Ali G-Ali G, Innit (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Menu Animation & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	89:25
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Subtitle Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	James Bobin Steve Smith
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Sacha Baron Cohen
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	None Given

    Ali G is a street-savvy gangsta rapper from the hoods of Berkshire. He speaks in his own gangsta-style dialect and dresses in the very latest of up-market 'tracksuits' heavily accessorized with gold and sports a pair of street-smart yellow sunglasses popular with 'da brothers'. Of course, anyone familiar with England will know that Berkshire or Staines is not in fact a dangerous hood or breeding ground for gangster warfare and violence.

    Many have criticized Ali G's humour for being focused on the area between the waist and the knee. This is to a large extent true. However, Ali G's humour is much more than that. He likes interviewing important and influential people in society as someone representing 'youth' and more particularly - youth seeking 'answers'. The people he interviews or is involved in a group discussion with think he is serious in his dialogue with them. They accept his outlandish garb and statements thinking he is merely representative of his audience and their own unfamiliarity with his hip audience and their ways should not affect the message they themselves are trying to present. Of course, Ali is just having fun with them. Much of his humour arises from seeing respected people, experts in their field, astonished by the crazy inappropriate ideas and arguments that Ali is baiting them with.

    Innit was his first DVD and video release. It includes an into and closing comments recorded in a studio for the release. These bookend the string of interviews from his segments on Channel 4's 11 o'clock show from 1999. The interviews are often begun with a brief introduction of the topic or interviewee. Ali finds himself talking to retired judges and returned servicemen, art experts, fashion designers, England's chief censor, a representative from the IRA and many more people. His interview with a former minister of Education had me in stitches as the interviewee had no idea that Ali was talking about very different things from what he thought they were discussing. There are some very funny moments and quite a few of the laughs are not from lines about marijuana, or muff. Sit back and settle yourself in for some real Berkshire-style entertainment. Respect.

Video

    The picture is of moderate sharpness. The blacks were not deeply black, although there was little dark material in evidence as this is a bright disc with the vast majority of scenes being well lit.

    This is reasonably colourful DVD. Ali's strong yellow clothing comes through very nicely. Most of the interviews are indoors, and although there was nothing exciting about the use of colour there were at least no problems in this part of the transfer.

    MPEG artefacts were not a problem for this transfer.

    This is a single layered disc so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

    There is no surround activity apart from a bit of laughter during some of the clips and the subwoofer went on vacation for the duration.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
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Overall

    This disc is also available in R2. As far as I am aware, they are identical.

    There are some very funny moments on this compilation of interviews. Big em' up for Ali G!

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