Sacha Baron-Cohen's Ali G has become a hero to the very people he set out to satirise but, as Bling Bling demonstrates, this is no time to put this creation out to grass; as long as there's a Christmas every year, collections like this will keep appearing.

Bling Bling is an assortment of Ali G's interviews; a couple of them with possibly the last people in Britain who didn't realise that someone was pulling their leg and several with American grandees of various sorts, including economist JK Galbraith and former CIA director Admiral Stansfield Turner. The real selling point, however, is Ali G's undeniably spectacular Comic Relief interview with David and Victoria Beckham, which, incidentally, presented the pair in a far more favourable light than any amount of avuncular fawning by Michael Parkinson. Bling Bling also includes quite a lot of Baron-Cohen's other alter-ego, hapless Kazakh! reporter Borat. Though Borat is a lazy and disappointing retreat to a time when British comedy was grounded in a belief that all foreigners are inherently hilarious--he's basically Manuel from "Fawlty Towers" with a microphone--he deserves kudos for the interview with an insufferable English undergraduate comedy troupe, in which he manages to get invited to slap two of them, and does so with the force they deserve.

On the DVD: The scene selector or, rather, "Scene Selecta" is straightforward enough. The only "extras" are some more Ali G interviews, and a trailer for the forthcoming Ali G film. --Andrew Mueller

Ali G is used by the Chancellor to bring down the Prime Minister, however, Ali proves to be a very successful allie for the PM...

Ali G is used by the Chancellor to bring down the Prime Minister, however, Ali proves to be a very successful allie for the PM...

By the marginal-or-miss standards of British TV spin-offs, Ali G in da House is well above adequate, even though it drags out every smart line or decent routine until they lie dead on the screen just begging for a laugh track. The film pulls back a bit from the absolute obnoxiousness of the Ali G TV skits, which makes Sacha Baron Cohen's character bearable at feature length, but also significantly less funny. Here it is finally confirmed that Ali is a weedy white kid called Alistair who pretends to be Jamaican, rather than a weedy white comedian doing a Jamaican character.

Believe it or not, there's actually a plot, with a scheming Chancellor of the Exchequer (Charles Dance) recruiting Ali as a parliamentary candidate for Staines in a devious attempt to unseat Prime Minister Michael Gambon. Yet this framework is really an excuse for the sketch-like bits, such as a Los Angeles ghetto movie fantasy, Ali G addressing a meeting of lesbian feminists ("I've seen a lot of your videos"), and Charles Dance forced to read a budget speech in Ali G speak. Oddly, the film makes early-1990s jokes about Tories rather than going after New Labour, but any political satire here comes in second to knob-polishing jokes and sometimes-hilarious patter. Luckless inhabitants of the M4 corridor will nod ruefully at the final gag, in which Ali G persuades the PM not to devastate Staines and nods agreement as Gambon reassures him, "it's all right, we'll destroy Slough instead". --Kim Newman

Determined to save the world against terrorism, Jennifer Garner plays the super smart CIA agent in some high excitement episodes like: Truth Be Told , So It Begins... , Parity , Doppelganger and many more.