Ali G - Indahouse - The Movie Details

Ali G - Indahouse - The Movie

By the marginal-or-miss standards of British TV spin-offs, Ali G in da House is well above adequate, even though it drags out every smart line or decent routine until they lie dead on the screen just begging for a laugh track. The film pulls back a bit from the absolute obnoxiousness of the Ali G TV skits, which makes Sacha Baron Cohen's character bearable at feature length, but also significantly less funny. Here it is finally confirmed that Ali is a weedy white kid called Alistair who pretends to be Jamaican, rather than a weedy white comedian doing a Jamaican character.

Believe it or not, there's actually a plot, with a scheming Chancellor of the Exchequer (Charles Dance) recruiting Ali as a parliamentary candidate for Staines in a devious attempt to unseat Prime Minister Michael Gambon. Yet this framework is really an excuse for the sketch-like bits, such as a Los Angeles ghetto movie fantasy, Ali G addressing a meeting of lesbian feminists ("I've seen a lot of your videos"), and Charles Dance forced to read a budget speech in Ali G speak. Oddly, the film makes early-1990s jokes about Tories rather than going after New Labour, but any political satire here comes in second to knob-polishing jokes and sometimes-hilarious patter. Luckless inhabitants of the M4 corridor will nod ruefully at the final gag, in which Ali G persuades the PM not to devastate Staines and nods agreement as Gambon reassures him, "it's all right, we'll destroy Slough instead". --Kim Newman

Starring	Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Gambon, Kellie Bright, Charles Dance, Martin Freeman, Rhona Mitra
Director	Mark Mylod
Studio	UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK VIDEO RENTAL
Run time	DVD: 1 hr 28 mins
Certificate
Genres	Comedy, Gay/Lesbian
Language	DVD: English
Hearing-impaired	English
Subtitles	DVD: Dutch, English
Released	DVD: 14 Oct 2002 Production year: 2002
Format	DVD