Does anyone else have mixed feelings about his acting?
I hate him when he does "his thing", and by that I mean Ali G, Borat, Bruno, the Dictator, the brothers Grimsby, and generally when he gives interviews or goes to events or Oscars or whatever and being a jerk, but...I like him in everything else he does. I liked him in "Hugo", I liked him in "Les Miserables", and I was disappointed when I saw the trailer of "Alice Through the Looking Glass" and I saw he was in it, I thought he was gonna ruin the movie, but no, actually he was one of the (few) good things in it.
And the same goes with Jonah Hill, again when he does "his thing" in all these comedies, I dislike him, but when he does something different, like in "Moneyball" or "The Wolf of Wall Street", he's great.
And again, the same with his buddy, Seth Rogen, who I absolutely loathe, but I could bare him in "Steve Jobs", he was decent.
So I guess all these mediocre to bad comedians (and if you ask why do I call them "mediocre to bad", watch the really good comedy classic actors like Peter Sellers or Jack Lemmon, and you'll have your answer) can be good actors, when they have 3 things: a) a good script, b) a good role, c) a good director. Well, not that Cohen had (all) these criteria in "Alice", but at least he wasn't an annoying clown, he played the role with decency.