'The Brothers Grimsby' stifles Sacha Baron Cohen's comedic chops

To promote his new film “The Brothers Grimsby," Sacha Baron Cohen decided to showcase the shocked, frightened and definitely disgusted reactions elicited by teaser clips deemed too graphic to include in traditional trailers. Cohen took the clips to Jimmy Kimmel's show, then to Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron on their set of the new "Baywatch" movie and since then, their collective screams of incredulity have been spreading like wildfire on social media. This type of uber-focus given to a few scattered moments in a film is usually a tell-tale sign of how underwhelming the picture is as a whole, and sure enough, it was. The tried and true lesson holds up: shock value can’t mask average quality.

“The Brothers Grimsby," directed by Louis Leterrier, follows the extended reunion of grade-A idiot Nobby (Cohen) and his younger brother Sebastian (Mark Strong). They were separated 28 years before, when Sebastian was adopted by an upper-class English family, leaving Nobby to grow up in the slums of their poor hometown, Grimsby. Their lives took polar opposite turns: Sebastian is now an MI6 agent while Nobby is married with 11 kids. While on a covert assassin’s mission at a charity event, Nobby startles Graves, causing him to miss his target and shoot a little boy with AIDS instead. Pandemonium ensues, including a moment where the blood that ricochets off the misfired bullet manages to make contact with Daniel Radcliffe, causing him to contract the disease. This massive fail causes Graves’s task force to assume he’s gone rogue, and they issue an order to have him terminated. Graves has no choice but to team up with his buffoon of a brother to track down the real target in order to clear his name.

The astounding truth about Cohen is that no matter how debauched his characters appear, his wide-eyed commitment to moral depravity normally pushes boundaries into a comedic sweet spot that has audiences reveling in just how dreadfully wrong he is. However, in “The Brother’s Grimsby," he falls short. The structure of the film is likely the culprit. There is no real investment in the plot — for good reason. The “clearing his name” mission has been tried too many times. Instead, the plot feels like a sad excuse for a set up meant to pad all the cringe-inducing sequences Cohen takes no shame in letting run for far too long. The gags are just gross, and audiences should prepare themselves for a scene that rivals one from “The Revenant” (2015) in which Leonardo DiCaprio took refuge inside of a dead horse. If that was too much for some people, they should probably stay clear of the enlarged orifice Cohen assaults in “Grimsby.”

The film does have its merits, as short-lived as they are. There are several flashbacks of the brother’s childhood that are oddly poignant, considering where they’re pulled from. The dialogue is also really funny when it isn’t trying to accommodate the more elaborate scenes. After the initial misfiring of the fateful bullet, Graves screams at Nobby “You gave Daniel Radcliffe AIDS! You managed to do in three minutes what Voldemort failed to do in eight movies!” That, coupled with a few-less-than-friendly timely jabs at Donald Trump, earn a few light-hearted chuckles that make the hour and twenty minutes spent watching “Grimsby” slightly less aggravating.