First Take: Grimsby- an underrated and undervalued film

SYPNOSIS: MI6’s top assassin (Mark Strong) has a brother. Unfortunately for him, he’s an English football supporter (Sacha Baron Cohen) from the town of Grimsby. Nobby has everything a man from the poor English fishing town of Grimsby could want - 9 children and the most attractive girlfriend in northern England (Rebel Wilson). There’s only one thing missing in his life: his little brother, Sebastian. After they were adopted by different families as children, Nobby spent 28 years searching for him. Upon hearing of his location, Nobby sets off to reunite with his brother, unaware that not only is his brother an MI6 agent, but he’s just uncovered a plot that puts the world in danger. On the run and wrongfully accused, Sebastian realizes that if he is going to save the world, he will need the help of its biggest idiot.

The critics haven’t been very kind to this film, but that doesn’t surprise me- Grimsby is a film aimed for a teenage audience. The typical Sacha Baron Cohen humour is there, with many scenes warranting a NSFW label. The script is funny, with Louis Leterrier’s direction aiding the action sequences of the film very nicely, whilst also getting some brilliant performances from Baron Cohen and Mark Strong. It’s shot very well, the music and soundtrack are very well chosen, and the film as a whole delivers the humour that audiences want to see from a film featuring the man who brought us Ali G and Borat. A very good film, but it suffers very small and minute narrative problems. But then again, comedy is a tough genre to master.

RATING: 4/5

6 LAUGH TEST: PASS