Not too long ago I said in my review of Totally Awesome, “In the end, Totally Awesome was a fun, lighthearted flick with the right amount of sass and eye-rolling cliché to make it into my permanent library (what can I say, I'm easy).” Well, it appears that maybe I’m not that easy after all.
When I heard that Ali G Indahouse: The Movie was being promoted as the film where Ali G Meets Borat for the very first time, I thought is was worth checking out. Now I must admit, I never saw Da Ali G Show when it played on HBO, nor did I rush to the theatre to see Borat’s recent movie debut. With all of the hype surrounding the two, I wanted to see what all of the fuss was about. So I popped this DVD in my player with no expectations, and in return got a cheesy '80s movie/TV show, and not in a good way.
Sacha Baron Cohen stars as Ali G, who is basically the white kid from Staines, England who thinks he’s the ultimate rapper icon. He gets caught in the Deputy Prime Minister’s (Charles Dance) plan to overthrow the Prime Minister (Michael Gambon), and it falls to Ali and his friends to save Staines and Britain.
Perhaps in my youth, this kind of simplistic story with one-sided characters would have appealed to me. But as I’ve gotten older, posers/wannabe figures just annoy, and Ali G takes the throne as the poser king in this movie. The plot, while funny, is predictable, as the hapless pawn ends up in a position of power and then messes up, only to redeem himself in the end. This type of story might finally be played out, or Cohen may have at last killed it — it’s hard to tell. Either way, I could only handle it in 15-20 minute doses over a span of several days.
Beyond the story and main character, what was more disappointing was the number of well-known actors who agreed to play in this movie:
- Michael Gambon (Prime Minister), who is Richard Harris’ successor to the role of Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies;
- Rhona Mitra (Kate Hedges) seen in Season 3 of Nip/Tuck as Kit McGraw;
- Martin Freeman (Ricky C), who was in Love Actually, the BBC version of The Office, and then went on to star in both Shaun of the Dead and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Now maybe it’s some form of British humor that I’m not getting (and I am a big fan of British movies and series), but I can’t understand the draw of this story for actors who have proven themselves already. Gross-out humor just seems beneath them.
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Article comments
1 - Ty
"Rhona Mitra (Kate Hedges) seen in Season 3 of Nip/Tuck as Kit McGraw;"
Rhona Mitra is far more well known in the US for her role as Tara on "The Practice" and "Boston Legal" than she is for Nip/Tuck.