Grimsby (film)
Grimsby | |
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![]() British release poster
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Directed by | Louis Leterrier |
Produced by |
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Screenplay by |
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Starring |
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Music by | |
Cinematography | Oliver Wood |
Edited by |
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Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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83 minutes[1] |
Country |
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Language | English |
Budget | $35 million[3] |
Box office | $25.2 million[4] |
Grimsby (released in the United States as The Brothers Grimsby) is a 2016 British-American 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.
Contents
Plot[edit]
"Nobby" Butcher (Sacha Baron Cohen) has been separated from his brother Sebastian (Mark Strong) for 28 years. During the years of separation, Nobby has become an alcoholic and has started his own life with his wife Dawn (Rebel Wilson) 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 (Penélope Cruz), 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 (Scott Adkins), 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 (Sam Hazeldine) 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 (Nick Boraine) 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 (Gabourey Sidibe) 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 realize 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 realizes 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 realizes 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[edit]
- Sacha Baron Cohen as Norman "Nobby" Butcher, a British Football hooligan and the older brother of Sebastian.
- Mark Strong as Coddy / Commander Sebastian Graves, the best MI6 agent to date and the younger brother of Nobby.[5]
- Isla Fisher as Jodie Figgs[6]
- Rebel Wilson as Dawn Grobham, Nobby's wife and mother of his 11 children.[7]
- Penélope Cruz as Rhonda George, an actress who wants to help cure the world of disease.[8]
- Gabourey Sidibe as Banu,[9] a South African hotel maid
- Annabelle Wallis as Lina Smit[10]
- Ian McShane as Commander Ledford [9]
- David Harewood as Black Gareth[9]
- John Thomson as Bob Tolliver [11]
- Ricky Tomlinson as Paedo Pete
- Johnny Vegas as Milky Pimms[9]
- Scott Adkins as Lukashenko
- Sam Hazeldine as Chilcott
- Barkhad Abdi as Tabansi Nyagura
- Tamsin Egerton as Carla Barnes
- Raheem Sterling as himself
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
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.[12] 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.[13] On 3 December 2013, Louis Leterrier was set to direct.[14]
Casting[edit]
On 24 April 2014, Mark Strong joined the film to play a British black-ops spy and brother of Baron Cohen's character.[5] On 25 April, Annabelle Wallis joined the cast of the film.[10] On 11 June, Ian McShane, Gabourey Sidibe, David Harewood, and Johnny Vegas joined the cast.[9] On 12 June, Baron Cohen's wife Isla Fisher joined him in the film to play a supporting role.[6] The same day, Rebel Wilson joined the cast,[7] and on 9 July, Penélope Cruz joined the film's cast.[8]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography of the film commenced on 4 June 2014, at North Weald railway station, and around the Epping Forest area in Essex, England.[15][16] The shooting lasted for six weeks in the UK and then moved to South Africa.[17] On 3 July, comedian Eric Idle tweeted a photo from the set with Baron Cohen.[18] On 10–11 July, Baron Cohen was filming Grimsby in Tilbury, which was turned into 1980s Grimsby.[19] On 14 July, Baron Cohen and Strong were spotted filming some scenes for the film in the streets.[20] 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.[21]
Release[edit]
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.[22]
On 21 January 2015, the film's U.S. release date was moved back to 26 February 2016.[23] The film was then scheduled to be released on 4 March 2016, but was again moved back, to 11 March 2016.[24]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
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.[4]
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.[25][26] 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.”[3][27] 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."[28] After its opening weekend, the film was deemed a box office bomb by numerous publications.[29]
Critical response[edit]
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."[30] Metacritic gave the film a score of 44 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[31] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[32]
References[edit]
- ^ "GRIMSBY (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 10 February 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
- ^ "Grimsby (2016)". British Film Institute. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
- ^ a b "Friday Box Office: '10 Cloverfield Lane' Adds $9M To Its Mystery Box, 'Brothers Grimsby' Bombs". Forbes.com.
- ^ a b "The Brothers Grimsby (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
- ^ a b Fleming Jr, Mike (24 April 2014). "Mark Strong Joins Sacha Baron Cohen In Sony Comedy 'Grimsby'". deadline.com. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
- ^ a b Sneider, Jeff (12 June 2014). "Isla Fisher Joins Husband Sacha Baron Cohen in Sony's Spy Spoof 'Grimsby'". thewrap.com. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
- ^ a b "Rebel Wilson Joins Sacha Baron Cohen in Sony's 'Grimsby' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
- ^ a b "Penelope Cruz Joins Sacha Baron Cohen in Spy Comedy 'Grimsby' (Exclusive)". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
- ^ a b c d e "Sacha Baron Cohen's 'Grimsby' Adds Ian McShane and More". /Film. 10 June 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
- ^ a b NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor. "Annabelle Wallis Joins Sacha Baron Cohen Comedy 'Grimsby'". Deadline.com. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3381008/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
- ^ NewsdeskGy (9 October 2013). "Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen watches Grimsby Town at Blundell Park". Grimsby Telegraph. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
- ^ Telegraph, Grimsby (4 December 2013). "Louis Leterrier to direct Sacha Baron Cohen in Paramount's spy spoof 'Grimsby'". Grimsby Telegraph. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
- ^ Kit, Borys (3 December 2013). "Louis Leterrier to Direct Sacha Baron Cohen in Spy Spoof 'Grimsby'". Retrieved 25 April 2014.
- ^ "Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie Grimsby is currently shooting in Epping Forest". radiotimes.com. 4 June 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
- ^ Reason, Matt (4 June 2014). "Sacha Baron Cohen filming at North Weald Station for new film Grimsby". brentwoodgazette.co.uk. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
- ^ "Shooting begins on new Sacha Baron Cohen film Grimsby". Grimsby Telegraph. 4 June 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
- ^ "First Look: Sacha Baron Cohen's Shaggy Soccer Hooligan in 'Grimsby'". twitter.com. 3 July 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
- ^ "Sacha Baron Cohen in Tilbury shooting new film". echo-news.co.uk. 10 July 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
- ^ Ellis-Petersen, Hannah; Child, Ben (14 July 2014). "Grim outlook for Grimsby as Sacha Baron Cohen sets comedy in town". theguardian.com. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
- ^ Galvin, Nick (15 July 2014). "Sacha Baron Cohen film outrages residents of UK town of Grimsby". smh.com.au. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
- ^ Fleming, Mike. "UPDATE: Sacha Baron Cohen Hails Leo's 'Wolf' Hooker Anus Coke-Snorting In Paramount Re-Up, As 'Grimsby' Moves To Sony". Deadline.com. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
- ^ "Southpaw Set for July 31st Release; Sacha Baron Cohen Comedy Pushed to 2016". Collider. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- ^ Evry, Max. "The Brothers Grimsby". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
- ^ "'Zootopia' Turnstiles Still Spinning, But '10 Cloverfield Lane' Also A Hot Destination – Box Office Preview". deadline.com.
- ^ Scott Mendelson (March 12, 2016). "Friday Box Office: '10 Cloverfield Lane' Adds $9M To Its Mystery Box, 'Brothers Grimsby' Bombs". Forbes. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
- ^ "Why 'The Brothers Grimsby' Is Sacha Baron Cohen's Grimmest Box Office Yet". deadline.com.
- ^ Lang, Brent. "Box Office: 'Zootopia' Rules With $50 Million, Sacha Baron Cohen's 'Brothers Grimsby' Bombs". Variety. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
- ^ "Box Office: 'Brothers Grimsby' Flopped Because It Looked Like A Bad Movie". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
- ^ "The Brothers Grimsby (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
- ^ "The Brothers Grimsby reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
- ^ Anthony D'Alessandro (2016-03-14). "'Zootopia' Beats '10 Cloverfield Lane' At Box Office, 'Brothers Grimsby' Grim". Deadline. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
External links[edit]
- 2016 films
- English-language films
- 2010s action films
- 2010s comedy films
- British action comedy films
- British films
- British sports comedy films
- Columbia Pictures films
- Films directed by Louis Leterrier
- Films produced by Eric Fellner
- Films set in Chile
- Films set in Indonesia
- Films set in Lincolnshire
- Films set in London
- Films set in South Africa
- Films shot from the first-person perspective
- Films shot in England
- Films shot in Essex
- Films shot in South Africa
- Films about terrorism
- Grimsby
- HIV/AIDS in film
- Bioterrorism in fiction
- Spy comedy films
- Village Roadshow Pictures films