The human-based comedy is mostly kept relatively weak in "The Brothers Grimsby," a sleazy but labored spy satire. With its unsettling blend of jocular genre satire, excessive gross-out content, and casually gory, video-game-style combat, the story of two estranged siblings coming together to confront a worldwide terrorism syndicate earns some stray yucks. The laughs per minute are noticeably lower than they were in "Spy," which was a kinder "Spy" from the previous year. It remains to be seen how many HIV-AIDS jokes auds will be ready to laugh at in an otherwise sparsely filled 82 minutes, however certain relevant punchlines may grant these brothers some ephemeral pop-cultural recognition.
