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The Brothers Grimsby

MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA) for strong crude sexual content, graphic nudity, violence, language, and some drug use.
Moral Rating: not reviewed
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Action Spy Comedy Spoof
Length: 1 hr. 23 min.
Year of Release: 2016
USA Release: March 11, 2016 (wide—2,000+ theaters)
DVD: June 21, 2016
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Relevant Issues

About spies in the Bible

Vulgarity in movies

About drunkenness in the Bible

According to iMdb, “A number of residents of Grimsby [England] were angry with Cohen portraying their town as a rubbish-strewn, violent ghetto in which drunks urinate from windows and mothers hand children cans of beer in the street. …Once this film was announced, the mayor of Grimsby produced a promotional film showing that Grimsby was in fact a nice place to live, and not as depicted in Cohen's movie.”

Featuring Sacha Baron CohenNorman 'Nobby' Grimsby
Mark StrongAgent Sebastian Grimsby
Isla FisherMargaret
Penélope Cruz (Penelope Cruz) … Rhonda George
Rebel WilsonLindsey
Annabelle Wallis … Marianne
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Director Louis Leterrier — “Now You See Me” (2013)
Producer Big Talk Productions
Columbia Pictures
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Distributor Distributor: Columbia Pictures. Trademark logo.Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “MI6’s top assassin (Mark Strong) has a brother. Unfortunately for him, he's an English football hooligan (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.”

Violence: Extreme / Profanity: Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Extreme

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Negative
Negative—I was invited to this movie by a friend. He thought he was treating me to a light comedy, it was anything but. Why, oh why, does an obviously intelligent and talented Sacha Baron Cohen think he has to resort to such a sophomoric gutter level in order to entertain? He could have taken the basic clever story line and made it into a sophisticated amusing film for all audiences—but he didn’t. What a complete and awful waste. Let’s cut to the quick.… I can describe this film in three words: Dis-gust-ing!
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3
Leonardo, age 74 (USA)
Movie Critics
…this is the least funny alter ego Cohen has ever inhabited. …an abundance of gross-out, orificial humour… [1/4]
Chris Knight, National Post
…rude, low-brow fun… the bulk of the film is a comedy about class differences, punctuated at regular intervals by gross-out gags involving bodily orifices and fluids. … [2½/4]
Rene Rodriguez, The Miami Herald
…a film featuring jokes about pedophilia, AIDS and people being accidentally anally penetrated by all manner of strange objects. …bawdy penetration gags run right through the film…
Leslie Felperin, Variety
…extreme gross-out content and casually bloody, video-game-style action… spottily crass, sometimes cruel results. …it remains to be seen, however, just how many HIV-AIDS jokes auds are willing to laugh at in an otherwise sparsely filled 82 minutes. …
Guy Lodge, Variety
…gags fall flat in cod-Bond caper… The Ali G and Borat creator shows little of his anarchic brilliance in this tame comedy, which is just kept from flatlining by moments of high-impact grossout… [2/5]
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK)
…truly shameless… starts out with a Bill Cosby jab and steamrolls on from there. …the big joke is someone [Trump] getting a disease… then there’s a joke about pedophiles at Legoland…
Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press
…plenty of shocks, just not enough laughs…
Tom Gliatto, People magazine
…It may occasionally shock a laugh from you, but between those moments your face will be a rictus of horror. …
Helen O'Hara, Empire [UK]

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