Grimsby : Agent trop spécial

Nobby Butcher (Sacha Baron Cohen) is an idiot football hooligan from Grimsby and has 11 children with Dawn (Rebel Wilson). He is looking to reconnect with estranged brother Sebastian Graves (Mark Strong). Sebastian is now a gunman for an MI6 offshoot. His investigation leads to actress philanthropist Rhonda George (Penelope Cruz). Nobby's interference causes Sebastian to be blamed for an assassination. Sebastian is forced to team up with his secret brother Nobby.

Nobby is partially annoying. Once I get over it, his idiocy is a little funny. It's all silly and outrageous. I'm half rolling my eyes, and half smirking in disbelief. I'm bored with the poop jokes and the more obvious stuff. The shock humor is over the top. On the other hand, SBC often hits the audience with some unexpected humor. It's a real mix bag.

The good thing about Sacha Baron Cohen's movies is that you know exactly what you are in for when you step into the cinema.

Anybody who is offended at the crude humour in SBC's movies, has only themselves to blame.

So what can you expect? Funny dialogues, a nonsense script, hilarious jokes (and yes, also some hit/miss ones but that is to be expected with this rollercoaster), decent action scenes and lots and lots of dirty, filthy, cringe-worhty scenes. Love it!

The funniest thing: casting Liam Gallagher as Nobby and starting the movie with a song by Blur and having Noel Gallagher sing "Cigarettes & Alcohol". You have to hand it to SBC: he does not leave a stone unturned in his quest to offend people.

The human-based comedy is mostly kept relatively weak in "The Brothers Grimsby," a sleazy but labored spy satire. With its unsettling blend of jocular genre satire, excessive gross-out content, and casually gory, video-game-style combat, the story of two estranged siblings coming together to confront a worldwide terrorism syndicate earns some stray yucks. The laughs per minute are noticeably lower than they were in "Spy," which was a kinder "Spy" from the previous year. It remains to be seen how many HIV-AIDS jokes auds will be ready to laugh at in an otherwise sparsely filled 82 minutes, however certain relevant punchlines may grant these brothers some ephemeral pop-cultural recognition.

This film is unbelievably stupid, crass, vulgar and contains surpringly misjudged recurring jokes which feel like they're from 20 years ago... But...I haven't laughed so hard in ages. The laugh out loud gags and set pieces come thick and fast. Utter side splitting rubbish.

I don't think I have ever written a review on IMDb before, but on this occasion, I feel I must.

Thank you, Mr Cohen for giving me the biggest belly laughs I've had from any film in years.

This film is comedy gold. Sure, the story-line is wafer-thin, but who cares? Although on this turn-out, this film is a bit of departure from Cohen's previous outings - less mockumentary and more narrative, but it is gag after gag - non-stop. My sides were hurting before the end of the first act.

Some of the other sourpuss reviews here miss the point. If I go to see a comedy, I'm not expecting an Oscar winning, thought-provoking drama. I want escapism. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief completely in exchange for a few good laughs.

This film delivers that in spades - and more.

For when a film causes you to bury your mouth in your elbow in fear of disturbing your fellow film-goers with your laughter, you know you're having a good time.

And that's all I want from a movie.

Thanks again, Mr. Cohen!