Film Review: Grimsby

"It's An Elephant Bukakkee!"

Halfway though Grimsby, the new comedy from the warped mind of one Sacha Baron Cohen, I remembered quite vividly how the satirical undercurrent of Borat, the more-than controversial piece of cinema which attempted to upset everyone from the Jewish community to American feminists, saved the film from swaying into simple bad taste, with Cohen's standpoint on the strange society of the USA being the fundamental notion at the heart of the comedic elements throughout the film. One of the most startling scenes in Borat is when our titular character ventures into the rodeo-ridden area of the south and speaks to a range of people voicing their rather right-wing opinions regarding everything from the strangeness of homosexuality to the war on terror. It's a surreal scene, one that portrays a old-fashioned society with a fundamental set of norms and values that are inherently wrong. Enter Grimsby, a film that shows what Borat may have indeed become, a film, which although believes it is some sort of standpoint regarding the culture of the working class, is indeed a film rife with bad taste. That doesn't mean it isn't funny though. 

Although Grimsby is undeniably and fundamentally a shoddy movie, one that consists of ear-scraping dialogue and cringe-worthy plot developments, the set pieces which attempt to out-gross one another as they come along during the films' more then generous 90 minute runtime have a stark repulsiveness of which I have to admit I couldn't help but laugh at. The infamous elephant scene for example is a five minute vision of vulgarity, one that although inherently reeks in bad taste, is so over-the-top and ridiculous that in a strange subverted kind of way, you have to admire its' wrongfulness. It's not offensive in a Borat style comedic element, its' just plain wrong, much like the existence of the film itself. Albeit's sheer ludicrous script, celebrity cameos and archaic treatment of the female characters within the film, Grimsby still manages to come off as strangely mediocre, neither awful, neither good, just here to make up the box office top ten within the week of Oscar supremacy. Grimsby is like a fart in the wind; repulsive to begin with yet slowly evaporating into non-existence. Sacha Baron Cohen's latest isn't the worst way to spend 90 minutes, it just isn't the best either. 

Overall Score: 5/10