An absolute waste of money

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

If there was ever a send up of Fidel Castro then this is it. Shame about the rest of the film - not half as funny as it could of been.. As a Castro lookalike he is brilliant but when he saved and went "Mexican" what were the filmmakers thinking. When Micheal Caine made Jaws 3 he admitted it was to build a house - so poor was the film but the paycheck is a different matter. With this he either made a conservatory or bought a new car. I doubt if the budget spread to another house.

Tragic to see Sir Michael Caine appear in such a lousy movie. Is this poorly scripted effort supposed to be a comedy, a satire, a society commentary, A John Waters tribute? I don't know. As a comedy it is about as funny as smallpox, as a satire it simply does not work, as a social commentary it is offensive! What I have I just tried to watch? I don't really know! What I do know is, this movie stinks! I could not bear to see the ending after I'd wasted 80+ minutes of my life trying to watch this utterly awful concoction. I've given it 1 star, though it really deserves no stars, but I give it one star for two reasons. 1. The fact that Sir Michael Caine is in it, and 2, the fact that one of the cuts in this film, depicts a row of plastic pink flamingos - clearly a nod to the "Great" John Waters, though a John Waters satire it aint! Avoid this film, dont buy it, don't pay to see it, don't attempt to download it, it is hateful!

Such a cool idea ruined by horrible writing, odd casting, and amateurish directing. This is one of those concepts that you have to try really hard to screw up because the potential is SO there to make something cute AND compelling. All I'm left wondering is WHO would have financed such garbage?

When political turmoil forces a British-Caribbean dictator to flee his island nation, he seeks refuge and hides with a rebellious teenage girl in suburban America, and ends up teaching the young teen how to start a revolution and overthrow the "mean girls" in her high school. Dear Dictator is a comedy that missed the mark completely since it's not funny, the characters are boring and some of the perfomances aren't that good especially Katie Holmes who acts like a 2-year old and can't be taken serious. Overall this film was quite low for Caine's amazing movie career. (0/10)