Grimsby Movie Review

Grimsby (released in the United States as The Brothers Grimsby) is a 2016 British–American spy action comedy film directed by Louis Leterrier and written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Phil Johnston, and Peter Baynham.

The film stars Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Rebel Wilson, Isla Fisher, Annabelle Wallis, Gabourey Sidibe, Penélope Cruz, and Ian McShane. It was released by Columbia Pictures on 24 February 2016 in the United Kingdom and 11 March 2016 in the United States.

Nobby (Sacha Baron Cohen) has everything a man from the poor English fishing town of Grimsby could want: 11 children and the most attractive girlfriend in northern England. There's only one thing missing in his life: his little brother, Sebastian (Mark Strong). 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.

    Sacha Baron Cohen as Carl Allen "Nobby" Butcher, a British football hooligan and the older brother of Sebastian.

    Mark Strong as Agent Sebastian Graves, the best MI6 agent to date and the younger brother of Nobby.

    Isla Fisher as Jodie Figgs

    Rebel Wilson as Dawn Grobham, Nobby's wife and mother of his 11 children.

    Penélope Cruz as Rhonda George, an actress who wants to help cure the world of disease.

    Gabourey Sidibe as Banu,a South African hotel maid

    Annabelle Wallis as Marianne Smit

    Ian McShane as the MI6 Head

    David Harewood as Black Gareth

    Ricky Tomlinson as Paedo Pete

    Johnny Vegas as Milky Pimms

    Scott Adkins as Lukashenko

    Sam Hazeldine as Chilcott

In October 2013, Sacha Baron Cohen was spotted attending a football match between Grimsby Town and Cambridge United. Baron Cohen, who was dressed in a Grimsby shirt, was also spotted talking with Town fans in a nearby pub after the game.t was later confirmed that he was scouting towns for the film, and had also checked out Scunthorpe, Hull and Newcastle in order to find inspiration for his new role.On 3 December 2013, Louis Leterrier was set to direct.

On 24 April 2014, Mark Strong joined the film to play a British black-ops spy and brother of Baron Cohen's character.On 25 April, Annabelle Wallis joined the cast of the film. On 11 June, Ian McShane, Gabourey Sidibe, David Harewood, and Johnny Vegas joined the cast.On 12 June, Baron Cohen's wife Isla Fisher joined him in the film to play a supporting role.The same day, Rebel Wilson joined the cast,and on 9 July, Penélope Cruz joined the film's cast.

Principal photography of the film commenced on 4 June, at North Weald railway station, and around the Epping Forest area in Essex, England.The shooting lasted for six weeks in the UK and then moved to South Africa. On 3 July, comedian Eric Idle tweeted a photo from the set with Baron Cohen. On 10–11 July, Baron Cohen was filming Grimsby in Tilbury, which was turned into 1980s Grimsby. On 14 July, Baron Cohen and Strong were spotted filming some scenes for the film in the streets.A number of residents of Grimsby were angry with Baron 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 streeta

On 13 February 2014, the film moved from Paramount Pictures to Columbia Pictures, and it was announced that the film would be released in the U.S. on 31 July 2015.

On 21 January 2015, the film's U.S. release date was moved back to 26 February 2016. The film was then scheduled to be released on 4 March 2016, but was again moved back, to 11 March 2016.

As of 15 March 2016, Grimsby has grossed $4 million in North America and $12.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $16.4 million, against a budget of $35 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film opened on 11 March 2016 alongside 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Young Messiah and The Perfect Match. It was originally projected to gross $7–8 million in its opening weekend, however, after grossing just $1.2 million on its opening day, estimates were lowered to $3–4 million. It ended up grossing $3.3 million in its opening weekend, finishing 8th at the box office. Forbes attributed the film's poor opening to its British content and marketing tactics alienating American audiences, much like Eddie the Eagle several weeks prior, with Deadline.com adding some possibly saw the film as Baron Cohen "doing the same shtick.” Sony Pictures' distribution head said, "[We] certainly wanted more... we tried to crack the code on it, but it just didn't happen for us.

The film has received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 37%, based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 4.7/10. The site's consensus reads, "The Brothers Grimsby showers viewers with a steady stream of Sacha Baron Cohen's edgy humor, but too many gags hit the wrong side of the line between audacious and desperate." Metacritic gave the film a score of 44 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.