understated at times, but moved along at a nice, even pace and had some nice acting. The script seems to have been well thought out and there were plenty of (mostly) subtle laughs to be enjoyed. I definitely feel as though my time was well spent watching it.

If you're looking for car chases and explosions, you'll need to look elsewhere, but it's good for its genre.

I enjoyed it.

This film tells the story of a dictator hiding in an American teenage girl's suburban home.

The story is quite far fetched, and I guess that is the charm of the film. Initially I thought even Michael Caine acted poorly, but then I realise he was just in character. It is quite a fun, and hilarious film that provides brain off entertainment.

Tatiana Mills (Odeya Rush) is an American suburban teen. Her single mom Darlene (Katie Holmes) is having an affair with her married dentist boss Dr Charles Seaver (Seth Green) with a foot fetish. The whale-tailed mean girls at school call themselves the Slushies. She has a crush on her Christian friend Denny. Her social studies teacher Mr Spines (Jason Biggs) give the class an assignment to write to a pen pal. She picks ruthless Latin American dictator Anton Vincent (Michael Caine). When American backed rebels overtake his country, he finds his way into Tatiana's garage.

It's a wacky Mean Girls take with a bloody dictator. I'm a little leery of Caine as a Latin American dictator. Rush is a pretty good standard grumpy teen. There are a lot of wackiness but it rarely results in laughs. There are some moments of surprise laughs, mostly with Rush and Caine together. I really like that combo. I do wish for taking on more risk and pushing more comedy into the movie. It does help that I like both Rush and Caine.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed it a lot - even though the premise didn't excite me at first. But, I love mother-daughter movies, especially when the daughter is a snotty but vulnerable teenager. The cast is great, especially the two females leads. Clever and cute - but not too cute. Reminded me of Mrs. Doubtfire - without the drag impersonations.

A comedy about a Dictator meeting his young female pen pal perhaps has the premise to be a fairly funny film, unfortunately this movie completely misses the mark. As much as I wanted to enjoy this film it simply is not funny and one has to wonder why Sir Michael Cane would find himself co-starring in such a poorly scripted and low budget film.