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Grimsby started off with a better title, in my eyes – The Brothers Grimsby, it being a play on the Brothers Grimm, even though it’s not a fairy tale, so perhaps that’s why they changed it. Plus, their surname isn’t Grimsby, it’s Butcher. Not that any of that really matters.
What does matter is that, between the two of them, Sebastian (Mark Strong) is the best of the best for MI6’s secret agents, targetting baddies while, back in Grimsby, Nobby’s (Sacha Baron Cohen) a complete chav, celebrating England making their way to the semi-finals in Euro 2016 (so you know it’s a fantasy), slobbing away at home with his on-the-verge-of-diabetes girlfriend, Dawny (Rebel Wilson playing herself), while berating his children about the perils of toxins:
- Nobby: “I told you not to smoke.”
Son (one of many): “I thought you just meant crack.”
Nobby: “No, cigarettes as well. At your age, you should just be vaping.”
Meanwhile, Penelope Cruz is philanthropist Rhonda George who’s bankrolled the Worldcure charity event, attempting to rid the world of disease. Sebastian’s in London about to bump off a key target there who intends to kill her, but right at the wrong moment, and in reuniting the pair for the first time in 28 years, Nobby’s about to get in his way and screw things up big-time since, inadvertently, once Nobby intervenes, the powers that be think Sebastian’s now working for the baddies, plus guest of honour Daniel Radcliffe‘s health is put in danger.
The plan, for MI6, therefore, is to track him down with a direction called Chilcott, and for the Lord with the slightly shorter name, Chilcot, his Iraq report is due out tomorrow. Interestingly, this film is actually set DURING this Blu-ray and DVD’s week of release!
With the pressure heating up on the pair, Seb needs to sort out the baddies, while Nobby just wants to watch the footy final, this coming Saturday.
The residents of Grimsby didn’t like that this film portrays them all as chavs. I’ve never been to Grimsby, but I can think of many other places full of chavs, so either way, they can’t have the monopoly on them. One thing I didn’t like was that this film was censored for its cinema release, the studio cutting a couple of rude scenes down to allow for a 15-certificate. Thankfully, the Blu-ray and DVD are uncut 18-certificates, but this censorship is the reason why I refused to see it on the big screen.
Grimsby has a Bond-style spy spoof segment, plus some heartfelt moments that surprisingly really hit the mark, in a film that’s light on plot, while heavy on laughs, including big cheers, from me at least, to the nuking of a traffic warden!
Now, when are we getting Grimsby 2?
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and in 1080p high definition and you’d be surprised if it was not a top-notch transfer for a brand new film, as the brothers go globe-trotting to sort out the baddies.h
The sound is in DTS HD 5.1 and some great split-surround audio is used in the action scenes, plus it gets a bit squelchy when the elephant is in the room…
The extras are as follows, but there’s not too many:
- Line-o-rama (2:21): Alternate lines, crammed into just over 2 minutes.
- Gag reel (2:34): Gaffes aplenty in such a short space of time. And the way the penultimate scene happened is quite something!
- Deleted scenes (8:54): Three scenes – two of which are brilliant: one being a job interview with Paul Kaye, and the other being a forensics scene with Cardinal Burns. I think if that had been made a post-credits scene (since it wouldn’t fit into the film as it is), it would’ve been fucking awesome.
- Extended scenes (9:02): Another three scenes, one of which (and the best one here) is an extended ‘elephant’ scene (yes, that one), and I would definitely include that back in the film.
- The Making of Grimsby (11:50): A general case of clips mixed in with chat from the cast and crew, and the clapperboards interesting show it had the working title of “The Curse of Hendon”.
- The Elephant in the Room (4:21): A more in-depth look at THAT scene…. (again, I’m not detailing it if you haven’t seen the film)
- Previews: Trailers put in the right place (part of the extras and not prior to the main menu), hence I will name them: The Night Before and the new Ghostbusters film.
- Audio description: Does exactly what it says on the tin.
The menu features a static shot of the two brothers, but Sony have continued to do what they did with The Night Before and The 5th Wave and also what Lionsgate did to The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2, where the disc has some sort of weird menu system which means that the D-pad buttons on my PS4 can’t control the rewinding and fast-forwarding of Blu-rays. I’d rather it was the other way round, thankyou. They’re not the only studios, but there’s still only a handful that do it. Why is this??
Also, like The Night Before, the menu is accompanied by a piece of music that bears no relation to the film itself. Very strange.
In addition, there are subtitles in English and Polish while chapters are slightly more than the usual amount you get on most discs. There are 16, whereas a lot of distributors skimp on a mere 12.
Grimsby is out now on Blu-ray, DVD and Amazon Video, and click on the packshot for the full-size image.
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
8 10 8 4 |
| OVERALL | 7.5 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 83 minutes
Studio: Sony Pictures
Cat.no.: PRJ447770BD
Year: 2016
Released: July 4th 2016
Chapters: 16
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English, Polish
Format: 2.35:1 (ARRIRAW (2.8K))
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Louis Leterrier
Producers: Sacha Baron Cohen, Peter Baynham, Ant Hines, Nira Park and Todd Schulman
Screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen, Phil Johnston and Peter Baynham
Music: David Buckley and Erran Baron Cohen
Cast:
Sebastian: Mark Strong
Nobby: Sacha Baron Cohen
Jodie Figgis: Isla Fisher
Dawn Grobham: Rebel Wilson
Rhonda George: Penélope Cruz
Pavel Lukashenko: Scott Adkins
Jeremy Chilcott: Sam Hazeldine
Tsunami: Freddie Crowder
Jason: Jon-Jon Lockwood
Skeletor: Shaun Thomas
Britney: Claudia Adshead
Steven Marber: Lex Shrapnel
Jordan Beder: David James
James Thurbeck: Rory Keenan
Carla Barnes: Tamsin Egerton
Milky Pimms: Johnny Vegas
Paedo Pete: Ricky Tomlinson
Black Gareth: David Harewood
Doris: Margaret Jackman
Bob Tolliver: John Thomson
Young Nobby: Lewis Johnson
Young Sebastian: Gabriel Palmer
News Reporter: Steve Scott
Javier Alvarez: Jorge de Juan
Fake Radcliffe: Matthew Baldwin
Shlomo Khalidi: Yusuf Hofri
Lady at Worldcure Event: Rebecca Front
Traffic Warden: Peter Baynham
News Reporter: Bob Cryer
Britney’s Boyfriend: Kyle Rowe
Django Unchained: Miles Evans
Gangnam Style: Amaan Hendricks
Luke: Zachary Sutcliffe
Nobby’s Daughter: Mika Behrman
Stella Artois: Laura Therese
Shouting Woman: Janie Booth
Clive Graves: Paul Thornley
Mrs. Graves: Joanna Bobin
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.