Rating: C
Dir: Louis Leterrier
Star: Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Rebel Wilson, Scott Adkins
I’m kinda torn here. There are elements here which are outrageously funny – in the sense they are both outrageous and funny. But there are also elements which are unadulterated cringe. Director Leterrier is best known for action, including work on the first two Transporter films and Fast X. Unsurprisingly, he has a good handle on those elements. The comedy? Works when the material is strong. Otherwise, I was frequently praying for the next scene to show up. The set-up has proud Grimsby resident Nobby Butcher (Baron Cohen), an unemployed, alcoholic slob who lives in a terraced house with his wife (Wilson) and nine kids, who finds his long-lost brother Sebastian (Strong), last seen decades previously.
The problem is, Sebastian is now a suave, sophisticated secret agent. He’s not keen on the reunion, not least because it leads to Sebastian being blamed for the assassination of the WHO leader. He ends up hiding out in Grimsby with Nobby, then the pair clock up the air miles going from South Africa to Chile, trying to stop an evil plan to kill two billion people, in which Russian agent Pavel Lukashenko (Adkins) is involved. Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane and Johnny Vegas also show up, to greater or lesser purpose. It feels like Baron Cohen wants to ruthlessly mock the working class, while also elevating them, and it’s always going to be hard for someone with his privileged background to play both sides like that.
I can certainly understand why it bombed, hard, especially outside the UK. Unlike Borat and its increasingly feeble follow-ups, this feels particularly British. The class-based elements especially, would seem hard to translate, not that nuance is something you will find in abundance. More accessible is the secret agent parody: it feels similar to Spy, with Baron Cohen in the crude Melissa McCarthy role, and Strong as the straight man, played by Jason Statham. Actually, much credit to Strong, for agreeing to a role which requires him to hide inside an elephant’s genitalia and subsequently get absolutely drenched in pachyderm cum. Yeah, this film goes there, along with enough sphincter-related humour to leave me with valid questions about Baron Cohen’s personal life.
Some of this does feel like crudeness for the sake of it, and to no particular point: I mean, recycling a “sucking venom out” joke which had whiskers on it when I was 12? Still, likely preferable to the embarrassing moral posturing in the final act – albeit before a double anal finale. I’d rather be involved in “an elephant bukkake party” than sit through Nobby telling us how wonderful people like him actually are. Sacha, you spend the first 70 minutes shitting on the poors (albeit in an amusing manner), at least have the guts to own it, instead of then turning round and spouting right-on platitudes like, “It’s ‘scum’ who die in the wars started by the bastards in charge.” Borat would not be impressed.
This review is part of Project Adkins, covering the movies of Scott Adkins.