The Brothers Grimsby is in my top 10 for the year. This sort of inappropriate comedy done right should be celebrated. It commits so hard to being inappropriate and never backs down, even if it’s not for you, you should appreciate how it does what it does on an aesthetic level.
I got a MacGrubery vibe which you should know is high praise. It’s taboo, it’s politically incorrect, it’s disrespectful and all with a love for the buttons it’s pushing. They had me at the Daniel Radcliffe joke. I could not believe how it kept going. I feel the filmmakers love and celebrate Radcliffe and it’s an honor to be the most wholesome star they could put in this situation.
Or maybe I’m overanalyzing. Maybe it’s just the most expensive dick jokes ever. No actor sells a tea bagging like Mark Strong. It tops the rhino scene in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and the elephant scene in Freddy Got Fingered. I realize those are both movies people don’t like so I get it, maybe that’s not a selling point. Or maybe The Brothers Grimsby is taking it back!
The Brothers Grimsby looks like real spy movie and the Mark Strong action is incredible. Ilya Naishuller advised on the first person sequences and it shows. It’s not a Hardcore Henry ripoff because first person is incorporated into a larger sequence. It also fulfills the legacy of Hardcore Henry because filmmakers like Louis Leterrier can use it as a tool and build on it. They properly utilize Scott Adkins as a villain too. Adkins gets to kick and Sacha Baron Cohen’s insult to him made me laugh out loud. It’s kind of true in a way that lovingly roasts my hero Adkins.
The Blu-ray looks as great as any James Bond movie. Not like a Bourne movie because it actually lets it’s scenes be colorful. It’s international with epic sights in Africa and Chile. It’s also part British pub comedy so it can be dingy, greasy and sweaty.
The gag reel shows a stunt dummy land in an incredible position. Alternate lines and deleted scenes are not as funny as what made the cut although to see the elephant scene go on even longer is sort of a performance art piece. Behind the scenes show incredible craftsmanship going into some of the basest jokes. Thats why The Brothers Grimsby works, because those ridiculous absurd jokes are given the same gravitas as a “serious” action movie.
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