If you can get past the dumbing-down of the comedic approach, Indahouse is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, though as a film it's about as eternal as Joe Dirt. Instead of playing off the humor of juxtaposing Ali G with clueless politicians, here the joke is more about the disparity between Ali's image and his actual life. That's a joke you get within two seconds of watching the TV show, so seeing it play out over an hour and a half rather belabors the point. But Ali G is just fuckin' funny, so it works. Ali (Aleister, it turns out) is a suburban Brit who fancies himself a Westside L.A. gangster-rapper with a huge dick and irresistible sway on the ladies. In truth, he's mostly just a sweet-hearted moron with a tendency to push things too far. The story finds Ali recruited by the Prime Minister to be a ringer candidate for Parliament (a la Trading Places or The Hudsucker Proxy), only to inadvertently gain huge popularity for "keeping it real." Naturally, this wreaks all manner of havoc over the government, though none of it amounts to anything but a steady stream of jokes about getting high, having sex, and sucking horse cock. It's not what I wanted from an "Ali G" movie, but then, I can think of few TV shows that have successfully spun off into movieland, especially sketch-comedy shows (the "Kids in the Hall" and "Mr. Show" movies are good examples of what usually happens). Even so, I enjoyed myself. I just hope they don't try to make a "Little Britain" movie and fall as far short of the mark.
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