The Brothers Grimsby

It’s been a decade since subversive comedian Sacha Baron Cohen broke into the mainstream with the wildly successful Borat. Yet he’s never been able to recapture that magic in several attempts since, regardless of how much he alters his appearance.

His latest effort is The Brothers Grimsby, a bizarre mix of low-brow comedy and high-tech thriller that finds Baron Cohen missing the mark in a broad spoof of buddy-comedy and espionage clichés.

He stars as Nobby, a mutton-chopped soccer hooligan from the small English fishing town of Grimsby, who might love his nine children and his eccentric wife (Rebel Wilson), but he still feels a sense of emptiness in his heart. Nobby and his brother, Sebastian, were separated through adoption as small children and haven’t spoken since.

Eventually, he gets a tip and tracks down Sebastian (Mark Strong), who is actually an MI6 operative on the verge of uncovering an assassination plot on a philanthropist (Penelope Cruz). The two couldn’t be more mismatched, yet wind up in a reluctant partnership with world peace in the balance.

Despite some capable supporting turns in his career, Baron Cohen still hasn’t found his niche as a leading man, and his character here is simply boorish and obnoxious without leaving room for sympathy or charm. He never develops the odd-couple chemistry with Strong that’s necessary to generate a rooting interest.

At least the film’s action sequences are capably staged, which you might expect given the resume of French director Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk). The frenetic pace is a bonus.

Meanwhile, the script is consistently and aggressively off-putting as it strains to become outrageous. Thumbing your nose at political correctness is one thing, but jokes about AIDS, pedophilia, rape and Bill Cosby come off as more tasteless than amusing.

Then there are the gross-out gags. Nothing expresses a brother’s love quite like lines such as: “You can suck my scrotum or you can let me die.” Things reach an egregious low point when the siblings become trapped together in the anus of an amorous elephant.

Perhaps The Brothers Grimsby offers a wish-fulfillment fantasy for Baron Cohen as a globetrotting spy, yet the attempts at satire fall flat despite some broad targets, and the result produces more groans than laughs.

Rated R, 83 minutes.