Grimsby - Review
Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedy is an acquired taste (or lack thereof.) The comedian is found somewhere between genuine intelligence and absolute immaturity. He can also do serious movies such as Les Miserables. Honestly, sometimes, it’s truly difficult to figure out Sacha Baron Cohen and, even people who deplore his work (like me) can find moments of glory in his work. Grimsby is much of the same that it'll please fans and ruffle many feathers.
The movie revolves around a covert Secret Agent Sebastian who has everything; smarts, sexiness, and gadget. However, when attempting to prevent an assassination of a prominent figure, he is infiltrated by his idiotic long-lost brother Nobby. In the chaos, Sebastian is blamed for the assassination attempt and has to go into hiding in his brother's home town - Grimsby….
Grimsby swaggers with much of the same humour that The Dictator or Ali G did; it is offensive, it is puerile, and it is obscene. There is a pile of garbage to wade through here and every single joke is dragged through the shit stained glee of a 12 year old boys underpants. Penis jokes, poo jokes, fat jokes, chav jokes, nude jokes, vagina jokes, and everything in between. The most infantile jokes ring out louder than anything within this film and it makes your skin crawl. There are some scenes that will make you want to peel your eyes out of your head, chop them into tiny little pieces, dip each individual one into acid, and glue them back together. There’s not enough alcohol for the kind of scenes that go down.
Let’s address the elephant in the room here; Sacha Baron Cohen has always been a comedic genius hiding underneath his clear ejaculation for vile and putrid humour. There are two elements in Grimsby that Sacha Baron Cohen and team exact excellently; the humanity and the glorious moments of satire. While there are probably five times of pure honest to god humour here, Cohen offers a general comment on how we perceive the working classes, benefit cheats, and those who inhabit places such as the titular one. It comes across with an odd charm and smart wit that slices into our own judgements that makes us ridicule Jeremy Kyle contestants or feel we are better than our fellow man.
There is also this brilliant backstory and emotion between Nobby and Sebastian that is a well-played. There is this heart-warming backbone of “family” and its importance that works within the setting. Leaving a lot of this to Mark Strong, an actor who is able to convey the remnants of a broken boy “abandoned” by his brother and living a vastly different life, the pulse of sentiment really pounds through this rarely funny but oddly sweet film.
All of these glimmers of goodness are hidden beneath a tirade of toilet humour that makes us want to vomit - as such is the career of Cohen. If he focused more on the intelligent hilarity and less on how many dick jokes he can squeeze into this film, then he’d find a lot more success with his movies. That being said, the screening was filled with unapologetic laughter that rippled throughout the film so there is an audience for this movie. And who am I to judge? Am I that much of a snob to put my personal taste above that of my fellow man? Wasn’t that the point of the film - to add a conflict to our condescending attitude?
Wait, did I kind of like this movie?
(Before we wrap this up, I’d like to thank the trailers for giving away the biggest twist in the film away ((that Penelope Cruz’ Rhonda is actually the baddie.)) Kudos on that! )