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THE BROTHERS GRIMSBY
With Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Rebel Wilson
Written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Phil Johnston, Peter Baynham
Directed by Louis Leterrier
I appreciate Sacha Baron Cohen's unique take on humour, but I must admit, I do prefer his audacious prank characters Borat, Bruno and sometimes Ali G. In regular acting mode (from comedies like Talladega Nights, musicals like Sweeney Todd, or his Dictator character) he's not bad, but in a real world scenario taking the piss as his offensive and clueless creations, I can't help but to love him.
Here he plays a working class, beer swilling, fowl mouthed, football loving dimwit living in the small English town of Grimsby with his wife and nine children. As a child he was separated from his brother and looking for him ever since. He actually tracks him down and discovers his long lost bro ended up being a polar opposite - an MI6 secret agent / assassin. The two of them land in the middle of a global terrorist plot that brings them to Africa (keep an eye out for the familiar landmarks and local extras, a lot of it shot here in Cape Town).
Cohen always inserts some social / cultural fish-out-of-water angle or commentary, and here it is no different. Where for the most part the Brothers Grimsby is a crude comedy fused with a secret-agent-action-flick, it does hone in on the British working class / chav / yob character, but ensures there's heart (even with jaw-droppers like Daniel Ratcliffe accidentally infected with AIDS or them hiding inside an elephant's vagina!).
Strange but interesting how French-born director Louis Leterrier went from movies like The Transporter and The Incredible Hulk to this.
3 / B
- Paul Blom
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