Grimsby (aka The Brothers Grimsby in the US) tells the story of Nobby, an idiot, as he reconnects with his brother after 28 years. A brother who happens to be a secret agent, as they both get involved with an evil plan to wipe out millions of people.
The best way I can describe this film is that it’s not for everyone. Some people might be put of by the abhorrent gross out humour, hideous generalisations of working class Britons and monstrous abuse of an elephant…but I loved it. There’s not only that though, there is a little bit more.
There is quite a bit of pathos, especially with the scenes that deal with the separation of the 2 brothers, there are some honestly great action sequences, well directed by Louis Letterier (The Incredible Hulk) and it has a killer cast, some of them pretty much wasted but still. Other than the brilliant double team of Sasha Baron Cohen and Mark Strong we have Penelope Cruz, Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson, Ian McShane, Gabourey Sidibe, Johnny Vegas, Ricky Tomlinson and more. Some of them don’t have much to do, Cruz was not a great villain, Wilson I’m not a fan of at all (luckily she’s not in it a lot) and Fisher, I WONDER how she got a part in this, hmm.
At only 83 minutes it does move at a brisk pace, there is no wasted time and it hits the ground running. Some of the gags do fall flat but it’s mainly just the lines but because the physical, gross out gags are SO silly, SO outlandish, they are the funniest, although it does have a killer AIDS running gag. I told you, it’s very un-PC.
On the bluray we have a fantastic 1080p presentation, really looks the biz, along with a decent assortment of special features. Spearheaded by the full, uncut version of the infamous elephant scene, if you think the scene in the movie was crazy, wooooo golly bob howdy, you ain’t seen nothing yet. I’ll put it this way, there is NO WAY it would have been passed by the MPAA. There is a gag reel (pretty much what it says on the tin), a line-o-rama (alternate lines), deleted and extended scenes (I can see why they were deleted, although it does have a great cameo from Paul Kaye), all rounded off by 2 featurettes. One of them showing how they pulled off (pun absolutely intended) the aforementioned elephant scene, and trust me, it’s just as cool as it sounds and the other a 12 minute look at how they made the whole movie, featuring talking heads by the cast and crew, along with footage from behind the scenes. The DVD contains the making of featurette and the line-o-Rama.
If you’re a fan of crazy comedy movies, you owe it to yourself to pick this up.
Also, watch the elephant scene with audio description, it is glorious.
[rating=4] | Peter Fletcher
action, comedy | UK, 2016 | 18 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | 4th July 2016 (UK) | Dir. Louis Letterrier | Sacha Baron Cohen, Rebel Wilson, Mark Strong, Isla Fisher, Penelope Cruz | Buy:[Blu-ray]
