Most of you got your first taste of Mr. Ali G in the Madonna video for “Music” and has since been hooked! I must say at first I didn’t think much of Ali G / Sacha Cohen, That all changed after catching his show on HBO. This guy is brilliant, Most only know him for Ali G but Cohen also plays Bruno and the absolutely hilarious Borat from Kazakhstan.
Well Ali, Borat and Bruno are back for season 2 and HBO is nice enough to bring it us on a new 2 disc DVD set. And don’t worry i’m not going to say “Booyaka Sha” mainly because anyone who listens to reggae or dance hall would know its actually BOOYAKA SHOT and not “sha”… just a pet peeve of mine. Anyhow enough of my belly aching’, on to the review!
Series
The second seazon as they call it, is by far my favorite. I feel like Cohen really hit his stride and had some standout moments in seazon two. What makes the show so funny is the fact that people take all of Cohen’s antics. The show is presented as Da Ali G show but Ali G is joined by two other characters both done by Cohen. The first is Borat a very strange heavily mustached fellow from Kazakhstan who has a unique view of the world and Bruno who is the German equivalent of a E! talk show host.
With that said the star is still Ali who makes up most of the show. Most of the shows feature a one on one interview by Ali G, a street segment and a round table discussion in his early 90’s BETesque set. Throw in the mix you’ll have Borat on doing random things like wine tasting or house shopping and Bruno who always ends up doing something very gay.
What makes this show work so well as crazy as it sounds is Cohen’s ability to identify with these characters. When Cohen is Ali, Borat or Bruno you really believe that he is the character, especially when he plays Borat.
Ali is undoubtedly the figure head of the show but Borat is the real break out character. Cohen just pushes things to the absolute limit, from showing some old fogeys graphic photos of him and his sister having sex to a real estate agent simulate loud grunting while dropping a deuce… oh and who can for get “throwing a Jew down a well”.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Transfer
For those of you who have seen the show, or have been looking at the screen shots its easy to see that the print isn’t what you would call pristine. The show has the homemade DV cam look, which is probably because it was shot on DV cam and has a 4:3 aspect ratio. While it lends to the shows faux-reality you’re definitely not going to be using this disc to show off your home theater.
Ali’s and Bruno’s segments are the most crisp and clean. While it’s DV it’s still pretty clean and does a good job. Borats video is crappy on purpose which lends to it’s public access look.
So, while the print isn’t beautiful, it does the job and lends to the feel of the show. That’s pretty much all you need, especially when Borat is kissing some old honky on the lips…. (man Cohen isn’t afraid to pull any punches).
Rating: 7 out of 10
Audio
The audio transfer on this puppy isn’t so bad considering how some of the video segments look. The show is mostly talk driven so this wasn’t really a hard transfer to pull off.
All the talk segments are clear and the bumpers that feature music are all clean and bass heavy just like Ali would expect them to be. We only get a 2.0 English audio track but what else would you need?
Rating: 7 out of 10
Extras
50 extra minutes of footage, WHAT??? Yeah you read it right 50 minutes of extra footage and its not that run of the mill 2 min. deleted scenes, these are full segments with Ali, Borate and Bruno that for some odd reason never made it to the show. Why didn’t they make it to the show you ask???? well it beats the hell out of me, these are every bit as good as the segments feature on the show. You are treated to 3 segments from Ali and Borat but Bruno gets the shaft with only 2 segments… wait did i just say Bruno gets the shaf… ah never mind.
Beyond the 8 full deleted segments, we are also treated to the interweb famous commencement speech at Harvard by Ali G. While the commencement speech can be slow at times its pretty funny that Harvard even let Cohen give the speach as Ali no less, the only way it could have been better is if it was Borat giving the speech. (yeah I’m a mark for Borat.. so what)
The only thing this disc is missing is commentary from Cohen himself, most of us know so little about Cohen it would have been really cool to actually hear from him for an extended period of time.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Overall
The Ali G show is excellent and seazon 2 doesn’t disappoint. This show is what some would call a evolution of shows like The Tom Green show, but that’s not a bad thing. Cohen does things to people some of use would only dream of doing or saying for that matter.
S0 fans of Tom Greenesque faux-reality comedy, Da Ali G Show Da Compleet Second Seazon is for you. Those of you out there who have yet to experience Ali, Borat and Bruno in all their glory definitely rent this thing… I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to resist buying it after one viewing.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Da Ali G Show Seazon Two
Movie: 9
Transfer: 7
Audio: 7
Extras: 8.5
Overall: 8.5
Format: 4:3 Full Frame
Sound: English 2.0
Rated: TV-MA
Genre: Faux-Reality Comedy
Studio: HBO
Pick up Seazon 2 @ Amazon
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