THE BROTHERS GRIMSBY: MORE MISSES THAN HITS
Be suspect of movies that are infamous before they even hit theatres. The “they did WHAT” anticipatory glee is generally bound to be a letdown — especially when the big joke is someone getting a disease.
In the off-chance that you’ve managed to stay blissfully unaware of the gag, I won’t go into any more specifics. Needless to say, it does indeed happen, it is brazen, and it will leave you dumbfounded.
Whether or not the joke will also elicit a laugh is the big question, though. It’s one that applies to much of the humour in the movie, too, which starts out with a Bill Cosby jab and steamrolls on from there.
The plot finds a sweet-hearted dim-witted working class stiff from northern England (Sacha Baron Cohen’s Nobby) reunited with his younger brother Sebastian (Mark Strong) after 28 years apart. Sebastian is now a top spy and assassin, with a hardcore shaved head to match his ruthless attitude. Nobby’s ill-timed reunion with his long-lost kin puts Sebastian’s job, and life, in jeopardy — tethering the two for the remainder of the movie as they try to clear Sebastian’s name and save the world.
The jester and the brain pairing is a time-tested formula that on paper seems pretty foolproof. The way it’s carried out here, however, feels plucked from a 1990s movie that’s still experimenting with the novelty of gross-out humour, know-it-all storytelling, and just how far you can coast on the charisma of a star. Strong plays it straight, but isn’t nearly as memorable as Jason Statham’s turn in Spy.
Baron Cohen, who also co-wrote the movie, is sort of lovable as Nobby with his daffy, crooked-toothed smile, Oasis hair, teeny pot-belly and grungy socks and sports sandals.
Ultimately, the jokes are more stupefying than funny and no one’s anatomy is safe from a gratuitous close-up, whether it’s that of a wild animal or an Oscar nominee.
It’s hard to give yourself over to a certain type of humour when you’re still recovering from the shock of what you just saw or heard.
And boy, does The Brothers Grimsby push those boundaries, over and over and over again.
In the spy spoof realm I’d rather just re-watch last year’s almost equally raunchy, but infinitely cleverer Spy.