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‘Ali G: Who Iz I?’ dumped on streaming just five days after cinema release
Music News•October 27, 2026 at 9:48 AMNational

‘Ali G: Who Iz I?’ dumped on streaming just five days after cinema release

By Ali Shutler•NME Music News

The film has been panned by critics while Sacha Baron Cohen has been forced to defend the “problematic” character The post ‘Ali G: Who Iz I?’ dumped on streaming just five days after cinema release appeared first on NME.

Ali G: Who Iz I? is coming to streaming tomorrow (Wednesday October 28), less than a week after the film was released in cinemas.

Ali G was first introduced on Channel 4’s The 11 O’Clock Show in 1998 before his popularity led to the spin-off Da Ali G Show in the early 2000s, and full length feature film Ali G Indahouse in 2002. Cohen has returned to the character sporadically, including 2014’s Ali G: Rezurection and occasional appearances on US talk shows and awards ceremonies. Earlier this year, he was spotted at Wimbledon and Who Iz I? was announced shortly afterwards.

“After 20 years spent ‘chillin’, tokin’ and bonin’’, Ali G is shocked to discover that his long-term girlfriend, Julie, is eight months pregnant. Faced with an extra mouth to feed, he gets off his batty and heads to America to reclaim his former glory… but soon encounters adversaries who will ultimately threaten his and his child’s very existence. Sacha Baron Cohen’s new film marks his directorial debut,” reads the movie’s logline.

Ali G: Who Iz I? was released in cinemas on Friday (October 23) but last night, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G took to social media to confirm the movie will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from tomorrow.

“Me movie comin to Prime Video dis Wendesday, it 89 minute long, dere’s 14400 minutes in a day meanin u’ll be able to watch it 161 times a day for de rest of ya lives for free,” he wrote.

Amazon, who produced the film, haven’t revealed box office numbers for Ali G: Who Iz I? but the film has been largely panned by critics. It has a 48 per cent score on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.

Sacha Baron Cohen has also been accused of amplifying harmful racist stereotypes with Ali G. Defending the return of the character in an essay for Time Magazine, Baron Cohen wrote: “The fact that Ali G is outdated and problematic is the very reason I resurrected him. The world he’s returned to is, in many ways, worse than the one he left 20 years ago,” he explained. “All the prejudices my characters are designed to expose haven’t just lingered—they’ve metastasized.

“I’ve always designed my characters and comedy as vehicles to expose prejudice, bias, and stupidity, though I realise not everyone sees them that way,” he continued. “Like a good bouffon, [Ali G] undermines that establishment – not the culture he loves and borrows from.”

In the new year, Sacha Baron Cohen will take to the West End as the lead in Quentin Tarantino’s first-ever play,The Popinjay Cavalier.

The post ‘Ali G: Who Iz I?’ dumped on streaming just five days after cinema release appeared first on NME.

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