Imagine the most foul, graphic, envelope-pushing, adults only, profane action comedy ever made, DOUBLE it and now you are in the uncomfortable but hilarious world occupied by THE BROTHERS GRIMSBY.
Sacha Baron Cohen has always displayed genius for pushing the boundaries of comedy. "Borat" certainly had scenes with nudity and physical comedy that made you flinch while laughing, but that's nothing compared to what he's whipped up here.
Cohen stars as Nobby, a dim-witted soccer hooligan with 9 kids, a passion for the pub and a limited amount of brain cells.
When he was a young boy, he was separated from his brother Sebastian and he's been on a life long quest to find him.
Sebastian has grown up to be one of the world's best spies. During the opening credits, we follow him through a mission that combines the best of Indiana Jones, Bond and Bourne in one sequence.
Sebastian is played winningly by Mark Strong, who is up for anything and shares our horror at all things Nobby.
When Nobby discovers that his brother will be at a mega-wealthy event to kickoff a philanthropic movement, he crashes the party, interrupts Sebastian's efforts to stop an assassination and sends the brothers on the run from the bad guys and MI6.
Their adventures on the road are damn funny, often exciting, incredibly well staged on the level of any high budget action film and occasionally SO gross and foul that you will either walk out, or laugh until your sides hurt.
I was in the latter group, but I'm definitely the minority here as audiences avoided this big budget film by the millions.
To be fair, the punchlines include very graphic elephant sex, Nobby's love for big women that culminates in a mistaken bedroom romp with Gabourey Sidibe, Nobby being forced to suck venom out of various parts of his brother's anatomy and a hilariously inappropriate gag involving Daniel Radcliffe and Donald Trump.
This is a great action flick, put through Cohen's very twisted grinder and spit out the other side as a hugely inappropriate send up of spy flicks, buddy movies and all things proper.
Cohen and Strong are both great, Rebel Wilson, Isla Fisher, Penelope Cruz are all having a blast and the Screenplay by Cohen and Phil Johnston (Wreck It Ralph, Zootopia, Cedar Rapids) is a lonnnnnnnng way from Johnston's Disney hits here, but on target for very inappropriate fun.
The dialogue, even in the throwaway moments, is damn funny.
If you are easily offended, DO NOT SEE this movie. If you consider having your limits tested on just what you'll find funny, sign up.
If this was edited to be appropriate for viewing by the sensitive it would be 8 minutes long.
For those that can take it, its about 90 minutes of disgusting, laugh-out-loud (often uncomfortably), jaw dropping madness.
Favorite line: "Nobby! You just managed to do in three seconds what Voldemort couldn't in 8 movies!"
Very adult, dripping with revolting scenes (and a few other things) these Brothers get a B.
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