A One Mann’s Movies review of “Ali G: Who Iz I?”. (2026, 1.5*, 15).
When Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G burst onto the screens in August 1998 as a part of Channel 4’s satirical show The 11 O’Clock Show, he was a breath of fresh air. His irreverent interviews with politicians and celebrities, normally unaware that he wasn’t being serious, were often hilarious. It laid the groundwork for numerous comics who use the technique today, for example, Diane Morgan’s Philomena Cunk. But Ali G had a shelf life and, sadly, judging from this new film Ali G: Who Iz I?, that shelf life expired some years ago. For this is a feeble offering, trying to be smart but ending up feeling false and at times extremely offensive.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his newly pregnant girlfriend Julie (Morgana Robinson) travel to America, excited to be finally getting a third series of his HBO show after a gap of decades. But the news from HBO when they get there is not what Ali expects.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC website: “strong sex references, crude humour, language, discrimination.”)
Talent:
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Morgana Robinson, Alpha Miknas, Clive Russell, Ryan Meharry, Aren Farrington.
Directed by: Sacha Baron Cohen.
Written by: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Swimer, Dan Mazer, Keisha Zollar. (Story by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Swimer, Dan Mazer, Colton Dunn, Vernon Chatman.)
Running Time: 1h 29m.
Review:
Positives:
- OK, so there were a few of the segments that did raise a smile. The start of his AI-generated “apology video” was funny, watching the reactions of the culturally-diverse audience.
- Ali G appears as multiple characters in the film and sometimes those characters appear in over-lapping roles. Looking now at IMDB, I see that there were two “Ali G lookalikes” in the cast (Ryan Meharry and Aren Farrington) so this was really quite clever how they engineered that.
Negatives:
- I’m sure the veritable army of writers behind this thing all got in the writing room and thought that the script they’d put together was hilarious. This was not the case. While bits of the film were amusing, far too many other scenes fell like leaden weights to the floor.
- Ali G would probably say that “iz jokes are sick, innit”, and I would have to agree. But not necessarily with the same meaning. For me, the film overstepped its boundaries of decency and taste on a number of occasions: priming a butt-gun by pumping a strap-on plastic penis; the latter stages of the “apology” AI video, which leant into horrible racial stereotypes and would offend anyone religious (I notice the team were not brave enough to try that with Islam!); and culminating in a ‘game show’ called the Final Solution on a far right TV show that was so vile I will not repeat the details here.
- The film keeps pushing its message that “only a few people are in on the joke”, to the point that it even puts that up as a caption mid-film at one point. The situations and the devices that some of the people are persuaded to wear are so ludicrous that this is all really difficult to believe. At a number of points, the film screams falsehood. One of the far-right guys in the ludicrous ‘butt-gun’ sequence, Joshua Loudermilk, has since said that he recognised Cohen and played along for the fee he was getting.
- The fact that ‘Ali G characters’ are featured in overlapping sequences, presumably using his lookalikes, is something that could usefully have been flagged up-front in the film, since these scenes just add to the feeling that the whole thing is false.
Summary Thoughts:
A comedy film so uneven and at times offensive that it is not one I can recommend to anyone.
Where to watch?
Trailer
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t7C4qaHihE
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