Ali G: Who Iz I? (dir. Sacha Baron Cohen)

by Jack Martin | Oct 24, 2026

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 89 mins

UK Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios

UK Release Date: 23 October 2026

WHO’S IN ALI G: WHO IZ I?

Sacha Baron Cohen, Morgana Robinson, Stewart Rodeheaver

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Sacha Baron Cohen (director, writer, producer), Peter Baynham, Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer, Dan Swimer and Keisha Zollar (writers), Petr Jákl (producer), Erran Baron Cohen and Nami Melumad (composers), Chris Darnell, Luke Geissbuhler and Markus Mentzer (cinematographers), Craig Alpert, Mark Davies, Michael Giambra and Debra Neil-Fisher (editors)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Ali G (Cohen) attempts to reclaim his past glory…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ALI G: WHO IZ I?

In 2006’s Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen played a larger-than-life character with extremely politically incorrect views who travels to America and interacts with real and all-too unassuming members of the public who either respond in horror or admiration at his wild antics. Then, in 2009’s Brüno, Sacha Baron Cohen played a larger-than-life character with extremely politically incorrect views who travels to America and interacts with real and all-too unassuming members of the public who either respond in horror or admiration at his wild antics. And now, in Ali G: Who Iz I?… hell, do I even need to repeat myself a third time?

Apparently, Cohen himself does, because this is now the third in what I suppose is now a trilogy of mockumentaries (or quadrilogy if we’re also counting Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) featuring characters that first came into prominence on the comedian’s Da Ali G Show, all of which have followed the exact same formula to diminishing effect. However, Ali G: Who Iz I? – which also marks Cohen’s directorial debut – is by far the worst in this semi-unofficial trilogy, as it features the fewest laughs, the most tasteless “gags”, and most of all a character who has long overstayed his welcome in the public consciousness.

Cohen once again dons the guise of Ali G, the Staines-upon-Thames based rapper and media personality who, ever since the cancellation of Da Ali G Show, has fallen on hard times. Forced to move back into his grandmother’s house after she is killed by a falling jacuzzi (but long before she apparently got an egregious boob job, one of many shock visual tactics that Cohen throws at the viewer), and with his long-time girlfriend Julie (Morgana Robinson, one of the only other actors in the movie) heavily pregnant and about to give birth, Ali leaps at the opportunity when he receives word from HBO that they’re eager to renegotiate for another season of his show, and heads out to Los Angeles to revitalise his career. Once out there, he – of course – runs afoul of numerous real-life interviewees, as well as more fictionalised antagonists like an extreme left-wing Berkeley professor who deeply opposes the white Ali G’s cultural appropriation, and a former Israeli soldier and counterterrorism expert who now teaches self-defence classes for MAGA enthusiasts. Both, incidentally, also played by Cohen under heavy make-up and prosthetics. Yes, it seems like he’s reached the Mike Myers point in his career, for better or worse (mostly the latter).

To a point, you can see what this movie is trying to do. Even at the height of his popularity, Ali G was seen as a vaguely offensive caricature of white middle-class poseurs who adopted multiculturalist attitudes without the depth or history of those who actually belong to those cultures, and this film attempts to tackle that head on as the character struggles with his irrelevance in a world that has long moved past him. The problem, and it is a rather big one, is that Cohen doesn’t so much analyse his character’s outdatedness but doubles down on it, and mocks those who have a problem with it. For instance, Cohen’s new professor character is a direct parody of uber-liberal activists who actively claim themselves to be the spokespeople of oppressed communities that they don’t belong to, to a point where he lectures to large groups of Black people about why he is offended by Ali G’s existence and not why his audience should be. But not only is this a very one-note character who’s so grotesque in his design and mannerisms that you’re clearly not meant to like him in any capacity, but he’s also not very funny on his own terms, as Cohen essentially uses him as just another mouthpiece to offend and ridicule his targets without offering any real satire or commentary.

More crucial is the fact that while this is definitely an Ali G movie, albeit in a much different style and tone than his 2002 film debut Ali G Indahouse, the character himself is barely interesting. Cohen just does the same schtick he’s always done with this character since his inception, without offering any new layers or dimensions beyond simply putting him in increasingly ridiculous outfits like a comically oversized puffer jacket or having him frequently use racially-insensitive slang in front of ethnicities. The added subplot of him becoming a father and settling down with his girlfriend are superficial add-ons, as at no point do you really feel as though there’s any real development surrounding him, to where he can start to seem more obnoxious than funny, even if you were more accepting of him two-and-a-half decades ago.

The film as a whole just isn’t funny, with many of the Jackass-style public pranks and set-pieces relying on very easy jokes that you can see coming a mile off, while you really question the intelligence of those he interacts with (as any of his characters) since his prosthetics are so obvious that even Ray Charles wearing a blindfold in a darkened room could tell that this was a guy in disguise. It’s very telling that the one and only funny scene in the entire movie is one that revolves around an AI-generated video, if anything just for the shock value of which deceased figures abruptly show up in it (one of them, you’ll know which one when you see it, did cause the sole chuckle I had from this film). Of course, none of that excuses the use of AI at all in a movie like this, which also includes parts of the soundtrack as well as other explicit imagery that’s mercifully blurred out, but when a machine can literally create better gags than the actual humans, you know you’ve made a terrible comedy.

That’s really what this is at the end of the day: a bad comedy, starring a character who just isn’t funny anymore and quite frankly should never have been brought back into our lives. Although, if we’re talking Sacha Baron Cohen movies as a whole, at least it’s not as unwatchable as Grimsby – but by God, does it come dangerously close.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Ali G: Who Iz I? is a mostly laugh-free rehash of Sacha Baron Cohen’s now-stale mockumentary format where the jokes, the characters, and attempts at self-analysis fall woefully, offensively flat.