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Ali G InDaHouse

(2002, Rated R, Comedy, Starring Michael Gambon, Sacha Baron Cohen, Rhona Mitra)

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 16, age appropriate for kids over 99; suggested age 17.

  • Is it any good?

    2.0

  • Common Sense says

    Pre-Borat, a raunchy spoof of a hip-hop pretender.

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 17–18

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    The laughs come from the bad behavior of this over-the-top character. He's abominably sexist, prone to homophobic insults, lazy, rude, bullying, and fairly dumb. Stereotypes abound in the supporting cast, especially for Asians who lose their inhibitions and behave more like sex workers.

  • Violence:

    Fantasy sequence of Ali G in a bloodless shootout with LA street gangs. A threatened shooting in reality and a slapstick fistfight.

  • Sex:

    Photos of topless women (and a man seemingly having sex with an animal). Ali G is a ladies' man who thinks and talks often about sex. Women ("bitches" "ho's") appear posing in bikini lingerie; one asks Ali to massage her breasts. Another woman strips to bra and briefs to try to seduce him. Ali has non-explicit sex with his girlfriend. Ali's little dog orally gratifies him as he sleeps. In a fantasy daydream we glimpse a long prosthetic meant to be the tip of Ali's gigantic penis. A crowd of people wrongfully think two men are having loud, gay sex; later two men are caught in a homosexual position. Ali G mocks Harry Potter's virginity and forces the bad guy to dress in drag and dance like a stripper.

  • Language:

    The F-word, the S-word, Borat says "c--ksucker," plus slang British and patois dirty words ("babylons," for breasts).

  • Consumerism:

    Hip-hop fashions, music, jewelry are especially prominent.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Lots and LOTS of marijuana references, close-up bong smoking, and Ali G literally awash in Jamaican weed at the end.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Ali G InDaHouse

Parents need to know that in this movie from the creator of Borat, sex and drug jokes are rampant and spring up in the most unlikely and unsuitable places (like making a lewd remark to the Queen of England). Though Ali G and his foul-mouthed posse are openly homophobic (tossing around the anti-gay slur "batty boy"), they also experiment with gay sex at the end (and decide they like it). The street-gang lifestyle -- at least a white-boy mimicry of it -- is made to look fun and empowering. There are lots of fantasy-figure girls in skimpy bikinis, and quick flashes of female toplessness (in still photos) and the (fake) tip of Ali's enormous penis. Fat people are the subject of repeated gags.

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Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about the romanticizing of "hip-hop" gang life and young people who live by the codes of urban ghettoes, even though they've never set foot in one. What do young people get from pretending they live in urban war zones? And is it all that different from the granddads pretending to be gunslinger cowboys as kids? When does the rap lifestyle get harmful? What other movies use exaggerated characters to lampoon real-life trends?
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