Words Jarred Tito
Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Rebel Wilson and Penélope Cruz make up an unlikely star trio in this crude yet hilarious action comedy Directed by Louis Leterrier. It’s not a film to be taken seriously so don’t expect to be moved to any kind of tears excepts for the ones when you’re laughing your a** off. Yes Cohen, as you might expect, takes comedy to the very limits of what is acceptable and what is purely disturbing and manages to rap it all up into a great big steaming pile of …. laugh out louds. Unlike Bruno that certainly crossed the line of crude humour into just plain crude, Grimsby takes the audience right up to the acceptable edge. It had me cringing every other minute but equally laughing inwardly for most of the movie and out loud when I was caught off guard.
There are genuine funny bits in this movie that should be recognised as pure and unashamed humour which I have not seen since the likes of since Borat. Having said that, this is not a guerrilla crew shooting under the radar, but a cleverly written script. And by script I don’t mean the cleverly written ‘three act play’ but the cleverly written jokes and gags. I think there must be a least one gag a minute which is a testament to who much work has gone into the picture.
In a nut shell I would probably describe this this movie as a visual outworking of a gifted stand-up comedian’s tall tale. I thought that in terms of the emotions effect it had on me and on the audience that I shared the viewing with, that it is easily the funniest movie I have had the pleasure in watching for a long time. Two thumbs up from me.