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Ali G InDaHouse
***
Cinema Releases - March 22, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. 88
minutes. Directed by Mark Mylod. Written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Dan Mazer.
Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Martin Freeman, Kellie Bright, Michael Gambon,
Charles Dance, Rhona Mitra.
Ali G, you will recall, started life on Channel
4's "11 0'Clock Show". As played by Sacha Baron Cohen, he's a young pothead
from Staines who somehow got it into his head that he's a gangsta-rapper.
He talks about drive-by shootings and "me bitches", even though he lives
at home and his neighbourhood has more old ladies than thugs.
The character was originally a satire of white
kids who want to be black, and of the silly suburban adoption of urban posturing.
His sketches were so funny because they showed him interviewing high-profile
figures who thought he was a real guy. Ali went to Northern Ireland and asked
David Trimble, "Would you marry a Catholic bird if she were well fit?" He
met a female activist and asked her, "Do you think it's okay for women to
try a bit of feminism at a party when they is drunk, and then go back to
their boyfriends in the morning?" Talking to an economist about the metric
system, Ali remarked, "Ay, me mate Dave deals in kilos." Most of the interviewees
thought Ali was too stupid to be satirising them, and their clumsy attempts
to answer were priceless.
The joke has gone a bit too far, with Ali G being
imitated by the very kids he was mocking. So it goes. Now we have "Ali
G InDaHouse", which is all about taking the joke too far -- seen
in the context of a 90-minute feature film, Ali appears more puerile, adolescent
and provincial than ever. In between street slang he talks about visiting
local playgrounds and his mum doing his laundry. There's a scene where he
gets on the radio to warn people about the film's villain, and he says,
"Seriously, yo, this geeza is even more evil than Skeletor!"
So, the politics is gone on every level, and what
we're left with is a very stupid character looking very stupid. But it's
fun. Ali pops up at the beginning of the movie to childishly scrawl over
the BBFC certificate, claiming that a 15 rating has no street cred. He interrupts
the action when the character of his girlfriend appears onscreen to tell
us, "Obviously in real life I is going out with someone much
fitter."
The plot is an Ealingesque formula whereby a jealous
deputy prime minister tries to embarrass his boss by enlisting Ali G as Member
of Parliament for Staines. Of course, the plan backfires, as Ali's style
of "keepin' it real" becomes enormously popular, and he becomes a national
hero. There are satirical jabs here and there, but the main joke of "Ali
G InDaHouse" is how small and pathetic Ali is compared to his massive ego.
Other movies based on TV sketches -- yes, "Night at the Roxbury", I mean
you -- have failed because their material is stretched thin at feature length.
Here, that's kinda the point. The bigger you build the cult of Ali G, the
more ludicrous it becomes.
I dunno. I thought I'd hate this movie, but I
just couldn't help laughing at such moments as when Ali interrupted a climactic
speech to say "This is well boring, innit?" The trailer leads us to believe
that "Ali G InDaHouse" is going to be one of those movies where screenwriters
misunderstand the appeal of popular TV characters, but it's more of a mockery
of such movies. It will baffle and annoy foreign audiences, and I'm sure
it won't date very well, but right here, right now, it's fun.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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