Wilnervision!

Sacha Baron Cohen’s new comedy “The Dictator” opens today. Since Glenn went to New York for that junket while I was in Los Angeles doing “Dark Shadows”, he got to write the review, which will run in tomorrow’s edition of NOW.

Me? I liked it a lot more than the repugnant “Bruno”, but it doesn’t touch “Borat” for consistent, convulsive laughter. This is Baron Cohen’s first scripted project since the forgettable “Ali G Indahouse”, and you can feel director Larry Charles struggling to find a rhythm that suits both Baron Cohen’s aggressive approach to his character and the idea that jokes can be built up and paid off over the course of a scene.

It’s messy, but it’s still pretty funny every now and again, particularly when Baron Cohen stops whatever he’s supposed to be doing to lob haughty insults at the perpetually game Anna Faris. “A midget in a chemo wig” shouldn’t be funny — it really, really shouldn’t — but somehow these two crazy kids make it work.

“The Avengers” showed massive legs in its second weekend of North American release, grossing $103.2 million to retain the top slot on the box-office chart. And that’s just the domestic take; Joss Whedon’s superhero ensemble piece pulled in nearly as much internationally ($95.4 million, to be exact) which means the film broke a billion dollars worldwide gross in under three weeks.

This is unprecedented. But it makes Kevin Feige, the guy behind the whole Marvel Universe project, look like a genius: “The Avengers” constitutes a sequel to four different franchises, each of which was pretty successful on its own (yes, even the Hulk movies), and now he’s proven that combining those franchises for one great big movie is a license to print money.

I’m assuming this will lead to impossible expectations for the individual Marvel sequels already in the pipeline — the third “Iron Man”, and the second “Thor” and “Captain America” features — to say nothing of “The Dark Knight Rises”, which will now be hard-pressed to match “The Avengers”, just because Christopher Nolan didn’t shoot it in 3D.

Whatever happens, Tim Burton’s about to get reined in a little after the piddly second-place $28.8 opening for “Dark Shadows“. That’s got to be good for him; unlimited studio resources are the worst thing that’s ever happened to him. Let’s see what he can do on a mid-budget project with a completed script, shall we?

Through the magic of a junket press conference, you’ll find me sort-of talking to Johnny Depp about his remake of “Dark Shadows” in the new issue of NOW. (Be sure to listen to the audio clips for additional input from Tim Burton, Michelle Pfeiffer and Seth Grahame-Smith, as well as more of Depp.)

In more concrete terms, I actually did interview Brit Marling one-on-one about her intriguing new film “Sound of My Voice” last month; that conversation is in this week’s paper, too, along with a look at TIFF’s Next Wave film festival and the usual slate of reviews. Dive in!

As expected, “The Avengers”  made all the money this weekend … and what a lot of money there was to make.

Predictions have the film grossing about $200 million domestically, which is the biggest opening in the history of ever.

At this point, though, I think it would have been more surprising if the film hadn’t set a new record. Box-office success was encoded in its DNA.

No complaints from me, mind you. If this puts Joss Whedon in a position to make more superhero movies, I’m entirely fine with that. Turns out he’s really good at them.

Oh, you know what’s coming.

“The Avengers“:  The four-year tease that started with “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” reaches fruition with Joss Whedon’s tremendously entertaining blockbuster, which functions as an entry in four different franchises and as its own super-sized adventure. Also, Tom Hiddleston should be in everything.

“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”: Elderly British people are revitalized by the exotic allure of a foreign land in John Madden’s crowd-pleaser. Glenn gives it a conditional pass for the cast, because he’s a generous person.

“Detachment”: Self-proclaimed iconoclast Tony Kaye takes on the American educational system with this drama about a substitute teacher (Adrien Brody) trying to make a difference, or something, in New York. Susan says it’s as compelling as a car wreck, which is how I’d describe Kaye’s first feature, “American History X”.

“Headhunters“:  Norwegian star Aksel Hennie (“Uno”, “Max Manus: Man of War”) has a grand time as an art thief targeted by a well-coiffed maniac (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, of “New Amsterdam” and “Game of Thrones”) in Morten Tyldum’s delirious cat-and-mouse thriller. Icky, messy fun.

“Planet Yoga”:  Did you know that yoga is relaxing and fitness-friendly? You did? Good for you, then! Apparently that’s all you get from this feature documentary, which Rad hated with the fire of a thousand suns.

There, that’s everything. Oh, except this: In honor of International Star Wars Day, MSN asked me to rank the very best characters in George Lucas’ epic space opera. So I did. Your mileage may vary, of course.

May the 4th be with you …