(film review) - The Brothers Grimby

The best character of Sacha is Borat.  When I first saw Borat on the Ali G part of the bjbl Show, I found him soo funny, that when the film came out, I had to watch it.  Had to.  And I was not disappointed at all.  Soon after was Bruno in which I thought was borderline ok at very best. It felt like Borat but an overly extreme version and most of the gags, to me anyway, I didn't find overly funny like how I found Borat.  Like a rehash of the jokes.  The Dictator was better and now we have Grimsby, a cross between Ali G and...well, Ali G, I guess.

Grimsby is about a man who reconnects with his long lost brother after years of no contact.  A lot has changed between the two brothers, one of them is an undercover spy for the MI6, Sebastian (Mark Strong) and the other is a man how has 11 children living with his wife, Nobby (Sacha Baron Cohen) and lives in a small fishing town he grew up in called Grimsby.  When Nobby meet's his brother, Nobby doesn't realise that his brother is a spy and ends up tagging along so that he does not lose his brother again.  However, the life of a spy is no joke and could mean tactical espionage, shooting guns, fights and saving the world.  Sebastian might need the help of England's biggest idiot, his brother Nobby to help save the world.

First off, I wasn't expecting to see this film and having seen the trailer, I wasn't going to.  I mean, I knew it would be funny, but with what I had said earlier in terms of a rehash of jokes, I went into this film thinking, "yeah I've seen this before and it's going to be the same kind of thing".  Was I right, pretty much.  Was it funny? Pretty much.  Was it a decent film to watch? Pretty much.  Will you love it? Depends on your humour, but for me, No.  I liked it as it was entertaining and funny but not a cinema movie at all.  You could probably wait to see this on TV at home and you will enjoy it whilst chilling.  Maybe even drunk or high.  The film isn't garbage and Sacha brings all that he can into this type of movie.  The kind of movie he is known for doing like the fore-mentioned, but for me, I want to see something different from him.  Well acted as usual by Sacha and even better for Mark Strong as I didn't know he could transition to this kind of film and he was very funny in it.  But ultimately, this film is nothing to write home about.  Your normal slapstick, below the belt and somewhat outrageous scenes and jokes you've seen and not seen before.  Prepare to laugh and be somewhat grossed out.

(film review) - Precious

This film is based on a novel written by Sapphire, a American author and performance poet. It was originally called "Push" until Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey gave it some promotional assistance and released it through Lions Gate Entertainment and named it Precious.

Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is an 16 year old, born and raised in Harlem who not only is obese and illiterate, she also suffers from long term mental and physical abuse as well as sexual abuse from both her parents. She has already had a daughter named "Mongo" for short and on news of her second child on the way, her school suspend her to attend an alternative school in hopes to help change her life's direction. From this point, Precious tries to seek assistance and do better for herself with the help of her teacher (Paula Patton) until more family domestics lead to precious leaving home and being stuck in a halfway house until she gets back on her feet. The film shows us of Precious' daily struggles of being who she is and the traumatic experiences she has undergone through her life.

Without spoiling the film as it is a very good watch and maybe a little much for a Sunday morning (the day I saw it), the film didn't grab me as much as I thought it would. The trailer for the film was upsetting enough to watch and the film is equally the same, however, I did honestly think I'd leave the cinema with tears streaming down my face. I put that down to the fantasy land and narration precious gives throughout the entire film. As Precious is always in another world to help escape from a possible traumatic experience in the real world, it does make up and water down some of the scenes/film making them easier to view. I haven't read the novel myself but I have heard that the novel is very graphic and maybe this is the reason why some scenes were watered down to make for easy viewing. Hence the reason I didn't cry.

I can't say much about this film as I have already said enough and it is definitely a film to watch or read. It is sad, funny and I guess at the end, you may even smile, but the film on a whole is a film in which you may need to prepare yourself for before viewing. Some of the scenes that they do show are pretty graphic, but I do believe it could have been worse and more touching, like pulling on the heart strings and play on the audiences emotion levels.

If you can find this film out now anywhere....make sure you go and see it.
Trailer: