The Brothers Grimsby
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: March 11, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
13
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichMar 10, 2016
Here’s what you didn’t expect: That The Brothers Grimsby, an upstairs-downstairs spy comedy, would be Cohen’s best work in a decade. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsGersh HuntzmanMar 10, 2016
If you like dumb gross-out comedies featuring men fellating each other, double entendres about penises and feces, and an obsession with the anus straight out of elementary school, you’ll love Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest effort. If you don’t, what, pray tell, is wrong with you?! Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 23, 2016
Grimsby doesn’t ever wound quite as devastatingly as Borat or Brüno, but it’s a vital, lavish, venomously profane two fingers up at Benefits Street pity porn and the social division it fosters. I laughed, winced, gagged, then laughed even more. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBilge EbiriMar 10, 2016
Mostly, The Brothers Grimsby simply wants to make you laugh. And it will. Whether you're laughing because the jokes are actually funny or because you can't quite believe that you just saw what you did...well, that's between you and your god. Read full review
67
TheWrapTim CogshellMar 22, 2016
The raunchy awfulness of The Brothers Grimsby is overwhelmed by a constant flow of chuckles, guffaws and flat-out belly laughs it elicits throughout. Read full review
67
ConsequenceBlake GobleMar 11, 2016
Grimsby’s provocative, but not stupid. It knows what kind of humor it wants to achieve, and often scores big. Read full review
67
The Film StageJohn FinkMar 10, 2016
As far as straightforward crude comedies go, The Brothers Grimsby succeeds at times, even if the confines of narrative cinema restrict just how wild Sacha Baron Cohen can be. Read full review
67
IndieWireDemetrios MatheouFeb 23, 2016
The comedy is as broad as it could be, knee-deep in political incorrectness and bad taste. But as ever with Cohen, it's fueled by such imagination and daft abandon that what ought to be offensive becomes hilarious. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 18, 2016
When the film’s pace slows down every now and then, and Cohen gets room to breathe, the film is a genuine riot. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMar 10, 2016
No, it’s not all that sophisticated. But compared to glib junk like Zoolander 2, The Brothers Grimsby is practically high art. Unlike Ben Stiller, at least Cohen is trying. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 14, 2016
Parts of The Brothers Grimsby are very funny. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekMar 14, 2016
Nine out of ten gags in this crude pub crawl of a comedy are indefensible. Maybe ten out of ten. Tragically, perhaps, I laughed anyway: It’s so hard to know what to laugh at anymore, and what it’s OK to laugh at. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounFeb 23, 2016
Nobby is hardly a character for the ages. He's a basic fool. The movie, too, is chaotic and crude. But its lack of sophistication, like its odd mix of souped-up action and base comedy, ultimately feels like a badge of honour. Read full review
60
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganFeb 23, 2016
Sacha Baron Cohen didn’t become a household name by pulling his punches. While his latest subversion Grimsby is ostensibly a routinely lowbrow British comedy, it’s also a something of stealth device to test the waters as to how far down he can bottom-feed. Read full review
58
The PlaylistNick SchagerMar 10, 2016
Cohen’s willingness to do, or say, anything in order to elicit a chuckle at least somewhat salvages The Brothers Grimsby — right up to a riotously nasty climactic gag shoved down the throat of Donald Trump. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerMar 10, 2016
Eventually, though, The Brothers Grimsby runs out of room to fully work as a hit-or-miss comedy — and perhaps most disappointing, doesn’t reserve any of its hits for co-stars Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson, Gabourey Sidibe, and Penelope Cruz; it’s a great, diverse female cast assembled to do not very much. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMar 10, 2016
It's not unfunny in spots, but it huffs and puffs (among other bodily functions) more often than it splits the sides. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 10, 2016
It's the strafing satire that's MIA. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinFeb 23, 2016
Baron Cohen and Strong are both robustly physical performers, and their finest moments are when they’re grappling with each other, producing a great tangle of limbs and teeth. But the script, credited to Baron Cohen, Phil Johnston and Peter Baynham (based on a story by Baron Cohen and Johnston), is not especially generous to the other members of the cast. Read full review
40
CineVueJordan AdcockFeb 24, 2016
Grimsby fails in its satirical mission due to a hodgepodge of generic action and ill-advised comedy. Read full review
40
Total FilmNeil SmithFeb 23, 2016
The strange thing about Grimsby is that it works much better as a Bond-spoofing actioner than it does as a politically incorrect rib-tickler. Read full review
40
VarietyGuy LodgeFeb 23, 2016
Baron Cohen’s unflinching ability to play dumb is still good for a few chuckles, making some of the film’s funniest moments out of its most innocent quips. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 23, 2016
Grimsby has the occasional laugh and a succession of finely wrought grossout spectaculars which are reasonably entertaining.... But with its cod-Bond and mock-action material it carries a weird overall feel, like kids’ TV but produced on a lavish scale with added filth. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMar 11, 2016
As a full movie experience this did not drop my jaw in a consistently enjoyable way. And the movie’s Trump joke is pretty ineffectual. Sad! Read full review
38
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianMar 10, 2016
The film doesn't do much to satirize the spy genre, instead using its flimsy plot mostly as a scaffolding for a barrage of jokes. Read full review
38
USA TodayBrian TruittMar 10, 2016
Isn’t nearly as funny as it thinks it is spoofing spy tropes and buddy films and making a mockery of AIDS, politicians, movie stars and working-class Brits. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithMar 10, 2016
As a comedy, The Brothers Grimsby is weak and scattershot, but it’s useful as an unintended self-indictment of the chattering classes’ disgust and disdain for white working folk. Read full review
37
Washington PostStephanie MerryMar 17, 2016
The Brothers Grimsby is fitfully, sometimes outrageously, funny. But Cohen’s shtick of showing the backwardness and stupidity of unprivileged characters is starting to feel lazy, not to mention classist itself. Read full review
30
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 10, 2016
Mr. Cohen just seems off his game in “Grimsby,” and it may be that the movie’s high concept proved too constricting for someone who has done some of his best work (as in the “Borat” film) with a looser, more episodic format. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 16, 2016
83 minutes of excruciating, nauseating, boundary-pushing “comedy” that never for a second feels like it’s anything but visual evidence of the end of Sacha Baron Cohen’s comic leading-man career. Read full review
20
EmpireHelen O'HaraFeb 23, 2016
It may occasionally shock a laugh from you, but between those moments your face will be a rictus of horror. Read full review
12
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 17, 2016
This movie is so atrocious I kept waiting for Nick Cage to show up. Read full review
11
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovMar 16, 2016
This is Baron Cohen’s worst film, period. Read full review
0
HitfixDrew McWeenyMar 10, 2016
An entirely laughless affair and easily the low point of Cohen's career so far. Read full review
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