Grimsby (film)

Plot

"Nobby" Butcher has been separated from his brother Sebastian for 28 years. During the years of separation, Nobby has become an alcoholic and has started his own life with his wife Dawn and 11 children in the English seaport town of Grimsby.

Sebastian (now Sebastian Graves) has become one of MI6's top agents. After completing an interrogation, Sebastian comes into information regarding philanthropist Rhonda George, who is hosting a benefit called WorldCure and is a potential target for assassination, and is assigned to go. Nobby's pub friends also find out that his brother will be at WorldCure and convince Nobby to go and reconnect with him. Sebastian goes to the event and sees a hitman, later known as Pavel Lukashenko, who plans to assassinate Rhonda with a gun disguised as a video camera. As Sebastian prepares to shoot the camera, Nobby sees him and gives him a hug, accidentally causing him to shoot a Jewish-Palestinian boy with AIDS named Schlomo. The spray of blood lands in Daniel Radcliffe's mouth, giving him AIDS.

The brothers go on the run from the authorities and other assassins, with Sebastian breaking his ankle in the process. Despite Sebastian's protests, Nobby convinces him it would be best to hide at his home in Grimsby. Meanwhile, MI6 believes that Sebastian has gone rogue. The MI6 send orders to an assassin named Chilcott to track Sebastian down. However, Sebastian calls his handler Jodie and proclaims his innocence.

Chilcott and his men find the two brothers at a pub. Sebastian and Nobby spot them and run away with help from the pub clientele, but Sebastian is hit with two Lonomia poison darts in the process. Nobby is forced to first suck the poison out of his brother's shoulder and then his testicles to save him.

The brothers travel to South Africa, after Jodie informs Sebastian that Lukashenko was doing a deal with Joris Smit in Tshukaru Bush Lodge. Sebastian accidentally injects himself with heroin, mistaking it for the bone strengthening treatment for his broken ankle. Nobby must assume his identity and go undercover.

Nobby tries to seduce Joris's wife Lina, but first seduces the wrong woman named Banu the Cleaner and is then interrupted by Joris and his two men. Sebastian arrives and saves Nobby. Lina tells them that Lukashenko bought some sort of virus, but she is fatally shot by Chilcott and his men from a distance before she gives any further information. To outrun Chilcott's men, the brothers hide inside an elephant's vagina, but in the process they become trapped inside after a male elephant begins having sexual intercourse with it. As they wash off afterwards, Sebastian asks why Nobby abandoned him as a child. Nobby explains that Sebastian's adoptive parents only wanted to adopt one of the brothers but were unable to decide, and he ran away so Sebastian could have a better life.

The two brothers travel to Santiago, Chile, the venue of football game final between England and Germany. They realise that the syndicate plans to unleash their weapon upon a football match in the area, but the syndicate captures Sebastian. Rhonda visits the captured Sebastian and tells him her plans to launch the virus—called WorldCure—into the arena via fireworks. Nobby finally finds Sebastian, but he is intercepted by Lukashenko. Lukashenko overpowers Nobby, but he obtains Lukashenko's gun and shoots him in the head. He easily kills the other henchmen before rescuing Sebastian.

The brothers go back to the arena and spot Rhonda. While Nobby tries to intercept Rhonda, Chilcott attempts to kill Sebastian, but Nobby's kids throw Schlomo's wheelchair at him, knocking him over and impaling on a helmet. Nobby obtains a gun and spotted Rhonda running through the arena. He goes after her. In the meantime, Raheem Sterling in the final match between England and Germany attempts a shot from a distance, however, the shot was going wide. Nobby shot the ball and it conveniently deflected into the goal. Nobby also shot the referee who's going to disallow the goal, resulting in England winning the match. Nobby then tries to shoot Rhonda but his gun jams and he realises he must stop the fireworks himself. He sits on one of the fireworks containing the virus; Sebastian sits on the other at the last minute, reaffirming his brotherhood with Nobby. The fireworks go off with the two atop them and the brothers are knocked unconscious upon landing. Nobby's gun goes off and hits Daniel Radcliffe, whose infectious blood spills onto Donald Trump's mouth.

It is reported that Rhonda is arrested, the Grimsby brothers "died" after saving the world, and Donald Trump has AIDS. Schlomo is in custody after "killing" Chilcott. The brothers are actually recovering in the hospital. Jodie visits and gives them new identities, informing them that the virus did not affect them because its antidote is elephant semen. Nobby's family also visits them.

In the final scene, eight weeks later, Nobby and Sebastian are on a mission in Jakarta, Indonesia. On a boat, Nobby is approached by a team of gunmen, who he quickly kills. He reaches Sebastian, who asks him if he's met the team; Nobby realises too late that the gunmen were his team.

In a post credit scene the brothers are in a car and stop to ask a man for directions to the stadium, after receiving directions Nobby shoots the man saying 'leave no witnesses', disturbing Sebastian.

Cast

Development

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. It 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.

Casting

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.

Filming

Principal photography of the film commenced on 4 June 2014, 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 street.

Release

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.

Box office

Grimsby grossed $6.9 million in North America and $18.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $25 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." After its opening weekend, the film was deemed a box office bomb by numerous publications.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 37%, based on 124 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 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.