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Grimsby (aka The Brothers Grimsby as it was originally known – and was a better title, in my eyes, given its obvious nod to The Brothers Grimm, and because it’s about brothers) is another victim of censorship in the UK at the hands of the studios.
(STOP PRESS! Grimsby is now available to buy in UNCUT form on Blu-ray)
Normally, it’s 20th Century Fox that are happy to censor their films to death like Kingsman and A Good Day To Die Hard, but like Kingsman, Grimsby is another case of a film that should be an uncut 18-cert, but is being cut back to a 15-cert for cinema release. And in the case of the aforementioned Colin Firth starrer, it was also cut on Blu-ray and DVD, too, so there was no uncut version available in the UK.
However, this new movie, starring Mark Strong and Sacha Baron Cohen, is being released by Columbia Pictures, who also recently made the stupid decision to hack Goosebumps down to a PG, even though it could’ve quite happily existed in the cinema as an uncut 12-cert and STILL be seen by exactly the same audience!! That really is pathetic!
In its 15-cert version, the BBFC have given it this certificate for “strong sex references, violence, drug use, strong language”.
They also list the ‘Precuts information’ where the studio were given the chance to strip it back and sanitise it for human consumption. The end result was: “This film was originally shown to the BBFC, for advice, in an incomplete form. The BBFC advised the company it was likely to be classified 18 but that their preferred 15 could be achieved by making reductions to a couple of scenes of crude humour. When the film was submitted for formal classification, these sequences had been acceptably reduced.”
So, the lunatics have taken over the asylum once again.
As for the film itself, the simple premise is that a new assignment forces a top spy (Strong) to team up with his football hooligan brother (Cohen). I can take or leave Cohen – even though he’s not bad in this trailer, but Strong is usually worth a watch. Directed by Louis Leterrier, written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Phil Johnston and Peter Baynham, and also starring Isla Fisher, Annabelle Wallis, Penélope Cruz, Rebel Wilson, David Harewood, Ian McShane, Scott Adkins, Gabourey Sidibe and Tamsin Egerton.
Grimsby was originally due for released on March 4th, then was brought forward to February 26th, but was then put back to March 10th… and now is February 24th! Madness! But not as mad as the censorship.
Check out the trailer below and click on the new poster for the full-size image.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.