It becomes clear almost immediately in “The Brothers Grimsby” that viewers are in for a raunchy experience. The film opens with a too-close-for-comfort sex scene featuring the mutton-chopped Nobby (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his significant other Dawn (Rebel Wilson). These two, unaware of what constitutes decent conduct, have sex in the middle of a store in order to test out a new mattress. While the movie contains similar levels of crudeness and debauchery as Cohen’s other works, namely “Borat” and “Bruno,” “The Brothers Grimsby” instead comes off as lazy, immature and generally unbecoming of Cohen.
The movie hovers back and forth between stereotypical action flick and sentimental comedy. Nobby, a caricature of vulgarity and ignorance, teams up with his long-lost brother, Sebastian (Mark Strong), a rogue secret agent, to take down an international conspiracy. Sebastian provides a straight man for Nobby’s clowning, but the brother’s nostalgia for their shared childhood smells of a melodrama which feels misplaced given the movie’s vulgar tone. Viewers are often shown memories of Nobby’s and Sebastian’s difficult orphaned experiences, only to be shoved back into the film’s present with a sex joke.
The crassness in “The Brothers Grimsby” cannot be understated. Early on, Daniel Radcliffe (Matthew Baldwin) is exposed to the HIV virus, which seems to serve only the purpose of allowing the characters to make a couple “Harry Potter has AIDS” jokes. At one point, Nobby is forced to suck poison out of Sebastian’s testicles. Later, the brothers allude back to this scene after hiding in an elephant’s vagina. As gross as that sounds, the scene is even more foul on screen. These instances stand out in a movie loaded with explicit content.
In the end, “The Brothers Grimsby” fails to be anything more than a series of gross, aimless quips. Its action is far too predictable to be entertaining. The movie gives credit to England’s lower class, who ultimately save the day. Much valuable social commentary, however, is lost amid the numerous explicit and vile scenes. “The Brothers Grimsby” shows Cohen’s humor at its adolescent worst, leaving its viewers bored, queasy and unimpressed.
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