Ali G: Who Iz I? brings Sacha Baron Cohen‘s character back to the big screen, for the first time in almost 25 years, which had a very quick cinema run before moving to Amazon Prime last Wednesday.
At first, Amazon only paid for this to be in cinemas for the Friday and Saturday, but demand led to it being kept on the screens for the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, after which it left for streaming.
There’s a few initial flashback clips, and comedy skits, such as feeding ‘grass’ (marijuana) to penguins from “Madagascar 3”, chatting with a security guard, asking him, “Have you ever died in protecting someone before?”, plus being broke and trying to sell his grandma’s ashed-filled urn… yes, naturally, the contents go all over the place.
Oh, and Ali G thinks he gets confirmation that’s he’s actually black, or is he?
Enter the main antagonist, since Cohen also appears as white professor Dr. Nira Cain-N’Degeocello, who’s making it his mission to pour disdain on Ali G, claiming he’s racist.
But while Ali G discovers an old fax from HBO, which shows they’ll pay him 3.2 million dollars, hence he’s no longer broke, The deal doesn’t quite pan out. That’s predictable, of course, it’s about how it plays out.
But, as for how it plays out, after the quick jokes early on, Ali G: Who Iz I? falters when it tries to settle on a plot, mixing Dr. Nira’s situation with Me Julie (Morgana Robinson – Newark Newark) being pregnant, and then it just rambles on until it ends.
Overall, this isn’t great, but it has a few laugh-out-loud moments.
As an aside, the film is a weird mix of mostly 2.39:1 scenes with some in 1.85:1 and 1.33:1 (both for flashback clips). While I didn’t see it on the big screen, it looks like the film was sent out as a 1.85:1 DCP (digital cinema package) which means that the 2.39:1 scenes would be within that, so if you’re watching on a 2.39:1 screen, those scenes are heavily windowboxed. You’ll get an idea of this from the trailer, but the same also happened with EPIC: Elvis Presley In Concert, and that suffered as a result.
NOTE: The film has additional content throughout the end credits, including showing A$AP Rocky and Rihanna.
Ali G: Who Iz I? is on Amazon Prime Video now.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 89 minutes
Release date: October 23rd 2026
Studio: Amazon Prime Video
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1; 1.85:1 (most scenes); 1.33:1 (most scenes)
Rating: 3/10
Director: Sacha Baron Cohen
Producers: Sacha Baron Cohen, Petr Jákl
Music: Erran Baron Cohen, Nami Melumad
Writers: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Swimer, Dan Mazer, Keisha Zollar
Cast:
Ali G / Dr. Nira Cain-N’Degeocello / Erran Morrad: Sacha Baron Cohen
Julie: Morgana Robinson
Manu: Alpha Miknas
Malcolm “Rocky” Atkins: Clive Russell
Lab Technician: Tiffany Haddish
Himself: A$AP Rocky
Himself: DJ Jazzy Jeff
Herself: Rihanna
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.