Directed by:
Louis LeterrierCinematography:
Oliver WoodCast:
Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson, Gabourey Sidibe, Penélope Cruz, Barkhad Abdi, Scott Adkins, David Harewood, Tamsin Egerton (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
When two inseparable brothers are adopted by two different families, their lives quickly fork off in opposite directions. Sebastian (Mark Strong) works his way up in the British government agency MI6 to become their most revered assassin and Nobby (Sacha Baron Cohen) meets the love of his life (Rebel Wilson), has nine children and spends his days shouting abuse at football fans in Grimsby. After spending 28 years looking for his brother, Nobby finally locates Sebastian in London and travels down to surprise him. Sebastian, however, is on an assignment and Nobby's bombshell revelation startles him causing him to shoot and kill the wrong target. Forced to go on the run, Sebastian and Nobby set off across the capital trying to lose their pursuers while Nobby tries to make amends with his long-lost sibling. (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (11)
This was a really wild ride! Filled with fecal humor, offbeat action, village boors, disgusting obscenities, allusions to sexual minorities and practices, and in fact sex in general, and featuring scenes that you're unlikely to find in any other movie (the elephant mating and poison vs. testicles, for example), unless Sacha Baron Cohen is starring or writing the script again. Surprisingly, the seemingly mismatched lead pairing of Cohen and Jeremy Strong ended up having some chemistry, and as a result, the two actors complemented each other well. The supporting cast also amused me, in particular about Rebel Wilson ("I'm not pregnant. I'm just fucking fat!") and Gabourey Sidibe. I was also amused by the fake-cameos of Daniel Radcliffe and Donald Trump, as well as the allusions to the characters' resemblance to real persons. In short, a film that isn't quite for everyone, as the level of fecklessness occasionally went sky-high, but nonetheless, I was personally amused (and even disgusted).
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Sometimes good, but sometimes intentionally brutally disgusting. So disgusting, in fact, that it goes beyond disgust. And I deliberately played this comedy right after Animal with Belmondo to realize what kind of comedies were made back then and what kind of comedies are made today. And I have to admit that I much prefer the kind of comedies they madeback then. Now they only seem to be fighting for their moment in the sun by trying to fit as many disgusting things as possible on an eight-millimeter film.
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Some really juicy and delicious jokes (Radcliffe and Trump, "Do you have to shoot at everything?!") side by side with Mr. Cohen's overt sexual deviance and all manner of anal exploitation, which, while it makes you laugh heartily now and then, is life-threatening to eat with the film, watch it after a romantic dinner, and sometimes just watch it – things have been going downhill with Cohen and his originality since Borat, straight towards constantly surpassing the extremes of imaginary comedic (dis)taste, but on the other hand, after the terrible Bruno, Sacha manages to produce a story that holds together and, by engaging A-list actors, proves that the film world simply can’t find a more entertaining and flashy presentation of boorishness and imbecility anywhere else than his. A big thumbs up to Mark Strong, who also knows how to make a proper joke out of himself and obviously enjoyed this unprecedented ass-riding as much as I did for the most part. 65%
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I consider the moments when I unexpectedly snorted with laughter at Grimsby to be some of the darkest moments of my life, but then again, there's a bit of the Australopithecus running through everyone's genome. Otherwise, the no-frills humor and total surrendering of basic standards of taste aren't exactly the main problem. The stumbling block is not the content of the individual jokes, but their form. After most of them, we get a second to laugh (even with the music suddenly turned off, for example) and you get the impression that someone must have cut the film at the last minute to remove a funny face and studio cackle from Cohen after each one. Maybe that's why the film is thankfully an endurable 80 minutes. Compared to the previous two pieces in last year's trio of spy parodies (Kingsman, Spy), Grimsby surprisingly doesn't manage much in the way of action, which amounts to (not just compared to the perfect Hardcore Henry) snoozing POV or haphazardly cut fight scenes, where especially with Scott Adkins fight it’s a real letdown since the guy is such a badass that there's no need to cover anything up at all. Which actually matches the film's main problem, which is that parodying spy movies takes a back seat to Cohen's buffoonery throughout the entire film, which must have been a post-production decision given the untapped potential of many of the characters (the activation of Agent Chilcott in particular has an introduction like a rap song, but that storyline completely fizzles out). In short, a bummer. But there's always Rebel Wilson taking her shirt off again, so...
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Surprise of the year! Grimsby is as essential and groundbreaking for the comedy genre as I Spit On Your Grave was for exploitation. The biggest comedy hit since Shut Up! Sacha Baron Cohen goes bonkers here and delivers the best comedic and situational humor of his career. There is an incredible amount of allusions to movies, actors and celebrities, and snappy gags at intervals of every five minutes, and scenes that will leave a strange aftertaste in your mouth. The best thing in the the film is the action, which is so good that it surpasses even some action films (it's brisk, brutal, gritty and original, though furiously edited, it has drive). The icing on the cake are Scott Adkins' fight with Borat, the elephant bukkake party and the testicle sucking. I feel like watching it again. Awesome stuff. 100%
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