Ali G InDaHouse (R, 2002)

Ali (actually "Alistair Graham") is a chap who styles himself a trendy rapper/club MC, speaks in a West Indian patois, and acts like his world is an ethnic ghetto of gangs, guns, whores, and hip-hop. No, he's not in South Central L.A., he lives in Staines, a sleepy suburb outside of London, a place more like Wallace & Gromit's 'hood. One of Ali G's passions (besides sex, marijuana, and silly turf battles with rival posses) is a small rec center, where he mentors little kids not to be Boyz-N-the-Hood casualties. When the government cuts funds to the center, Ali G stages a protest outside the Houses of Parliament. This gets him noticed by the scheming Deputy Prime Minister (Charles Dance), who decides Ali is the biggest idiot ever, and if Ali G went into politics the government would collapse from embarrassment and scandal, and the Deputy PM could take over. Elected, Ali G and his "keepin' it real" policies (only admitting immigrants who are thin, pretty women; using drug deals as classroom math lessons) prove amazingly popular instead.

Comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen created the character of Ali G on TV and took him to the movies in ALI G INDAHOUSE, a theatrical feature that saw little release in the U.S., despite Ali G's cult following on cable and his takeoff on American rap/hip-hop culture. It's now on DVD, as are episodes of Cohen's Da Ali G Show, which had a "prank" talk format -- unsuspecting interviewees confronted with Ali (and sometimes Cohen's alternate character Borat) and aghast at his inane/offensive questions. None of that is in this movie, a more standard triumph-of-the-nitwit farce.

You know the drill: an uninhibited, overgrown kid prevails over stuffy authority-figure villains from higher social classes. Cohen's comic timing is razor-sharp and nothing's to be taken seriously. If you enjoy the character you should get good laughs out of the film, and the dumb-guy gags make it so parents can interpret the satire as anti-hip-hop or pro-hip-hop (kids will lean to the latter). But Ali G does work best in half-hour doses. Furthermore, obscene language, toilet humor and sex/drug fantasies are full-on here, not just inferred as they were on the talk show.

Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Director: Mark Mylod
Cast: Michael Gambon, Rhona Mitra, Sacha Baron Cohen
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 88 minutes
Theatrical release: March 22, 2002
DVD release: November 2, 2004
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: strong sexual content, pervasive crude humor, language and drug content.