On this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, the team reviews The Brothers Grimsby — also released as Grimsby — Louis Leterrier’s 2016 spy-action gross-out comedy starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Strong.
In this episode
England week, recorded in the heat with the dads trying to finish before England kick off
Pete’s return to the podcast, Dan’s absence, and Reegs charging the show with bringing the game into disrepute
Top 5 England, interpreted very loosely and therefore correctly
English stereotypes in film: bad teeth, bad food, villains, tea, class, accents, and mayonnaise in every supermarket sandwich
Fawlty Towers, Basil Fawlty, “Don’t mention the war”, John Cleese, Connie Booth, and only needing 12 episodes to become immortal
Sidey’s childhood Morris dancing, complete with bells, sticks, pagan energy, and possible darkness
Cris’s first memory of England via Italia ’90, Gary Lineker, black-and-white TV, Romania after the revolution, and the schoolboy joy of Lineker’s unfortunate bowel incident
Dave England from Jackass, yellow snow cones, giant hands, Bam Margera, and whether Jackass has run its course
Reegs on Chris Morris as a great English exponent of absurd, shocking satire with moral integrity: The Day Today, Brass Eye, Jam, Nathan Barley, Four Lions, and The Day Shall Come
Films and figures with England / Englishness attached: This Is England, The English Patient, Hugh Grant, Sting, Guy Ritchie, Lock, Stock, Snatch, Sherlock Holmes, Blackadder, London black cabs, fake taxis, and World Cup songs
Cris nominating James Bond as the foreigner’s English archetype: classy, gadget-heavy, car-driving, womanising, and very stereotypical
Reegs choosing The Impossible Job, Graham Taylor, Ronald Koeman, “Do I not like that?”, and English football’s appetite for destroying managers
Pete inflicting Grimsby / The Brothers Grimsby on the group
The dads’ expectations going in, Sidey deliberately avoiding it, and the reputation of the film after the Rebel Wilson allegations around Sacha Baron Cohen
Louis Leterrier’s action credentials: The Transporter, Now You See Me, The Incredible Hulk, and the surprisingly strong action staging here
Scott Adkins appreciation, the “Ukrainian Ben Affleck” / Boyka chat, and calls to do an Undisputed movie
The opening sex-in-a-bed-shop gag and the film immediately declaring its level of subtlety
Nobby’s Grimsby life: 11 children, one grandchild called Django Unchained, a son called Skeletor, and the “Luke because he’s got leukemia” joke
Mark Strong as Sebastian, MI6’s most lethal agent, and the very good first-person action sequence influenced by Hardcore Henry director Ilya Naishuller
Isla Fisher, Ian McShane, Penélope Cruz, Rebel Wilson, Gabourey Sidibe, Johnny Vegas, Ricky Tomlinson, and Daniel Radcliffe / Donald Trump legal-disclaimer jokes
The brothers’ backstory: orphaned, separated in childhood, and Nobby sacrificing his own future so Sebastian can be adopted
The movie’s attempt at sincerity, and why it is mostly undercut by everything else being relentlessly stupid
The poisoned dart sequence, the “left testicle” escalation, and Mark Strong playing total nonsense completely straight
The pre-ejaculate callback and the point at which Pete’s wife apparently started laughing properly
The South Africa section, heroin detour, seduction misunderstanding, and blocked toilet gag
The elephant sequence: foreshadowed by National Geographic, then pushed to an absolutely filthy breaking point
Penélope Cruz’s villain plot: a “World Cure” scheme that is actually a eugenics / population-control virus targeting the poor via the World Cup final
The dads questioning the film’s attempted class satire when so much of the movie has already made working-class Grimsby the punchline
The pitch invasion climax, fireworks, the virus in the rockets, and the brothers taking one for the team
The hospital ending, elephant semen as accidental antidote / skin-elasticity miracle, and the pan-pipe gag
Whether the film is actually good, or just so committed to its stupidity that it becomes funny
Bad Dads consensus
Sidey: Expected to hate it, laughed much more than expected, and lands on a strong recommend despite admitting the film probably is awful in many obvious ways.
Pete: Also gives a strong recommend, arguing that while lots of it is preposterous and eye-rollingly stupid, the bits that hit deliver proper belly laughs.
Reegs: Notes that it is not nearly as sharp satirically as Borat or Brüno, and that the class satire is muddled, but agrees the extremity and straight-faced delivery make it work more often than expected.
Cris: Enjoys the ridiculousness and joins in the disbelief at just how far the film pushes each gross-out set piece.
Final take
The Brothers Grimsby is not elegant, subtle, or especially coherent as satire. It is, however, a film with surprisingly solid action, Mark Strong treating absolute filth like a serious spy thriller, and Sacha Baron Cohen pushing every joke past the point of taste and into a kind of horrible inevitability. The dads feared the worst, laughed anyway, and somehow ended up recommending it.
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