While by no means an important piece of film-making, this is still so much better than it ought to have been. As forged on TV by Sacha Baron Cohen (who co-writes here), Ali G - the white kid from Staines who behaves like a black rapper from South Central - is essentially a one-joke creation (albeit a good joke). In his first feature-length outing, that joke is stretched to breaking point, but if you laughed the first time, you'll laugh again. This is largely thanks to the ludicrous plot (Ali becomes an MP, exposes sleaze and saves the planet), a sparkling turn from co-star Martin Freeman as Ali's sidekick and some arch postmodern touches such as Ali speaking to camera (even over the British Board of Film Classification title card). The gross-out moments and sexual content seem cynically designed for the US market and this is unlikely to make new converts to the cult of Ali G, but at least, with a running time of under 90 minutes, it knows when to quit.

Ali G unwittingly becomes a pawn in the evil Chancellor's plot to overthrow the Prime Minister of Great Britain. However, instead of bringing the Prime Minister down, Ali is embraced by the nation as the voice of youth and 'realness', making the Prime Minister and his government more popular than ever.