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Episode 106: Grimsby featuring Al Bates
91 Plays26 days ago
Al Bates is back and he's brought something that left a real impression the first time, Grimsby (2016) a.k.a. The Brothers Grimsby. Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t doing his usual routine of playing an exaggerated caricature around real people attempting to get heightened reactions, this time he’s just a soccer hooligan that teams up with his long-lost brother (Mark Strong) who happens to be an MI6 spy. Full of gross out/extreme humor, this Louis Leterrier comedy did better outside of the US upon release, but it didn’t really light any fires, except in the hearts of the few who have enough sense to just laugh at fake genitals, human or non-human. Certainly a film that has made strong choices that causes strong reactions, we’re getting into it all today, so tune in!
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast & Hosts
00:00:27
Speaker
That you would, that you could And you know that you should Yes, you know that you should
00:00:40
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to your favorite bad movie podcast. It's the only podcast that's brave enough to ask the question, if this movie's so bad, why do you like it so much?
00:00:51
Speaker
We're your hosts. My name is Chris Anderson, and with me, as always, I have the, let's say, i guess we're go to go with the Rebel Wilson's character to my knobby, my lovely wife, Anna. How are you, my dove? Hello.
00:01:09
Speaker
I'm okay. I'm sorry that you were Rebel Wilson's character. It's okay. I'll be honest. Seeing this movie did make me think that, you know, as as little as I care for her shtick, I am sorry that she got skinny.
00:01:27
Speaker
Yeah. That is unfortunate. Yeah, it's shame. ah Also unfortunate, we do not have my ah wonderful co-host, Mr. Greg Bossy, the Sebastian to my nobe. could not make it.
00:01:43
Speaker
But we do have with us a very special guest ah returning for the third time, our latest member of the Three Timers Club. ah But today he's going to be our own personal Penelope Cruz. It's Mr.
Selecting 'Grimsby' for Discussion
00:01:59
Speaker
Al Bates.
00:02:00
Speaker
Hello. ah That was my Spanish accent. yeah penelvi cru spanish Home run. I should probably check that, by the way. Yeah, I think she's like Spain Spanish, if I remember correctly. Yeah, like, how bar damn I always thought he was i thought he was Mexican until like very recently. it turns out they're both like yeah actually crazy Spanish Spanish.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, same thing when I was in high school with the Antonio Banderas, because, you know, he breaks down Desperado. You're like, oh, yeah, that's a big deal. right. Yeah, no. Of course. course. I wonder how actors like Diego Luna feel like about that. It's like, hey, you guys stealing our roles.
00:02:36
Speaker
I'm sure it's very complicated. That's right. I think we're the people to... Yeah, let's unpack that. Let's speculate. Right. Right.
00:02:47
Speaker
Well, listeners, this week we watched the movie Grimsby, a.k.a. The Brothers Grimsby. If you haven't seen either of them, here's just a brief summary of the film to hold in your mind.
00:03:08
Speaker
An English soccer hooligan named Nabi reunites with his long-lost brother, who's grown up to be a super spy. Together, the two of them embark on the greatest adventure of all, brotherhood.
00:03:23
Speaker
They also get fucked by elephants.
00:03:28
Speaker
They certainly do. They really absolutely do. They really do. When 100% happens in this film, they literally, quite literally, get fucked by a chain of elephants.
00:03:42
Speaker
Yes. And yeah, that that that might be a cinematic high for me. that That is, I think. That's fair. Yeah. yeah Well, Al, you chose this week's movie.
00:03:57
Speaker
That's right. Yeah. Why did you choose Grimsby? Okay. So we had a bit of back and forward for maybe about, I don't know. You asked me maybe six weeks ago and not to get too inside baseball here. but um No, no. We love to ah part the curtains. Totally. And I, for about four weeks, was just like, oh, what what can I do? What can we do?
00:04:23
Speaker
And we floated a couple of movies. We floated Don't Mess With The Zohan, which ah yeah i think kind of- felt like with the situation in the Middle East. I was like, Zohan, I don't want to tap dance around that the whole time. Yeah, no, I think that was a very good- good call on not doing that uh there could also be like you know actual repercussions to me at work if we touch that movie yeah yeah let's just you know let's just not do that yeah that's discretion is the better part of valor absolutely and i think we settled on ali g into house um initially um because that's a that is also you know
00:05:03
Speaker
I do wish we, in hindsight now, I do wish we did that movie. That movie is fantastic. Understandable. um But we chose Grimsby because about a week ago I saw the Johnny Ryan movie, Fuck My Son, which it's not a movie I can recommend, but I will say it is the hardest I've laughed at something in like a very very long time it it it is just it's funny how those go hand in hand sometimes totally totally like i i like i can't remember the last time i saw so many people walk out of a cinema i saw maybe six or seven people get out of their chairs and just make a beeline for the door um there was a moment in fuck my son where i fully disassociated and like i was laughing so hard
00:05:52
Speaker
um that I had an out-of-body experience and I was like, wow, who could who is laughing like that? who is and who Who is it? And then I could feel my body vibrating and that kind of brought me back to my body and made me realize that like I'm fucking dying of laughter. like i had I couldn't see the screen because I had tears just pouring down
Mixed Opinions on 'Grimsby'
00:06:10
Speaker
my face. I got to see it with some of my friends too. We we all kind of A few of us grew up reading those Johnny Ryan comics in like the back of Vice, and we all would buy a... I think we got Prison Pit. Is that it? Prison Pit is the... Yeah, he did that. He did like... yeah A whole bunch of things that we I think it's probably safer for us not to talk about the titles of, but... now But he's very Google-able. If you like sort of underground comics, that it was in sort of the crumb tradition, I want to say.
00:06:39
Speaker
yeah absolutely. so So it was, you know, it was a great experience seeing that with a whole bunch of friends. And I realized I hadn't laughed that hard at a movie ever. since I saw Grimsby in cinemas, which is an experience, very different to the experience I had of Fuck My Son. I saw Grimsby all by myself in 2016. I think maybe at 9.45 a.m. session because I was unemployed. Wow! What an experience!
00:07:07
Speaker
And I had nothing to do. literally woke up and was like, well, I guess I'll go see Grimsby all by myself. I like Sacha Baron Cohen and you know what harm is it going to be?
00:07:19
Speaker
And here we are. We chose Grimsby, which I i don't regret, but i you know I do think next time, I'm just going to say, next time, if I come back, hopefully you know you're not over terrible voice. Maybe first thought, best thought. I will say, I think last time I made you watch Megalopolis, so you know at least this is less than half the runtime of Megalopolis. Yes, this was a breezy 82 minutes. ah But I'll tell you, I felt a lot of those 82 minutes. I didn't.
00:07:49
Speaker
it it It started and then it ended. And I was like, wow, that was that was a quick 82 minutes. I think I was never a big like Sacha Baron Cohen guy.
00:08:01
Speaker
i remember seeing Borat in the theaters and I enjoyed it. But there's always a bit of a like a mean spiritedness to him that I kind of bounce off of. you know And i I remember when you came on for Ghoulies 3, Ghoulies Go to College, and you said, you know as soon as you saw the ghoulies come out of a magical toilet, you were kind of like, I'm out. This isn't this is my vibe.
00:08:23
Speaker
Yeah, totally. Yeah, exactly. I think, um yeah. I think when I saw him fucking Rebel Wilson with like his like ugly British vibe, i was just like, okay, I'm...
00:08:36
Speaker
I'm out. yeah i Definitely. you know And it's it's just that type of ah like crude humor has to be so like key targeted, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's it's very British sensibility, I think. It's kind of like what you see in Little Britain. but I don't know if that was over a sketch comedy show that made it over to the US, but that was... I think it has like a cult following here, but I never checked out.
00:09:01
Speaker
but Yeah. It's don't ever watch it. It's fucking terrible, but. um Fair enough. No problem. Yeah. I don't know. Anna, like, were you ever exposed to Sacha Baron Cohen outside of Borat? Did you have? a yeah Well, I did. i remember. i remember watching some of the allergy show.
00:09:24
Speaker
like renting the DVDs when I was living in Santa Fe when I was like 27, 28, which would be...
00:09:37
Speaker
oh Oh, like 2007, 2008-ish. um So i did I did watch those shows, and I did enjoy them at the time.
00:09:48
Speaker
um And I liked Borat. And I i i actually, while i didn't I didn't laugh at this very much... I think I liked it more than Chris.
Sacha Baron Cohen's Comedic Style
00:10:01
Speaker
Yeah. ah Simply because I spend, i i don't know, simply because I watch so many extreme horror movies that I'm kind of inured to seeing just like insane imagery that I've never seen before. So the whole elephant scene was just kind of like, well.
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah. But you know, I also, i watched a great, uh, Norwegian Cinderella adaptation this year that involved us ah the ugly stepsister of the title, like, you know, chopping off her toes. And that was great. That was great.
00:10:43
Speaker
So that's the sort of iron stomach you want to be bringing if you want to enjoy Grimsby, I feel. But I mean, obviously part of the point of it is that it's supposed to be shocking. You know what I mean? I'm not saying... Right. Yeah. And I'm not saying, like, this kind of movie shouldn't be released. It's more just like... No. Totally. you know And I mean, yeah, I definitely agree with you about the mean streak of Sacha Baron Cohen. I definitely think that's something I... That's more of it, I think. Definitely. I think that's something that, as I've gotten older, I also have found kind of quite...
00:11:21
Speaker
repellent and off-putting as well. Like, like i grew up loving Ali because, ah I don't know, that was just, it was on TV at the right age for me.
00:11:35
Speaker
Ali G also stands for Alistair Graham, which is my first and middle name. So i was like, wow, he's like me. ah Yeah, I just,
00:11:48
Speaker
the i i was kind of like ah I kind of loved pranks, and that was like a really... I loved pranks, I think. That's the right thing to say. um So, you know, that's when when Borat came out too, I was like, wow, this is hilarious. how But, you know, as you get older, you're kind of like, oh, that's actually quite psychopathic and in many ways. ah you have Yeah. Absolutely. And I think also just finding out that Sacha Baron Cohen is like...
00:12:16
Speaker
kind of actually an asshole in real life like he's not a fucking nice dude i think he's like quite a um you know i think there's perhaps um there's some controversies he has a controversy section on his wikipedia yeah absolutely um That's a way of putting it. I think finding out more about him and just seeing, you know, like all the stuff about how, I guess how it's quite, you know, Borat itself is quite Islamophobic. Like, you know, there's all the antisemitism jokes in it made by somebody who's like actually quite a devout,
00:12:56
Speaker
orthodox um a Jewish person who's framing these jokes as like something that Arabs and Muslims would say is, you know what I mean? Like there's like this kind of meta Islamophobia in it where it's, ah yeah, I think it's quite a racist fucking dude when you appear a little like, it's like, yeah, like there's just bad vibes in there somewhere. And as like the longer he sticks around, the more apparent the bad vibes become.
00:13:24
Speaker
Totally. But I mean, all you know I'm not going to act like I don't think it's not funny, though. like If you put four out in front of I'd definitely be like, this is fucking hilarious. I love this. No, I'd be laughing. But it's like one of those things where...
00:13:37
Speaker
you have to ask yourself, is the joke worth it? Do you know what I mean? yeah Like something can be funny, but still have bad vibes. Like a racist joke can be a funny joke, but you still shouldn't be telling it because it has bad vibes. It is racist. Totally. You know, totally. And, you know, and I think about how this compares to Freddie got fingered, which I think this has a lot in common with yeah specifically yeah the elephant ejaculate. Yeah.
00:14:10
Speaker
And i think the reason why it works so much better in Freddy Got Fingered is because it doesn't have that sort of mean streak to it. Totally. But it is quite a classist film.
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah. And we're going be talking about Freddy Got Fingered in a couple of weeks. I'm pretty excited. all fantastic. That's a favorite of mine as well. But you guys want to talk about the the context research I got for Grimsby here?
00:14:35
Speaker
Put a thing in its place.
00:14:48
Speaker
I wish I had some context about the background of the film. Script director, actors on set. What was going on on screen? I want to hear some details.
00:15:00
Speaker
Gossip,
Insights & Reception of 'Grimsby'
00:15:01
Speaker
scandal, all that shit. Can't imagine all the time.
00:15:16
Speaker
So Grimsby, a.k.a. the Brothers Grimsby, was released March 11th, 2016. And I think it was released in the States as the Brothers Grimsby because otherwise you'd end up thinking the main character was named Grimsby because every other Sacha Baron Cohen is named after the Sacha Baron Cohen character. Yeah.
00:15:36
Speaker
I'm not going to lie. I kept on wanting to call him Grimsby. Yeah, i I just call him Grimsby. I honestly thought he was called Grimsby. ah So your director is Louis Leterrier, and we got four taglines this time.
00:15:52
Speaker
One secret agent, one complete idiot. Fair enough. Sink? Behind every hero is an embarrassing sibling.
00:16:07
Speaker
Possibly not true. i don't doesn't I don't know. Needs another pass. I'm thinking Jimmy Carter had, what, Billy Carter? Jimmy Carter wasn't really a hero, though, was he? but ah I mean, he's a complicated figure, I think, but possibly the least problematic living president.
00:16:24
Speaker
Totally. well he said he He's dead. Oh, he died. yeah yeah that's fair enough That's a fair enough mistake to make. like yeah He lived a long fucking time. yeah He did. He did.
00:16:37
Speaker
ah This secret agent is the total package. I'm assuming on this poster he's wearing his bikini trunks. Mm-hmm. Or a last one, MI6 has a brand new tool.
00:16:53
Speaker
Possibly the same thing, or possibly they're just calling him a tool, we could say. Hmm. I don't know if Tool is ever really... Yeah, I don't know. yeah Is that used as a pejorative?
00:17:05
Speaker
Well, who knows where this is being marketed to? yeah that's true. yeah I'm trying to think if that would be used in like the UK. i don't know. Anyway, yeah sorry. No problem. And it's good to talk it out. Sacha Baron Cohen is one of the most widely acclaimed and talented comedic actors of his generation.
00:17:23
Speaker
He was born in London in 1971, and he would go on to attend Cambridge, where he would study history with a focus on anti-Semitism.
00:17:33
Speaker
He also became a member of the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, meaning that Baron Cohen is part of the proud English tradition of Oxbridge-educated boys making fun of poor people, just like his heroes in Monty Python.
00:17:48
Speaker
That's right. I didn't realize he was in the Footlights. Yeah. Was he in Footlights or the other one? i had him as the Cambridge University amateur dramatic. Right. OK.
00:18:02
Speaker
So he started off working in TV as a presenter and sketch comedian. He also worked briefly as a weatherman. ah But he broke out with his character, Ali G.,
00:18:14
Speaker
a suburban chav that would that he would use in scripted material, improvised scenes, man-on-the-street interactions, and most groundbreakingly, interviews of celebrities and politicians.
00:18:31
Speaker
With Ali G., Sasha Baron Cohen effectively combined The Tom Green Show, The Daily Show, The Goon Show, and Malibu's Most Wanted. So, and what do you guys think about Ali G., Big Picture?
00:18:46
Speaker
Iconic. Like, i think I think a lot of it still holds up. I think, you know, especially when it's the stuff where he's talking to, you know, Donald Rumsfeld or... Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think that stuff's really groundbreaking and impressive.
00:19:00
Speaker
I mean, our last episode, we had Brian Quimby on and his co-host, Chris James... from guys also does ah does and did like that kind of prank comedy of of calling you know conservative politicians on their personal cell phones and wasting their time yeah in comedic ways. you know it's ah It's a noble profession. um Yeah.
00:19:32
Speaker
I think the character himself is a little bit rough. wow in yeah It can be tough to to read who he's targeting that has been, like, with the sort of patois that he uses. So with Ali G, um a big part of it was, so there was this, um he's now disgraced, would you believe, but a now disgraced BBC presenter called Tim Westwood, who was he was the first ah British...
00:20:00
Speaker
radio host to host a show solely for rap and hip hop. And I guess traditionally, um you know, music made by people of color. And he was ah quite a,
00:20:16
Speaker
from a quite well-to-do background, like his father was a was quite high up in the Church of England, but he took on the the affectations of, you know, black youth from from America, despite having this really, like, posh kind of British accent. And Ali G, in in a way, was kind of a parody of of him. ah So I think that's, like, one thing that's kind of been lost in translation over all the years. Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:45
Speaker
where uh you know maybe 25 years ago in the uk that would have been like oh i see what he's doing he's making fun of tim westwood but now it's just like oh this is just a you know a white guy in fubu like uh you know yeah that's still funny as well um but yeah and once again still funny but yeah it's complicated you know it just makes it more complicated than i'd like my comedy you know i don't like to have to pick all this up apart yeah totally So Ali would get Baron Cohen his first starring film role in Ali G Into House.
00:21:23
Speaker
Ali G would also be Baron Cohen's ticket to America when HBO put out The Ali G Show in 2000, which earned six Emmy nominations over the course of his run. I think that was when Seth Rogen got his start as a writer. like after I wouldn't be surprised. Freaks and Geeks, I think, flopped, I think, and before you know he got into the 40-year-old virgin and stuff. I think that was like his pivot into...
00:21:49
Speaker
writing with Evan Goldberg. I think they kind of started out, I think quite a few ah now common household American name comedians, or at least of the noughties and early 2010s, got their start writing on the American production of the R.E.G. show.
00:22:07
Speaker
I wouldn't be surprised if he was able to assemble some good talent in there. And I think and i think that the sensibility is one that has, like I said, continued to... To thrive.
Notable Scenes & Characters
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, to thrive. Sure. so the Ali G show was also where American audiences were introduced to his character Borat, a journalist from Kazakhstan. With Borat, Baron Cohen was able to lambaste American and British society from the perspective of a naive outsider.
00:22:40
Speaker
In the 2006 film, he was also able to wrestle with a large nude man and get that man's hairy asshole taint and balls on the big screen in theaters across America.
00:22:56
Speaker
And we were all the better for it. Yeah, groundbreaking stuff. And I'm very for nudity and non-sexual nudity and non-sexual male nudity and fat nudity. It's all great.
00:23:12
Speaker
Yep, absolutely. ah It was a huge hit. It was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards, and Baron Cohen won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.
00:23:25
Speaker
Okay, now that's a bit much. Yeah. Well, I don't know he was up against at. Well, his his performance was good. He delivered so many iconic lines. My wife, for example. It's classic. I was at a wedding a few years ago and the groom, like, it just came out of him after he, you know, was up on the altar. He just did it like, my wife. And everyone was like, come on, homie. Like, not today. just Yeah, save that for when you're at home. Come on. yeah That's a private matter.
00:23:57
Speaker
Uh, But yeah, Sacha Baron Cohen became a household name in America. Everyone was saying my wife. Everyone was wearing weird looking bathing suits for laughs. ah From there, he was able to work as a comedic comedy actor, normally as ah a foil to the comedic lead or a smaller role as some kind of weirdo in a bunch of different Hollywood films over the years.
00:24:22
Speaker
And every few years, he'd make his own movie based on an original character. In 2009, he made Bruno, where he played the titular gay Austrian fashion guru.
00:24:33
Speaker
In 2012, he made The Dictator, where he played the fascist ruler of a small third world country. Neither of them quite hit the same way that Borat did, but he felt confident about his next film for his next character.
00:24:49
Speaker
That character was a soccer hooligan named Nobby, and the film was a Grimsby. Nabi the soccer hooligan was designed to be the most embarrassing brother a cool James Bond style secret agent could have.
00:25:04
Speaker
And the two of them would go on an action adventure together. That was the concept that he started off with. It's not a bad concept. No, no, I like it. It could work. He knew that his usual director, Larry Charles, wouldn't work for the action that he envisioned.
00:25:19
Speaker
So the for the first time since coming to America, Sacha Baron Cohen would have to find a new director to work with. ah He turns to Louis Leterrier, the director of my favorite Jason Stasen movie, The Transporter.
00:25:35
Speaker
how do you You guys like The Transporter? I didn't realize I love The Transporter. Yeah, The Transporter is so good.
00:25:46
Speaker
Leterri had apparently just worked with Baron Cohen's wife, Isla Fisher, on Now You See Me. He also directed Now You See Me. Right. Oh! Well, now we definitely have to do Now You See Me sometime.
00:26:01
Speaker
haven't seen any of those movies. My friend Chris, if you're listening, shout out. i think he tries to get me to watch them at least every They look so fucking stupid. i know ah So when I saw the Terry was involved, I became pretty excited to watch this one. But then I read an article in the Daily Free Press as part of my research that put a damper on my excitement about what I was to expect from the action in this.
00:26:32
Speaker
ah And i'm just go to quote that article. Although Cohen is a comedian, he said he wanted The Brothers Grimsby to be an authentic action movie. we had about 150 million less than the average action movie, he said.
00:26:51
Speaker
we knew we couldn't beat Bond in terms of their magnificent action scenes, so the first thing we did is create a new style of action.
00:27:02
Speaker
This new style resulted in extremely original and engaging point of view
Audience Reviews & Game Segment
00:27:08
Speaker
shooting that encompassed the action sequences throughout the film. A lot of the inspiration for this style comes from video games.
00:27:18
Speaker
This is, of course, bullshit. The Transporter only cost $21 million. dollars Well, the Brothers Grimsby cost about $35 million. dollars And the Transporter didn't have to do this POV action scene bullshit. POV action does not work. It's incomprehensible.
00:27:37
Speaker
yeah In my opinion. Hardcore Henry. Have you seen that movie? That was like... show No, but I've heard of it. i yeah I think I did, and I wasn't impressed, but I might not have been in the right viewpoint.
00:27:52
Speaker
or the right I should have been probably wicked high, and I should have been late at night. and i yeah to be i think ah I think I watched it in those circumstances, and and I don't think it worked either. So no, I agree. I don't think it ever really... i I remember they did it in the Doom movie with The Rock as well, and that just felt really, really lame.
00:28:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It just it doesn't pan out. Now, ah the Brothers Grimsby cost the only $35 million. dollars Transport didn't have to do that. The transporter would make $43 million at the box office, while the Brothers Grimsby would only make $28 million, dollars losing million. lot of money.
00:28:32
Speaker
it's a lot of money Yeah, it's a shame. People, well, it it makes sense. It's genuinely off-putting. ah Other buddy action comedies of 2016. Let's say you wanted to go see some buddy action.
00:28:47
Speaker
Obviously, the high watermark of the year, you got The Nice Guys. Ah, wonderful movie. Fantastic film. You got Central Intelligence with The Rock and Kevin Hart.
00:29:00
Speaker
Haven't seen it. It's shame. ah You got Keanu with Key and Peele. Underrated movie, I think. Have you guys seen that one? I didn't get around to it, but I'm not surprised. Yeah, it's very funny. There's a very good reoccurring joke about George Michael in that movie that's not like ah you you you hear, oh, George Michael joke, it's going to be homophobic. No, it's it's really quite a ah fantastic joke about...
00:29:27
Speaker
um how fantastic George Michael's music is. Like, it's just... It fantastic. Thinking about it now, I'm actually laughing. I'd say check out Keanu. It's great. Okay.
00:29:39
Speaker
You got Ride Along 2, Ice Cube and somebody. I don't remember. Yeah. You got a Skip Trace with Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville, the two legends of extreme stunts, but perhaps a little bit too late.
00:29:55
Speaker
That could be cool. I'm going to put that to the list. Yeah, yeah, there might be something in there. And you also got Army of One with Nicolas Cage and Russell Brand. Russell Brand playing God. Wow.
00:30:09
Speaker
o And that one was directed by Larry Charles. That's what he was doing instead of this. Okay. So it seems like they should have probably stuck together.
00:30:22
Speaker
But you guys want to talk about the plot of Grimsby? Let's get into Sure.
00:30:45
Speaker
Plot bumper, listen to me. I'm gonna give you the plot summary. Come on, baby. Here's the synopsis.
00:30:57
Speaker
Plot bumper, plot bumper.
00:31:09
Speaker
Sorry, Chris, just before we get stuck into the plot, I just typed in skip trace. And one of the first things that comes up is that the cinematographer died. he drowned whilst filming the movie. so Oh my God. All right, continue.
00:31:24
Speaker
Bummer alarm. Bummer alarm. This next bit is kind of a bummer. That's right. We have to go from a drowning into Grimsby. We open on Sasha Baron Cohen's Nobby, making love to Rebel Wilson's Dawn.
00:31:41
Speaker
The two of them are actually in a department store, it seems, testing a new mattress, which they purchase and bring home on a bus while Park Life by Blur plays on the soundtrack. And we get a quick tour of the depressed titular city.
00:31:57
Speaker
And I did like the
Conclusion & Batty Awards
00:31:58
Speaker
soundtrack of this. There's some fun brick pop in here. Yeah, definitely. I thought it was... Yeah. i think I thought Parklife was a... I thought it was a weird choice, just because... Maybe it makes sense. Don't worry. Ignore me. Sorry.
00:32:12
Speaker
It's all right. Yeah, I don't know if Blur is the working class British vibe. No, totally. No. They're like the kinks. It's kind like... They're making fun of British, but I guess so is this film. Anyway, ignore me. Sorry. Yeah.
00:32:28
Speaker
And we do get to see Grimsby. I did a little bit of research into Grimsby. It is apparently just a town well that the industry collapsed and then the fishing industry collapsed. And now it's just there's nothing. It's like dying Detroit, but I think it has a population of like 80,000.
00:32:46
Speaker
Many such cases in the UK. is Yeah. Just a ah typical depressed Northeastern town. So finally he gets the mattress home and Nabi has some of his 11 children help him lug the mattress upstairs. And he talks about his long laws, brother, Sebastian, who he's looked for, for the last 28 years. And yeah, giving Nabi literally 11 kids is like, okay, this does feel like you're just making fun of four people at this point. Yeah.
00:33:14
Speaker
like It's pretty nail on the head. pretty and like kind of hacky, if I'm being honest. Yeah, I mean, he's you know talking about how like he shaves one of his son's heads to make the government think he has leukemia so they can collect benefits. It's definitely like the the classic, oh, these ah these babies are for welfare kind of.
00:33:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, real cynical stuff. So we cut to his brother Sebastian, played by Mark Strong. His handler, Jody, played by Isla Fisher, tells him he has to capture and interrogate some guy that's surrounded by armed guards. And so he activates his special computerized contact lens with the code phrase Green Earth and leaps into action.
00:34:00
Speaker
ah And then it's shot mostly from his POV. They justify these POV shots with this computerized contact lens. And you get like a video game style ah UI overlay being like target 300 meters, you know, stuff like that.
00:34:18
Speaker
and But it's all really frenetic. So it's really hard to track and follow. ah And all of this, I believe, was directed by the second unit director, who is Chad Stahelski, the director of John Wick. Oh, OK. Yeah.
00:34:33
Speaker
Well, yeah, there will there's a John Wick. I don't know if he's right. Yeah. One of the one of the heavies, Scott Adkins. Yeah. Scott Adkins, action film legend is in this film, which I did. Yeah. That made me sit up and go, hey, I love Scott Adkins.
00:34:47
Speaker
Yeah, and he he does a lot of great kicking in one scene in this movie. He really does. might It would be my honor to get kicked by Scott Adkins. I would oh love it if he beat me up in a movie. i Yeah, and i it must have that must have been a scene that was done with by Chad Stahelski. I imagine he was in charge of that.
00:35:07
Speaker
So eventually, Sebastian is able to capture and interrogate the guy that and he learns that someone will try to assassinate Rhonda George, a wealthy actress turned philanthropist played by Penelope Cruz.
00:35:22
Speaker
A lot of big stars in this movie. Yeah. Meanwhile, back in Grimsby. Nabi and the lads from the pub are going absolutely mental.
00:35:34
Speaker
And, uh, because there's a world cup match and England's doing great. Nabi celebrates by shoving a lit firework up his asshole and running around on top of a bar. Uh, but when he falls off, the firework gets jammed further up into his asshole.
00:35:53
Speaker
Luckily, A big old barmaid knocks it loose by hitting him in the stomach with a fire extinguisher, and it flies out the window before he gets blown up.
00:36:04
Speaker
I'm surprised he didn't make it also splatter shit all over the streets of Grimsby. A rare moment of restraint from Sasha. Yeah.
00:36:14
Speaker
And then a friendly bar patron informs him that his cousin just saw Nabi's long lost brother. And he knows that he's going to a charity thing tonight. And also he stole Nabi a ticket to the charity thing.
00:36:29
Speaker
I feel like this could have been handled better. Yeah, totally. But hey how how else are going to do it? It does keep it moving along. Exactly. it does Yeah, I think it it's it doesn't it doesn't matter so much that you might as well do it like this.
00:36:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think. This not the point of the movie. And obviously, if you're not sitting there taking notes for a podcast, you might just let it sort of fly by. mail Yeah, okay, next scene.
00:36:58
Speaker
But as soon, we're off to this gala. Sebastian acts cool and looks for the assassin, while Nabi acts boorishly and looks for his brother.
00:37:08
Speaker
He steals an entire tray of champagne. He makes his finger act like a penis in a cardboard cutout of an African child. Eventually, Nobby spies Sebastian up on a catwalk, while Rhonda George introduces a young activist named Shlomo, who is half Jewish and half Palestinian, wheelchair bound, and a child living with AIDS.
00:37:31
Speaker
I gotta say, all those AIDS jokes really dated the movie. ah Like, even I think when I saw it in 2016, I was like, an AIDS joke? Really? They're really dated in 2016. Yeah. Yeah. Like, that that was really, like, wow. It made it feel like the script for this film had been sitting on a shelf since, like, 2001 or something.
00:37:55
Speaker
Yeah, that was like, yeah, a joke idea he had sitting around somewhere. and yeah, it it felt like that was the first sign that like maybe he's lost his fastball. Yeah, totally. totally Maybe he's not going to be crushing it on this one. yeah but I think, you know, not to jump ahead, but the, you know, Grimsby attacks, ah you know, gives his brother a big hug and that knocks him off, off his sniper shot off. And he, he shoots slow-mo and AIDS blood.
00:38:26
Speaker
falls into the mouth of Daniel Radcliffe. That kind of made me be like, well, maybe his fastball isn't as bad. You know, he still has some throw behind him, but it's just... Yeah, he's he's still got some tricks. Yeah, totally.
00:38:42
Speaker
and So Sebastian sees the gunman and a fake video camera with a gun in it. And he lines up to take a shot when Nabi leaps in and gives him a big hug. And yeah, that all happens.
00:38:54
Speaker
And ah the gun camera shoots the head of the World Health Organization. And everybody sees Sebastian there with a gun and blames him. He runs away and Nabi follows him, afraid of losing his brother for another 28 years.
00:39:09
Speaker
After falling on Sebastian's ankle and shattering it, Nabi carries him to his nearby bulletproof Tesla, and they race off. Unfortunately, he gets distracted by a footie game on the smart screen, and he drives into the river. Oh, this classic hillbilly boob.
00:39:29
Speaker
They love the footie. yeah. He can't resist it. It's a siren song to his tiny brain.
00:39:37
Speaker
Luckily, Sebastian has some bone healing drugs at his secret hideout to help out with his ankle. He calls Jody to say that he did not assassinate the head of the World Health Organization. And Jody says that their mutual boss, Ian McShane, is sending an MI6 agent named Chilcot to get him. And Ian McShane has nothing to do in this movie. No. Yeah.
00:40:02
Speaker
And he's funny. Yeah, he is. It was a good scene. Yeah, but all he does is say, like, is he in sector seven? Find him!
00:40:14
Speaker
point that's and yeah he has it but I don't think he even has a name in the film. I think it is literally just MI6 boss. Yeah, hang on. I got the credits up here.
00:40:25
Speaker
Find out specifically what he's building at.
00:40:33
Speaker
Oh, come on. I forgot that the credits are listed in order of appearance. Thanks again. Jesus, you guys cut me some slack. I don't know what the fuck his character's name is. ah So Sebastian is going to need a place to lay low and plan his next move.
00:40:52
Speaker
And since nobody knows that they're brothers, Nobby suggests that Sebastian come stay with him in Grimsby. And Sebastian doesn't have any better ideas, so he agrees. At Nabi's place, we meet Nabi's many children who have great names like Skeletor and ah Django Unchained.
00:41:13
Speaker
Great stuff. Yeah. Yeah. if I feel like you made that now, one would have to be named Goku. Sure. Yeah, yeah. So, ah but Nabi's children, they quickly figure out that Sebastian is their long lost uncle, as does Rebel Wilson when she gets home and he interrupts the two of them about to have sex. Or more specifically, Nabi's about to go down on Rebel Wilson.
00:41:41
Speaker
Anyway, this is in part due to the fact that Nabi has built a shrine to Sebastian in their living room. Sebastian insists he's going to need someplace more isolated to hide out.
00:41:55
Speaker
Nobby insists that he knows just the place. And as he leads him through Grimsby past the train station, we get a flashback of the boys as kids. They're both on a train and Sebastian goes to the bathroom.
00:42:05
Speaker
And when he gets back, Nobby is gone. And he's crying out, Nobby! Nobby! Anybody see my brother Nobby? ah Back in modern Grimsby,
00:42:19
Speaker
Navi leads Sebastian to his secret hideout, which turns out to actually be a surprise party at the pub. Everyone yells surprise and Sebastian immediately starts shooting. That was one of the funnier gags that got me.
00:42:32
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Just because it was so fast. They didn't even finish saying surprise before he got off like four shots. ah Unfortunately, Sebastian was right to be worried about OPSEC. Chilcot has found them.
00:42:45
Speaker
When Sebastian sees a fully kitted special ops team surrounding the pub, Nabi tells him not to worry. He grabs some local boys and tells them that those guys outside are Man U supporters, and the kids run out and assault them. yeah And this I thought was a good scene.
00:43:04
Speaker
i i wish there had been more of it. There were only like three gags. i It kind of made me realize there's a real difference in... um sensibilities with like kid actors in america and england as well i feel like british child actors no one cares if they swear i don't feel like i've i'd have ever seen like an american child actor be like you fucking wanker i'm gonna kill you you know like it's yeah there might be like once in a movie a kid will go like holy shit yeah and everyone will like stare at him and that's about it but they're never rarely like i'm gonna fucking knock your teeth out yeah exactly
00:43:44
Speaker
And it was cool to see, yeah, one kid puts ah a pool ball in a condom and whips it around and hits a dude in the face. And then some other kids throw a pit bull at a window at another guy. and I wanted to see more of those shenanigans. That was really fun.
00:44:02
Speaker
But the brothers, they make a break for it. During a shootout in a fish factory, Sebastian gets hit in the shoulder with a poison dart he needs Nabi to suck out the poison. Nabi's like, that seems kind of gay to suck the poison out of your shoulder, but it eventually comes around.
00:44:17
Speaker
And then Sebastian reveals that a second dart has hit him in the scrotum. And we have a very long scene revolving Nabi sucking on his brother's scrotum. What did you guys think of this scene?
00:44:29
Speaker
It made me laugh. I'm not going to lie. And I'm proper like holding my belly going. Yeah. Just when you think you're, uh, yeah, I thought um, it just got me. I'm sorry. Honeybone. It's okay. What hits hits. Did it hit for you, Anna? Uh, not really.
00:44:48
Speaker
Okay. It didn't quite hit for me. Yeah. there In part because I knew it was going to be doing it for a very long time. they Like I knew. Yeah. All of the jokes that he's like, all the gross out jokes. He's like, I'm going to double down on these for the next five minutes. And so if they're not going to hit for you for that whole five minutes, he's going to be punishing you for it. He's like, you should have started laughing at the beginning. You should have fucking found this funny earlier. Cause I'm still doing it.
00:45:17
Speaker
Uh, And you do get like a prosthetic scrotum on there. And I feel like if this was the Sacha Baron Cohen of 2010, that would have been a real scrotum on his face. Totally.
00:45:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. i I feel like a real scrotum would have been funnier. Oh, definitely. Yeah. Because this kind of looks like like a mix between like a slipper and like a cow's tongue more than an actual scrotum.
00:45:46
Speaker
Yeah, it it definitely seems to be made out of silicon. ah You know, it doesn't have skin over something. It's a solid object. Yeah.
00:45:59
Speaker
So after this poison in his ball sack situation is so dealt with, nabbby he dies for a moment. Then Nabi's like, no be bravo. And then he sucks the ah poison out of his ball bag. And I looked it up. The poison that they mentioned is a real poison. It's made from a Brazilian caterpillar. One of the deadly poisons on earth, but it wouldn't work this way. oh I guess you would need a lot. but Who knows? Anyway, Sebastian gets on the horn with Jody and ah she tells him two new facts.
00:46:29
Speaker
One, the assassin that they need to find to clear his name is in South Africa, meeting with a biochemist. And two, Nabi has been identified. And if the bad guys catch him, they'll kill his whole family to get to Sebastian.
00:46:46
Speaker
So it looks like they're both going to South Africa. Sebastian needs to seduce a lady. That much I know. When they get there, they find that out. And Nabi, he goes and he makes friends with the locals. And one of the locals that he makes friends with is a heroin dealer who gives him some heroin to try.
00:47:03
Speaker
or actually, I guess a heroin mule more accurately. Do you know who played the heroin mule? Is it, um, is it the guy? Uh, who is it?
00:47:15
Speaker
It's the guy from ah Captain Phillips. He's the, I'm the captain now. Good, good, good. Okay, good. Okay.
00:47:23
Speaker
I think he was an Academy Award nominee, if I remember correctly. Yeah, and he's in Blade Runner 2049 and Uncut Gems as well. Wait, so that's Academy Award nominees in this film, you're saying?
00:47:37
Speaker
Yes. No, three, because also Gabourey Sidibe. Well, how? Wow.
00:47:46
Speaker
ah But yeah, Sebastian needs to go s seduce a lady. But unfortunately, right before Sebastian heads out to seduce the wife of the biochemist for information, he accidentally injects himself with the heroin that Nobby was gifted by ah the captain now.
00:48:02
Speaker
So it looks like Nobby is going to have to take over the spy seduction scenes. Boy, this is going to be wacky. i don't think he's up to it. And there's a great montage set to cigarettes and alcohol by Oasis of him getting ready to be a cool spy. I'm going to lie.
00:48:21
Speaker
but That... that riff kicked in i was like all right he yeah me yeah that's why in the the blur versus oasis battle i was always an oasis guy blur was just more of like the working class rocker guy and cigarettes and alcohol will be our outro today oh it's great song i i got to i i i saw him twice last year for their reunion tour that was like a ah childhood um dream come true for me that was like a that's awesome yeah it was a
00:48:53
Speaker
Fucking and mental, as they would say, I think. Yeah. ah So, however, back in in South Africa. Here we are. Due to a little miscommunication, Nobby ends up confusing the blonde woman he was sent to s seduce with the maid, played by Oscar-nominated star of the movie Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire, Gabourey Sidibe.
00:49:16
Speaker
This leads to the blonde lady trying to clear a hotel toilet clogged with Nabi's shit while Nabi eats Gaboresa D-Base's pussy. From the back, too.
00:49:28
Speaker
Yeah, he's really going for it. ah Really ah going down on ladies is played for laughs. Fat ladies specifically is played for laughs in this film.
00:49:39
Speaker
Quite unfortunately, there's nothing funny about going down on a fat lady.
00:49:46
Speaker
So the blonde kicks out the maid mid-mange, and then her husband storms in with some thugs. And then Sebastian shows up and saves Nabi, and the two of them start to interrogate Mrs. Biochemist.
00:50:00
Speaker
And they figure out that the assassin is Paul Lukashenko. Great, he's got a name. And ah he bought some bespoke virus from ah the now-dead biochemist.
00:50:14
Speaker
Then Chilcot shows up and he shoots a rocket at their yurt and the brothers run away. Looking across the savannah, Sebastian thinks that there's no place to hide.
00:50:28
Speaker
But Nabi, remembering remembering a nature documentary that they watched earlier, suggests that they both crawl inside elephant's pussy, which they do.
00:50:38
Speaker
Which they do. a Boy, howdy. Yeah. And then the elephant does end up getting gangbanged while they're in there. And ah I'm going to call this the most disgusting part of the movie.
00:50:52
Speaker
I'm going to say that this is... what the movie's about for me. This is the this is what got me in 2016 at the cinemas. Yeah.
00:51:04
Speaker
the The elephant gangbang is the three words that I would use to summarize this film. That that is... Yeah, that's a good letterboxd review right there. The hardest... like I remember seeing that at the cinemas and that, as I said, that that was...
00:51:19
Speaker
i've probably I fell out of my chair. I was laughing so hard at a 9.30 in the morning session of Grimsy. That is that is a scene that has remained with me forever. I think I forget about pretty much everything else about this movie, except them climbing inside an elephant's vagina and having to get gangbanged by... a ah like The reveal of the line the line of elephants...
00:51:45
Speaker
I don't know, man. i that that's That to me is just... I don't know. it fucking like Even thinking about it now, I'm getting like warm and fuzzy inside. um And there's just this cut of like an elephant going... At the very end. It just fucking kills me, man. It's so stupid and it's so gross. And I think...
00:52:08
Speaker
you know not to give away fuck what happens in fuck my son but there's a similar scene where there's like a fire hose of just jeers being sprayed everywhere which i think is also what killed me you know i think that's what made me think about grimsby i feel like it it is it is very much like the the movie in microcosm and i do think
00:52:33
Speaker
and i think that the special effects team worked really hard on making it, making the elephant genitals believable and functional and, and very, very legible. Um, yeah. Uh,
00:52:55
Speaker
and And that, to me, made it so much funnier. Yeah, agreed. Yeah. Just when they realized, like, oh, no, we've got to quickly jerk off this elephant. i was just, fuck me, man. I just, yeah, I don't know. yeah you think you You think you're better than something, and then you see two British guys jerking off an elephant, and you realize, no, it's funny, it's funny, and you just can't help it.
00:53:21
Speaker
<unk> and i It didn't hit for me, but maybe at this point I was already like on my back foot. I was already like, okay. And I did like respect it when i I sort of sat back. And then when he said, there's another elephant coming. And I'm like, okay.
00:53:39
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. I mean, he had to do it. he If he didn't go as far as it possibly could, then it would defeat the purpose. So I, I, I at least respect it, but it's almost like going to see like vaudeville. Like I recognize that this is funny, even though it's not making me laugh. You know what I mean?
00:54:00
Speaker
Like it's formally very much joke shaped. And so I can appreciate that. Uh, okay. Okay. So after that, the brothers, they need a bath because they're covered and filled with elephant cum.
00:54:14
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, Nabi explains that, Sebastian is the reason, uh, Oh, sorry. Nabi finally explains to Sebastian that the reason he finally abandoned him on that train all those years ago was because his adoptive parents only wanted one kid and Nabi wanted what was best for his baby brother.
00:54:34
Speaker
They weep and they hug and they realize that the virus is going to be released at the World Cup finals in Chile.
00:54:43
Speaker
So they're off to Chile to see England take on Germany in the World Cup final and also to stop a bioterrorist. Two great reasons. Yeah. Chocolate and peanut butter. Yeah. Yeah.
00:54:56
Speaker
ah They stop a group of or they spot a group of footy fans from Grimsby in the throng outside the stadium, which does lead to Sebastian being spotted.
00:55:07
Speaker
He and Nabi get separated as they run away from assorted people that want to harm them. And Sebastian gets grabbed by the bad guys. It turns out that Rhonda George is in charge of the bad guys, and she wants to unleash a virus at the World Cup so it can spread around the world and kill two billion poor people.
00:55:29
Speaker
Luckily earlier in the film, Nabi accidentally implanted a tracking device in Sebastian. And so he, uh, Sebastian activates it and Nabi rushes to his rescue and he fights past a couple of guys like soccer hooligan style.
00:55:43
Speaker
And once again, it was like, I'd love to see just some decent action in this. That would go a long way to winning over some goodwill for me. If there was just like one really good action scene, uh,
00:55:55
Speaker
And there almost was when he finally runs into like Lukashenko and he starts kicking the shit out of him. That's pretty cool to see. And at the end, when Navi just picks up a gun and shoots him and he realizes how much he loves guns. That was really fun. He does eventually free Sebastian. The two of them rush back to the World Cup.
00:56:20
Speaker
Nabi conscripts some Grimbarians. That's what I found out. That's what someone from Grimsby is called. He conscripts some Grimbarians to rush the pitch with him so they can make it over to Rhonda in time to stop her from spreading the virus via the fireworks display that's supposed to go off at the end of the game.
00:56:41
Speaker
There's some henchmen fighting, but ultimately Rhonda is able to trigger the fireworks display. Luckily, Nobby knows how to stop some fireworks. That's right.
00:56:53
Speaker
Yep. He, he dropped some trout. It was Chekhov's firework in his asshole. It paid off. it It turns out though, that there's two fireworks with viruses in them.
00:57:07
Speaker
So Sebastian sits on the other firework up his asshole. He still is a Grimbarian at his heart. The fireworks go off, but the boys save the day.
00:57:19
Speaker
The news reports that they died, when in fact, they're just now going to start their new lives as secret agents and brothers together. The end. oh but you forgot to.
00:57:33
Speaker
So the viral load inside the fireworks was rendered inert to to the antibodies in elephant semen. which the Colons were full of just because they had partaken in the Elephant Gangbang. You forgot about that very important... you know I missed that detail. I'm glad i'm glad that the Elephant Gangbang paid off. Okay.
00:58:00
Speaker
Boy, just tight as a drum. Exactly. Everything like ties back into each other. I will give them credit for like you know some stupid throwaway thing. It's No, they didn't just put in an elephant gangbang to put in an elephant gangbang. It was perfectly organic.
00:58:18
Speaker
It was practically essential to the tail. Yeah. Final thoughts, five-star ratings. Anna, what did you think of Grimsby?
00:58:32
Speaker
You know... ah It didn't really work for me, but it was fun to talk about. And the parts that, I mean, the parts that made me laugh did...
00:58:49
Speaker
did really make me laugh. I did really enjoy, as you did, Chris, when Nabi shoots a guy and realizes how how delightfully quick and easy it is to take ah another human life with a gun. And he's just like, well, this is great!
00:59:07
Speaker
yeah Now Nabi knows how great it is to be American. yeah
00:59:14
Speaker
I would say, gosh watchability is a hard one on this one. I'm going to go i'm going to i'm going to go with one... ah i Yeah, because there are not a lot of people that you that you could recommend this to.
00:59:33
Speaker
um both Honestly, both for gross-out reasons and for Sacha Baron Cohen reasons. ah Like, them together is a ah hard a hard recommend. ah For weirdness, i i do think it's pretty weird.
00:59:49
Speaker
i would, in fact, give it ah a four and a half for weird. Okay. That's very reasonable. i gave it a one and a half stars for watchability more than any other movie I've ever seen. Rimsby really rolls like an egg. It's sort of just lurching from gross out gags that run too long to incomprehensible action sequences to punching down class based jokes to maudlin family drama. You know, there are laughs in there, but you don't.
01:00:23
Speaker
You can watch something else that's funny. There are other funny things. but You don't need to do this ah for weirdness. I gave it three stars. It does have some very confronting images in it that I do think can be a weird experience. But I think the weirdest thing about it was that it felt racist towards English people, which was something that I know I could feel.
01:00:47
Speaker
i didn't know that I would stand up like you can't say that about English people. This is a grote stereotype. And maybe if I was more familiar with like working class English culture, it would like ring true to me. And I'd be like, oh, this is well observed and actually quite nuanced. But I don't think so.
01:01:05
Speaker
No, I think it is. all I do think so, actually. I think a lot of these assumptions from Cambridge-educated London people who have ah views of people from up north.
01:01:23
Speaker
But yes, I don't know. There are probably some. that Look, football hooligans, there's probably some truth to that. Yeah, and I don't know how much sympathy I need to lend football hooligans, but it just felt, I don't know. al Yeah, I don't think it's well observed. I doubt it's well observed, but I feel like it probably would be funnier if I were ah British.
01:01:49
Speaker
Yeah, many I think so. From any part of Britain. This is probably his film with the least international appeal. That's probably where he miscalculated this. Hmm.
01:02:01
Speaker
Yeah, Al, watchability and weirdness. What do you think out of Watchability, for me, I think it's a solid four stars. I'm not going lie. it It flew. Fair. i I put it on. It was Saturday afternoon. I had a big bowl of potato chips in front of me. Mm-hmm.
01:02:17
Speaker
You know, I was scoffing those things down whilst laughing. Yeah. And literally, I think I said earlier, like I put it on and the next thing I knew, the credits are rolling. i was like, oh, wow, that was brisk 83 minutes. That's true.
01:02:31
Speaker
Weirdness. ah I think it was like maybe a solid three. i think And that's mainly just because of the elephant gangbang. Everything else isn't like... you know Sucking on balls isn't that crazy. ah No, people do it every day. Yeah, And I think that's the only other real... g like can I guess...
01:02:53
Speaker
There's that gag about their buttholes being so distended that, uh, and they turn on the fan the fan whistles. Yeah. that, that that was inspired. Uh, that, that definitely cements. I feel like I've heard that told as a homophobic joke before. That's true, yeah. yeah just just This was the first time I'd seen it visualized on film. And i put it in a different context, it's fine, I suppose. why with Why was there a fan in a hospital room anyway? But, um yeah, no, I think it's a solid four for watchability and a three for weirdness for me.
01:03:25
Speaker
i All right, well. If i was going to give it a general star, oh, hang on, don't worry.
01:03:31
Speaker
Just a general three stars all around for me. All right. The solid B. If you're a Sacha Baron Cohen fan, your mileage may vary. I think that's probably going to be the make or break for a lot of this.
01:03:44
Speaker
But on to act three of the show. That was our opinions, but Anna found some other opinions. So they're going be doing this week's review review. It sure is.
01:04:00
Speaker
Review, review. Where we review reviews. You wrote review of the film.
01:04:13
Speaker
Now we're going to review you. Review, review. Review, review.
01:04:32
Speaker
Review, review. La, la, la, la, la.
01:04:43
Speaker
Well, I will say I'm not the only person. ah My opinion that it might go over better if you're British ah was actually based on looking at the IMDB reviews.
01:04:57
Speaker
Okay.
01:05:00
Speaker
And so I pulled some. I have, ah well, two positive and two negative reviews. i wanted to do some accent work, but i just I just don't have the northern. I just don't have the northeast accent.
01:05:18
Speaker
ah No, no, that's a big ass. Yeah, I do think these are ah probably three from Britain and one from Canada. But we'll start.
01:05:30
Speaker
with Durangel, who rated it 10 10 January laughing like this.
01:05:39
Speaker
years of not laughing like this I'm not a big fan of football nor sex jokes and this kind of movies in general. But this one, at one point I was worried about getting a stroke or something. I watched it just to fall in sleep and because I saw an FX making of on YouTube, but I just could not stop laughing and laughing hard.
01:06:01
Speaker
This movie is an example of effort in all matters and an example of how Hollywood culture in general is just worthless as in years they haven't come with something like this or other movies where creativity, effort, and risk just leads natural.
01:06:17
Speaker
Here you can see really good and new attempts of everything. Action, comedy, jokes, script. I would dare to say that for the first time, i see actors, in parentheses and capitalized, acting.
01:06:32
Speaker
if hollywood If Hollywood would full produce this movie, there would be Ben Affleck, Vin Diesel, Mark Wahlberg, or Tom Cruise as actors, and for so in order to respect...
01:06:45
Speaker
parentheses and capitalized their fame and image, 90% of the jokes, script, editing, action, et cetera, et cetera, would be taken off.
01:06:56
Speaker
I do kind of agree with what I think they're trying to say there. That Tom Cruise would never star in this movie? Yes, yeah. And even if they didn't, the simply fact of one of them being there would trash the whole movie.
01:07:10
Speaker
This movie represents what cinema was created for. Like it or not, be it your kind of movie or not, in general terms, this is what films are meant for.
01:07:23
Speaker
Okay. A bold stance. Eight out of ten from PinkPooch27, May 29th, 2016. Funny movie if you understand the English.
01:07:38
Speaker
Mmm. I really enjoyed this movie, but then I am from a northern English city where it's okay to laugh at ourselves. Seems a lot of people, mainly Americans, are slating this movie, saying the humor and gags missed.
01:07:52
Speaker
No, they didn't. You think they missed because you don't understand it. That's why American television got hold of Shameless, an amazing working class series, and remade it so Americans could get it I really don't wish to be rude here, but try getting out more, or reading more.
01:08:08
Speaker
For example, I know the history and reputation of Detroit, so if a joke is made about it referring to hard times or poverty, I get the joke, or reference. why Because I read and learn about other things other than my own backyard.
01:08:23
Speaker
Anyway, with respect to people from Grimsby, it's a pit. Been there a few times, it's... Been there a few times. It stinks of fish. It has very poor areas. And yeah, there are a lot of fat people. But I tell you what, they are good, funny people who will do anything for you.
01:08:43
Speaker
i agree with some the movie didn't really have a point. It was just funny. Like I have said, funnier if you understand something more than the comfort of your own backyard. Some good actors came together here to make a very decent comedy.
01:08:56
Speaker
Give it a try. It will make you laugh. All right. Conversely, i have a ah Brit by the username of Jaegermister who gave it a 1 out of 10 on February 26, 2016. And this one I can do an accent for because this one I can do a posh accent for.
01:09:19
Speaker
Okay. No, a posh person would hate this. It's so vulgar. Yes, yes. Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. Absolutely dire film setting British comedies back at least 20 years. The humor is lower than toilet. No intelligent jokes. The script and acting is appalling.
01:09:37
Speaker
The showing I went to had a prox 25 people and only two of those were laughing, but I think they had been drinking. Maybe I should have joined them To help numb my senses.
01:09:49
Speaker
Mark Strong appeared to be embarrassed to be there, and so he should be. It's unbelievable that a film like this gets a release. Dreadful. Awful. Dire.
01:10:01
Speaker
Wow. Real hater energy. Yeah. And then this is the Canadian one.
01:10:08
Speaker
ah This is a one out of 10 from Ellery-96422, March 15th, 2016. And I really like the um understatement of this heading.
01:10:21
Speaker
Unnecessary elephant scene was distasteful.
01:10:27
Speaker
Hard to argue with that. It was unnecessary. If they paid attention, they would find out that scene was actually very necessary. Very necessary. Well, yeah. I guess he wanted them to die at the end of the movie from a virus.
01:10:40
Speaker
ah This movie is supposed to appeal to young people and is aimed at a young audience. The plot surrounding the separated brothers as young boys is sweet, especially the dumb brother. Unfortunately, there are too many parts that I find offensive. That is sucking venom from testicles and the elephant scene, which I won't get into in this review.
01:11:01
Speaker
It is disappointing that this crass and often vulgar suggestive humor is aimed at our young people. This movie has been released during March break and has showtimes for daytime viewing.
01:11:13
Speaker
18A is not an appropriate rating. I cannot comment entirely on this movie because I left right after the elephant scene. It was gross and unnecessary. So you see, he doesn't know why it was necessary.
01:11:25
Speaker
yep i was really looking forward to a fun comedy, but this was not it. ah And I love i love this closer. I usually love any movie with, quote-unquote, Fat Amy in it.
01:11:39
Speaker
Maybe next time she will have a part I can enjoy more than this.
01:11:46
Speaker
To be fair, she did not have very much to do here. It's true. It's true. She was not really using her talents to... They're full flowering? yeah yet it's my favorite role that I've ever seen her in. It is crazy that she is as famous as she is because she used to be in some of the worst sketch comedy this country has ever produced.
01:12:12
Speaker
And now that she's like a bona fide Hollywood star, it's even now I still see her on TV and I'm just like, That's so, like, i don't, it still doesn't click for me. There used to be this series called Pizza that's like kind of an Australian...
01:12:31
Speaker
comedy series it's not very funny it's not very good but she was like one of the girlfriends in it and like yeah i never thought it's it's crazy but she's a hollywood star because this show was made on yeah ah the budget of like five dollars and a packet of gum you know like and now she's like one of the biggest comedy actors in the world she's like i she's embroiled in like a really serious lawsuit at the moment as well Oh, geez. Where she directed her first movie and it was it's been held on the shelf. I think it's only just getting released, but she went on this crazy defamation spree where she said the producer was like Indian Jeffrey Epstein or something. and oh you there's a whole bunch of stuff where it's turned out she put out a memoir last year and she accused sasha baron cohen of sexually assaulting her and then had to retract the um the the memoir because apparently a whole lot of it has it's turned out that she's just made defamatory comments that actually aren't true ah and you can't do that in australia you guys don't play with defamation laws we have very very serious defamation laws in this country um like yeah insane probably some of the most uh restrictive in the world outside of maybe the uk or something um so yeah so it's crazy she's so famous yeah yeah and i i can't think of anything i've seen her in there was like awesome rebel wilson yeah she's she seems to be targeted towards someone else maybe i haven't seen her best work i don't know
01:14:07
Speaker
I found a couple of reviews from Amazon Australia um in my research for this film. I think the best one i found was as recent as the 27th of December, 2025 Toa Minaji, who gave the film five stars and said, this is funniest movie by far.
01:14:28
Speaker
And, uh, Yeah. All right. right That's what I've got. Who am I to argue with Tora Minaj? That's right. Well, I think it's time for us to move on to our next segment. We're going to play a game, and it's called There's a Lot of Different Jobs If You Want to Work in Film.
01:14:48
Speaker
A to make you feel at home, man.
01:15:03
Speaker
We show up at the film set. Running from the mob. I'll take whatever I can get. There's so many kind of jobs.
01:15:18
Speaker
A key grip. A PA. I'll do it. If it pays. A best boy. Makeup.
01:15:29
Speaker
Tell you folks, that's what's up. There's a lot of different jobs if you want to work your best. There's a lot of different jobs if you want to work your best.
01:15:53
Speaker
So ACDC, schoolboy uniform, that school, is the school that he is wearing uniform, yeah that That school is at the end of my street, more or less. So ACDC started in my suburb and around my suburb. Last year, one of our local councils got in a lot of trouble for tearing down the house that ACDC was formed in.
01:16:15
Speaker
Oh, jeez. Yeah, that's got to be a landline. So like to to remedy it, they're building like a bronze statue and in in in more or less the town plaza of Angus Young.
01:16:28
Speaker
Sick. Okay. that I'll take it. then I mean, living legend. Yeah. Just just just that your yourre ah ah to make you feel at home. Your item, it does make me feel very at home. but they Literally in my suburb.
01:16:43
Speaker
Well, we're going to play a lot of different jobs. What I'm going to do is I look through the credits of Grimsby. One interesting thing I saw, side note, ah a lot of people were credited for doing their jobs on reshoots.
01:16:56
Speaker
So there were enough reshoots that they had to bring in an entirely separate crew at some point on this. But ah I'm going to read you a job description and a job title and three different names from the credits. I want you to tell me which of those names had that job.
01:17:11
Speaker
This is a buzz in game. You'll buzz in by saying your own name. And if you get it wrong, your opponent will have the chance to steal. Is everybody ready? Yes, and I remembered to unmute myself this time. Hey, now we're talking. That's going to really help you out.
01:17:29
Speaker
Question number one. A visual effects department this big will need a whole chain of command. Right in the middle of that chain of command is this guy, the FX supervisor.
01:17:45
Speaker
Was that Bella Brozek? Marco Manzini or Martin Marty McLaughlin? Al. Al?
01:17:55
Speaker
I'm going to go Marty Martin McLaughlin.
01:18:00
Speaker
No, I'm sorry. It wasn't Martin Marty McLaughlin. Anna, can you see it? Marco Manzini?
01:18:09
Speaker
I'm sorry. It was Bella Brozik. Wow. It's all right. There's plenty game left to play. Question number two. This person is the head lighting technician on the second unit, bringing the lighting director's vision to life.
01:18:24
Speaker
For the second unit, that is. Was the second unit lighting director Jacques Bach, Francois Greballer, or Gilles Boisac?
01:18:38
Speaker
Wow. Anna. Anna? Jacques Bach? Yes.
01:18:46
Speaker
No, I'm sorry. It wasn't Jacques Bach. What was the third guy's name again? Gilles Boisac. ah yeah Let's go with Gilles Boisac.
01:18:57
Speaker
You're correct. The hell's on the board. I knew it was, ah you know, when you see that lighting like that, it can only be one guy. Yeah, that's got to be old Gilles Boisac. Question number three.
01:19:09
Speaker
When you've got a big movie star like Mark Strong in your movie, you can't have him doing his own stunts. You need a stunt double for Mark Strong. Was that Nigel Wilkinson, Anthony Scrimshire, or Howard London?
01:19:30
Speaker
Al. Al? I'm going go with Nigel Wilkinson because that just sounds like a stuntman's name. It really does. It might have been, but he was not he was not Mark Strong's stuntman. Anna, can you steal?
01:19:45
Speaker
ah Can I hear the other two again? Anthony Scrimshire. Going with that one. You're correct. well All tied up.
01:19:58
Speaker
Question number four.
01:20:02
Speaker
A movie making fun of English people is going to need some funny fake teeth. You'll need a dental effects designer. Was the dental effects designer Marius Pretorius, Nathaniel Delanadius, or Philip Cyprian Florian? Uh, ow. Ow.
01:20:25
Speaker
Al? I'm to go with Nathaniel DeLorean. Was that it? DeLaneadius? Yeah. DeLaneadius? You're correct.
01:20:40
Speaker
Question number five. Not every makeup job is a special occasion. You need somebody to do the day-to-day foundation and eyeliner stuff.
01:20:50
Speaker
It's Makeup daily Was that Katie King, Tom Knight, or Ryan Juggler?
01:21:01
Speaker
Anna. Anna? Tom Knight.
01:21:07
Speaker
No, I'm sorry. It wasn't Tom Knight. Al, can you steal? Anna Juggler? No, I'm sorry. That was Katie King. should have known.
01:21:20
Speaker
It's all right. It's all right. You're still doing great. You still got the lead. Question number six. When multiple digital effects artists are working on multiple different aspects of a single shot, somebody's got to bring it all together.
01:21:32
Speaker
I think that's what a compositor does, but I'm not sure. Was that Alper Exit, Sakani Dorum, or Tovo Naina, and Diomampionona?
01:21:49
Speaker
Ow. I'm going to go with option C. I'm not going to try and butcher that name.
01:21:55
Speaker
Yes. You're correct. it was Tovo Naina and Dia Nompionona. i He must know a bit about compiling because he's compiled a lot of syllables to that name.
01:22:08
Speaker
You said a mouthful. Question number seven. A film set needs somebody to get all the bits and bobs and bric-a-brac that makes it feel less like something that was built a week ago and more like a lived-in space. And that somebody is the set decorator.
01:22:26
Speaker
Was that Jorg Unterberg? Kalen van Schalkwick? Or Ute Burk? Anna.
01:22:38
Speaker
Anna? Ute Burk.
01:22:42
Speaker
You're correct, my dove.
01:22:46
Speaker
Question number nine. At the bottom of this FX chain of command I was talking about before, there's the working class heroes of FX. The visual FX artists.
01:22:59
Speaker
Are we talking about Craig Tonks, Ruth Pease, or Aaron Nordley? Al, I'm going to go, what was his name, Craig Tonks?
01:23:13
Speaker
Craig Tonks? Yeah. That's correct, Al. os Coming out swinging. Yeah, you don't want to sleep on Tonks. no Last one.
01:23:25
Speaker
Operating a flying camera requires certain specialized skills. Those skills belong to the aerial camera operator. Was that Nancy Wang, Victoria Allwood, or Lars Cox?
01:23:46
Speaker
Anna. Anna? Lars Cox. You got it, baby. It was Lars Cox. Congratulations.
01:23:57
Speaker
But congratulations. The low-hanging fruit and it worked. Yes. Always a smart instinct when I'm writing the game. But congratulations to Al. You're our big winner. gad do do do do do do du it's It's an
01:24:16
Speaker
ah That still really makes me laugh. Anyway, it's time for the Batty Awards.
01:24:31
Speaker
Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:24:42
Speaker
Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:24:47
Speaker
Congratulations to the nominees.
01:24:53
Speaker
That's right. Congratulations to our nominees. It's the Batty Awards. The awards that we give out to all those little moments that are so... I've got figure out something better to say than delightfully batty.
01:25:07
Speaker
All those little moments that make a bad movie so good. My God, my dove. You're the writer in the family. I should have come to you earlier. What? ah Why don't you hit us up with a baddie award?
01:25:22
Speaker
All right. I'm going to give my baddie award to Sebastian's little bitty i heart MI6 tattoo. It's very, very small and ah like on the back of his neck.
01:25:38
Speaker
And you only see it in one scene. And it made me laugh. That's fair. That was a good enough little gag. I'm going to give my baddie award to one of Nobby's lines ah from my favorite part of the movie when he got a gun and realized how much he loved guns.
01:25:58
Speaker
And he's explaining it as he frees Sebastian from being chained up in this dungeon. He says, it completely detaches you from the guilt of your actions. It's like, yoga okay, okay. That's pretty good.
01:26:13
Speaker
Al, do you have a Batty Award? Yeah, I think there's like a gag where um there's one of the henchmen is like, it's the idiot and his brother. And Nobby goes, hey, my brother's not an idiot. to Yeah. just disturb that that That gag. That that was my, I got to give it up for that. That got me pretty hard.
01:26:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's just a nice, simple joke. Well-timed. You're like, yeah all right. Nobody can complain about that game. That's classic stuff. Yeah. Al, you being here on the show means this episode is classic stuff. Thank you so much for coming and hanging out. My pleasure. It's always a blast. And I promise ah we will do Ali G in the house next.
01:27:00
Speaker
is Okay, perfect. What I want is more Sacha Baron going. That's right.
01:27:08
Speaker
Are you working on anything that you want to plug? Do you have anything going on? No, nothing yet. Nothing really, no. I mean, who knows? Hey, nothing wrong with that. Take it sleazy.
Podcast Relevance & Future Episodes
01:27:21
Speaker
But, hey, take a look around is now more relevant than ever. If you want to go back and listen to please check out. It's If you're part of this New Metal revival, you've got to take a look around. It's a classic text. I'm not going to lie. I saw John Wilson from How To With John Wilson as hosting a New Metal film retrospective, and
01:27:40
Speaker
part of me kind of felt like oh like ah Lou Reed watching everybody else, yeah watching like the modern lovers do their thing. Ten years later, it was a bit like, oh, great.
01:27:51
Speaker
Just a little too early, I think. Yeah, you were ahead of the curve. I heard Andrew Law mention you on an episode of ah What's All This Then? he was like He went on there to talk about Jason Statham, and he mentioned briefly his appearance on Take a Look Around. Oh, that's nice of him. We just went and saw him do a live show the other day, which was great.
01:28:13
Speaker
So oh shout out to all those guys. um But yeah, so yeah. Shout out to past guest Lucy. That's right. Come back on the show sometime. um But yeah, take a look around. It's out there.
01:28:24
Speaker
It's still up. like actually she i wrote Actually, maybe not all of it is up. I think some of it has actually been taken down by copyright. Listeners, get it while you still can. Yeah, exactly. But that's about it.
01:28:36
Speaker
All right. Well, listeners, come back next week. We're going to be joined by ah returning guest Preston Spurlock. We're going to be talking about Nude on the Moon by Doris Wishman. i'm very excited.
01:28:47
Speaker
Just some good old fashioned nudity. Who can complain? ah And check out the link tree that's in the show notes. You can find our Instagram, our blue sky, our YouTube page, our sub stack. You can email us and get something in the mailbag. We'd love to get something in the mailbag.
01:29:08
Speaker
And yeah, until next week, be good and goodbye.
01:29:15
Speaker
Bye.
01:29:48
Speaker
In my imagination I've finally found Something I've been looking for