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)
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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Sacha Baron Cohen once again boldly pushes the boundaries of film humor and tests what else the audience can endure. I had a really good time, although I admit that for many people, it will be hard to tolerate this film. For some it may be Comedy of the Year, for others embarrassing and disgusting hogwash. I recommend the film especially if you have a sense for black, vulgar and incorrect humor, you often go to the cinema, you've seen and can endure a lot of stuff, you find most comedies to be not very good or harsh enough, and you liked Cohen's previous films. The Cohen - Strong brotherly duo works great.
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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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Along with The Dictator, the best thing Cohen has made. A cocktail of engaging action scenes with sophisticated as well as scatological humor that oddly works as a whole. Plus, the cast is very interesting, resulting in a well-made and unpretentious comedy.
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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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