Ali G is back on the big screen for the first time in more than 20 years. The new film, Ali G: Who Iz I?, opened in cinemas in the UK and the US on Friday, October 23.
Sacha Baron Cohen wrote and directed the movie himself, the first time he has directed a feature film. He shot it in secret over the past year, and most fans had no idea it existed until a few months ago.
The release is an unusual one. Amazon MGM Studios first planned a normal cinema run, then cut it back to one week, and finally to just three days in 125 theatres. The film is expected to move to streaming on Prime Video after that.
A comeback nobody saw coming
Ali G first appeared on British television in 1998, on The 11 O’Clock Show. His own series, Da Ali G Show, ran from 2000 to 2004 and made Cohen famous for his prank interviews with politicians and public figures who had no idea they were being fooled.
The same show also introduced two other Cohen characters, Borat and Brüno, who both went on to star in hit films of their own. Ali G got his first movie, Ali G Indahouse, back in 2002.
Signs of a comeback started last year, when Cohen was spotted in character filming at a zoo in Oxfordshire in July 2025. This July he turned up at Wimbledon dressed as Ali G, and the appearance went viral. The new film was announced soon after, and it premiered at the Hollywood Legion Theater in Los Angeles on October 14, with Cohen and his co-star Morgana Robinson arriving in character.
What happens in the film
The story picks up after 20 quiet years. Ali G is shocked to learn that his long-term girlfriend, Julie, is eight months pregnant.
With a baby on the way and another mouth to feed, he leaves for America to win back his old fame. Instead, he runs into enemies who end up threatening his life, and his child’s.
Morgana Robinson plays Julie. In the 2002 film, the part was played by Kellie Bright.
The trailer leans on how much the world has changed since Ali G was last famous. In it, he lists wars, Covid and Ed Sheeran among the things he has missed, and announces that he is making a comeback with a brand new thing called a documentary.
Critics are not convinced
The early reviews have not been kind. On Rotten Tomatoes, only 50% of the 20 reviews counted so far are positive.
Metacritic gives the film a score of 38 out of 100, based on 13 critics, which the site labels as generally unfavourable.
Critics who like it praise some of the pranks. Those who do not say the film mostly shows that the character’s satire has lost its bite since the early 2000s.
Why it matters
The film has also revived an old argument about the character. A campaign against the movie has sent more than 55,000 emails to cinemas asking them not to show it, accusing Ali G of being an alibi for racism.
Britain’s film board, the BBFC, rated the film 15 anyway, despite calls for it to refuse the movie a classification. Labour MP Paulette Hamilton has described the character as racist, and comedian Dane Baptiste has said Ali G’s catchphrases have sometimes been used to play down real experiences of racism.
Cohen has defended the return in an essay. One of the film’s writers, Colton Dunn, told Deadline that Ali G is not a racist character but a tool used to expose racists.
Whichever side viewers take, the argument shows how differently comedy from the early 2000s lands today, and it is likely to follow the film when it reaches streaming.
