Grimsby

Grimsby is the latest film from Sacha Baron Cohen and you know before you read this whether you are going to enjoy this film or not.

In keeping with his sense of humour established in his previous releases but pursuing the storied element rather than his early, pseudo-documentary style Grimsby is laugh out loud for those who are fans and potentially too gross for those who aren't.

We are in the former camp but felt that his last; The Dictator, was a little too-focused on story progression and skimped on the humour after the opening scenes. Grimsby keeps the humour throughout but, again, has a rather hokey, throwaway plot which is perfect for a lazy watch with friends, but not anything to be taken seriously and not quite the political statement it wants to be and that Baron Cohen is known for.

His character here; Nobby Butcher, is probably his weakest; funny in appearance (the scene where he first puts on his 'spy uniform' and swaggers out to Oasis is genius) but much too similar to Ali G to create a lasting impression. Baron Cohen's normally brilliant voice is all over the place and when he occasionally slips into Ali G-mode you can't help but wish his best creation was the star of the film.

The rest of the cast are on good form; Mark Strong is the perfect line between funny and serious, Rebel Wilson continues her good streak in an unfortunately underused role and there are some nice cameos that pop up throughout.

Some of the humour is classically gross-out; a certain elephant related scene will either see you lose control of your tummy through laughing or hurling, and this fine line is towed throughout.

Certainly better than The Dictator but way behind Ali G and Borat, this continues Baron Cohen's slight downturn since those two classics but will hopefully see him resurrect one of those characters for his next feature.

3 stars ***