Grade (B)
A fun blench of action and crude humor to make for a fun adventure.
Anyone familiar with Sacha Baron Cohen will know exactly what they will be getting into with this film, those who aren’t, well get prepared to most likely be offended. “The Brothers Grimsby” stars; Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Isla Fisher, Penelope Cruz and Rebel Wilson, and is directed by Louis Leterrier.
This story follows one of MI6’s most skilled assassins Sebastian, who while on a case comes across his long lost brother Nobby, a foul mouthed idiot from the fishing town of Grimsby. These two men from different worlds and will have to work together when they uncover a plot that will put the world in danger of being infected with a deadly virus.
I wasn’t really sure what I was getting into starting this one. I knew there would be a ton of shock-value humor and while I wouldn’t consider myself the biggest Cohen fan by any means, he was amazing in this performance.
Mark Strong whose performances I usually enjoy was a curiosity to me, I wondered how he would blend with Cohen and I was surprised to see these two guys build a strong chemistry and a great balance – with their differences being what made their reactions to one another so hilarious at times.
This story was ridiculous and it was the pure definition of mindless fun. Coming in the form of an action film, the comic heavy script followed with exaggeration, all the fun action genre tropes. With overblown characters, and scenarios, which all turned into some enjoyable action sequences. There was a fun “Hardcore Henry” style intro to Mark Strong’s character that was surprisingly well done and none of the action in this film looked cheap and the effort always showed.
The comical dialogue never lets up during this story, and a ton of it is way over the top, but there are still so many laughable lines and scenarios that if you don’t offend easy, will result in a hilarious adventure, with a pace that stays strong. With a range of crude humor, you don’t get fatigued by it as things keep moving. I laughed so many times throughout this stupid story-line but be warned, the humor is extremely overboard in some scenes and throughout it is offensive, disgusting, racially, socially, and culturally, insensitive, and disturbing to an extent, so this will certainly not be for everyone.
But if you take the whole of the comedy in this film and throw out the 35% that is terribly absurd, you will still be left with an outright hilarious 65%. This film brought something unique to the screen and I have to respect that. There were moments that I rolled my eyes to, a couple of cringe-worthy moments as well, but the overall enjoyment this movie brought was high and I can recommend “The Brothers Grimsby” for a fun night with a wild movie.
Time: 83 min
MPAA Rating: R (For strong crude sexual content, graphic nudity, violence, language and some drug use)