Grimsby Review: The Brothers Grim

Director: Louis Leterrier

Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson. 

The Overview

After being separated at a young age, the brothers from Grimsby might be worlds apart but they’ll need each other to save the world from a dastardly threat. Cohen plays football hooligan Nobby, and Strong is super spy Sebastian. 

The Good

It was 83 minutes long thank goodness. After my recent blog about movie run times this was a welcome treat; albeit only a treat in the sense that had it been any longer I’m not sure I would’ve made it out alive. 

Ok, game face on Sarah, there has to be some good points about this film! I liked the “first person shooter” style opening action sequence, and thought it was actually a pretty cool technique. It was used later for a more comedic effect, and had the film been funny it probably would have worked well. But we’ll get to that. It’s a shame a perfectly decent action scene had to be wasted on such a terrible movie really!

There’s some great nostalgic 90s britpop in the soundtrack, and it really made me want to listen to Blur; and listening to Blur is never a bad thing. 

Great so there’s the good points, moving swiftly on…

The Bad

I can take or leave Sacha Baron Cohen films. I liked Ali G in da House and Borat at the time, but they have not held up well, and they now make me cringe more than they make me laugh. I loathed Bruno, and I laughed a few times at The Dictator but have never desired to watch it again. 

This crass brand of “humour” feels incredibly dated and perfectly demonstrates my point that the Sacha Baron Cohen films get less funny over time. Sadly Grimsby wasn’t even funny on the first watch for me, although the chortling masses in the cinema would seem to disagree with me. 

Had I not been reviewing this film I would’ve walked out in the first 15 minutes. A joke about doing disgusting things to a child, and then a completely unnecessary joke about AIDS, fall within 5 minutes of each other, and this was far too much for me to handle. 

Later it throws into the mix jokes about leukaemia, paedophilia and pretty much every other offensive topic possible. In his bid to make every film more offensive than the last, Cohen seems to have succeeded. This is not a good thing. 

Parts of this film made me want to vomit. It wasn’t funny it was absolutely disgusting. I still cannot wash the taste of seeing this film out and I’m not sure I ever will. I didn’t think this was possible but it’s even more despicable than Dirty Grandpa. It plumbs the depths of depravity to points I didn’t even think were possible. There were things I can never unsee and which make me want to vomit at the mere thought of it. One word you’ll understand if you’ve seen the film; elephant. If you’re intrigued about what this could be, don’t be. You never need to know, you should never have to know, and I wish to God I’d never known. 

The Verdict

I saw this movie so you don’t have to. I don’t know if I’ve ever wanted to leave a film more than this one. Legitimately painful to watch and in fact I had my eyes closed for so much of it I pretty much had an 83 minute nap rather than watch this atrocious excuse for a film. A nap would be a much better use of your time, so stay at home, get some shuteye and avoid this film AT ALL COSTS.

Agree with everything I’ve said, or am I a terribly misguided idiot who has got it all wrong? Please let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to share as well.