Back in the late ‘90s, when Da Ali G Show pulled in big ratings and before the Kazakh clown Borat spun off with his own film, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was arguably the funniest man in Britain, if you didn’t count Boris Johnson (the outgoing mayor of London). In the wake of the disappointment that was 2012’s The Dictator, The Brothers Grimsby (which will be called just Grimsby when it opens in the U.K. on Feb. 24) provides further evidence that Baron Cohen, having embarked on a career as a straight actor, is perhaps going a bit soft in his middle age. And that’s not something one says lightly about a film featuring jokes about pedophilia, AIDS and people being accidentally anally penetrated by all manner of strange objects.
Indeed, although bawdy penetration gags run right through the film, there’s considerably less of the incisive satirical skewering that distinguished Baron Cohen’s early work. It’s possible that what’s changed isn’t the writer-producer-star himself so much, but the industry and the social climate, making it harder to finance films that are authentically risky and potentially hugely offensive. It’s almost inconceivable now, with the way things are when it comes to representation, especially in the U.S., that a white Jewish man could get away with playing a racially ambiguous character like Ali G, who achieved comedy immortality back in 1999 with the line, “Is it because I is black?”
Today, Baron Cohen is more contained and circumspect, confined to making jokes mostly about genitals and excrement. That kind of body humor was always in his repertoire in the old days (think of the epic naked tussle with Ken Davitian in Borat, for instance). What’s significantly missing here is any spontaneous interactions with unsuspecting members of the public, the comedy of cruelty and irony that was always his strongest suit. Meanwhile, even a cursory survey of trailers on YouTube suggests that some of The Brothers Grimsby’s sharper, crueler lines have been cut, and like every third movie off the production lines above a certain budget, big chunks of it look like a shooter-style computer game, necessitated by a script that casts Mark Strong (best known, despite his triumphs on the stage, for his character work in Kick-Ass and Kingsman: The Secret Service) as super-spy Sebastian Grimsby, reunited after a 28-year separation with long-lost brother Nobby (Baron Cohen). Perhaps producer-distributors Sony, famously burnt so badly recently with the backfiring satire of The Interview, plan to spin a game out of this for the PlayStation platform.
Distributor: Sony
Production companies: Four by Two Films, Working Title, Big Talk Pictures
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Rebel Wilson, Penélope Cruz, Isla Fisher, Gabourey Sidibe, Annabelle Wallis
Director: Louis Leterrier
Screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen, Phil Johnston, Peter Baynham, based on a story by Sacha Baron Cohen, Phil Johnston
Producers: Sacha Baron Cohen, Nira Park
Executive producers: Louise Rosner Meyer, Todd Schulman, Phil Johnston, Peter Baynham, James Biddle, Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan, Ant Hines, Adam McKay, Ben Waisbren
Director of photography: Oliver Wood
Editors: James Thomas, Jonathan Amos
Production designer: Kave Quinn
Costume designer: Paco Delgado
Music: Erran Baron Cohen, David Buckley
Casting: Lucy Bevan
Rated R, 83 minutes
Indeed, although bawdy penetration gags run right through the film, there’s considerably less of the incisive satirical skewering that distinguished Baron Cohen’s early work. It’s possible that what’s changed isn’t the writer-producer-star himself so much, but the industry and the social climate, making it harder to finance films that are authentically risky and potentially hugely offensive. It’s almost inconceivable now, with the way things are when it comes to representation, especially in the U.S., that a white Jewish man could get away with playing a racially ambiguous character like Ali G, who achieved comedy immortality back in 1999 with the line, “Is it because I is black?”
Today, Baron Cohen is more contained and circumspect, confined to making jokes mostly about genitals and excrement. That kind of body humor was always in his repertoire in the old days (think of the epic naked tussle with Ken Davitian in Borat, for instance). What’s significantly missing here is any spontaneous interactions with unsuspecting members of the public, the comedy of cruelty and irony that was always his strongest suit. Meanwhile, even a cursory survey of trailers on YouTube suggests that some of The Brothers Grimsby’s sharper, crueler lines have been cut, and like every third movie off the production lines above a certain budget, big chunks of it look like a shooter-style computer game, necessitated by a script that casts Mark Strong (best known, despite his triumphs on the stage, for his character work in Kick-Ass and Kingsman: The Secret Service) as super-spy Sebastian Grimsby, reunited after a 28-year separation with long-lost brother Nobby (Baron Cohen). Perhaps producer-distributors Sony, famously burnt so badly recently with the backfiring satire of The Interview, plan to spin a game out of this for the PlayStation platform.
Distributor: Sony
Production companies: Four by Two Films, Working Title, Big Talk Pictures
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Rebel Wilson, Penélope Cruz, Isla Fisher, Gabourey Sidibe, Annabelle Wallis
Director: Louis Leterrier
Screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen, Phil Johnston, Peter Baynham, based on a story by Sacha Baron Cohen, Phil Johnston
Producers: Sacha Baron Cohen, Nira Park
Executive producers: Louise Rosner Meyer, Todd Schulman, Phil Johnston, Peter Baynham, James Biddle, Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan, Ant Hines, Adam McKay, Ben Waisbren
Director of photography: Oliver Wood
Editors: James Thomas, Jonathan Amos
Production designer: Kave Quinn
Costume designer: Paco Delgado
Music: Erran Baron Cohen, David Buckley
Casting: Lucy Bevan
Rated R, 83 minutes
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