Ali G Indahouse (Rental) (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio
Rating	?
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	83:31
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Mark Mylod
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Sacha Baron Cohen Michael Gambon Charles Dance Kellie Bright Rhona Mitra
Case	?
RPI	Rental	Music	Adam F

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Ali G Indahouse is the disappointing spin-off movie from the brilliant British television series, Da Ali G Show.

    Ali G was created on the Eleven O'Clock Show, a British television program. The success of the character led to Ali G getting his own comedy show. For a good overview of Ali G and Da Ali G Show, you can read Gavin W's review here.

    As I observed with some other television sketch comedy shows which launched disappointing movies, what is often a great idea for a short television skit, is often a lousy idea for a feature length film. However, Ali G fails as a movie for another reason. The best part of the television show is the reactions of his guests. The innocent bystanders who are genuinely shocked, and often horrified, by Ali G. Of course when we move from a television interview format, to a fictional story, that delicious element is lost.

    There is also another aspect to these movie spin-offs that I find sad. Often the characters themselves must change, such as Mr. Bean, who was forced to speak in his movie. Furthermore, elements of the original character and situation, which live in our imagination, are destroyed as they're brought to the big screen. With Ali G, the characters Dangerous Dave and Julie, who he refers to in every television episode, but who we never see, appear in this movie. I much preferred Ali G's stories from his television show, and imagining these characters, rather than seeing them portrayed by actors.

    As for the movie's plot, Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen) teaches a weekly class called Keeping It Real at a leisure centre in Staines, UK. When Ali hears that the centre is closing, he tries to raise public awareness, and rally support. Ali's cause attracts the attention of the governing political party, who are facing a crucial by-election in Staines. They seek to exploit Ali for their own cause. Ali becomes a candidate for the UK Parliament, but will Ali sell out, or will he keep it real?

Video

    The transfer is a little grainy, but fairly good, as one would expect from a 2002 print.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness of the image is generally good, as is the shadow detail.

    The colour is well saturated, with accurate flesh tones.

    There were no bothersome MPEG artefacts.

    Film-to-video artefacts are present in the form of aliasing. Indeed, the aliasing on this transfer is truly awful, consider, for example, the brick wall at 5:43 or the car grill at 1:35.

    Film artefacts appear throughout, but most are tiny.

    There are only English subtitles present, which are accurate.

    This is a RSDL disc, but I did not spot the layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio option, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are fine.

    The musical score is credited to Adam F, but it also features a number of well-known gangsta rap tunes, such as Public Enemy's Fight The Power.

    For a comedy, there is a reasonably strong surround presence and activity. The surround sound mix is quite front-heavy, but the rear speakers are used to help carry the score and provide some ambience.

    The subwoofer is also utilised very effectively to support the deep bass of the hip hop score throughout.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    As a rental DVD, there are no extras.

Menu

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital stereo.

    I cannot find any details of Ali G being on DVD in Region 1.

    Ali G Indahouse is for hardcore Ali G fans only.

    The video quality is very good, but for the aliasing.

    The audio quality is very good, albeit quite front-heavy.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall