Director Louis Leterrier
Genre Action | Comedy
Cast Mark Strong, Sacha Baron Cohen, Rebel Wilson, Penelope Cruz
Rating R
Release Date March 11th, 2016
“A new assignment forces a top spy to team up with his football hooligan brother.”
The Brothers Grimsby is Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest foray into his own personal raunchy, boundless, sometimes difficult to watch brand of humor. It is directed by Louis Leterrier who also directed Now You See Me and The Transporter 1 & 2, to name a few on his resume. The film also stars Mark Strong who has a lengthy background of action films and quality roles in television. With Cohen teaming up with Strong and Leterrier behind the lens, The Brothers Grimsby held decent promise.
The Brothers Grimsby attached itself comfortably to my fairly low to moderate expectations. It actually felt significantly tempered compared to Cohen’s controversial 2009 film Bruno which caused me to slouch in my seat uncomfortably right from the opening scene. In retrospect, seeing that in the theater was a horrible idea. One thing fans of Sacha Baron Cohen films will pick-up on right away is the fact that the film does not include any of the “reality-based” footage found in Borat and Bruno. Probably because he is too recognizable at this point or the style of film simply didn’t allow it. Instead it is shot like a standard action comedy, for the most part anyway. The Brothers Grimsby is a sloppy attempt at an action/comedy and even though it takes a big swing every chance it gets, it strikes out more times than Hall Of Famer Reggie Jackson (MLB’s all-time strikeout leader). It does manage to hit a few out of the park and I will admit I am a little ashamed about the scene that had me laughing the hardest. Let me just say it involved elephants, lots and lots of elephants. It is worth pointing out that the film includes a much better backstory for the two brothers than I expected. Cohen’s persona in The Brother’s Grimsby is funny but only when he works at it, which is different compared to Borat who made you laugh just by simply appearing on screen. I mean that mustache? Classic.
The first-person action element the film provides is creative and fun to watch but only accounts for a small portion of the film. I felt that Leterrier did a commendable job considering what he had to work with but that is praise that only goes so far. To be quite honest, it was a bit of a surprise seeing Leterrier direct this sort of a film and even more of a surprise, a shock really, to see Mark Strong in this role. I mean granted he plays a badass secret agent but the situations he finds himself in are hard to watch at times. I mean this is not the Mark Strong we know from the AMC series Low Winter Sun or 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, or even better, his role as the maniacal and egotistical mob boss in the violent superhero flick Kick-Ass (let’s try and forget about the sequel, it’s better that way). Letterier may have been desperate (this is his first film in 3 years) but Strong has some serious explaining to do. Fingers crossed that sitting in a bathtub naked with Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t something he enjoys.
The Brothers Grimsby is an enjoyable film for viewers that can appreciate (or stomach) Sacha Baron Cohen’s racy brand of humor but it doesn’t offer much beyond that. I had some good laughs and I will check it out again once it releases on Blu-ray/DVD but I can’t bring myself in good conscience to suggest seeing this in theaters. Unless of course you have a sick sense of humor that demands an immediate viewing. You know who you are.
