WHAT if James Bond had an estranged brother?

And what if that sibling was not suave, sophisticated and ruthlessly effective but a council estate layabout and football yob?

That is the premise of the latest film by Sacha Baron Cohen, the man who brought us Ali G and Borat.

Grimsby sees two brothers – MI6 super spy Sebastian (Mark Strong) and dimwitted Nobby (Cohen) – reunited after being separated as kids.

Their lives have gone in very different directions.

So you have Nobby who glugs lager, sticks fireworks up his bum for entertainment and has a huge brood of kids with names like Skeletor and Django Unchained, who watch South Park and Breaking Bad for education.

Meanwhile, Sebastien thwarts terrorists around the globe.

Those two worlds colliding is basically one joke – punctuated with sex gags, toilet humour and fat jokes – so no wonder the film is just 80 minutes long.

No humour is too base for Cohen this time around.

One scene channels Tom Green's Freddy Got Fingered and involves an unlikely hiding place...and elephant sex. It is so outrageous that you have to laugh but mostly in disbelief.

Elsewhere the film pokes fun at working class stereotypes including a pub where toddlers run around carrying pints and wearing nothing but a nappy and England face paint.

Essex stands in for a fictional version of Grimsby which is portrayed as the epitome of David Cameron's 'broken Britain' and the twin town of Chernobyl.

No wonder some residents of Grimsby have taken offence but the jury is still out on the film's humour.

Is it divisive and toxic or does it poke fun at those who actually think these sort of stereotypes exist?

It is unclear but some jokes – about AIDS and leukaemia – go too far and the distinctly average film might make you miss Cohen's older films.

Whatever happened to the Ali G and Borat creator who subverted politics in the UK and held a mirror up to small-minded and intolerant communities in the US?

RATING: 5/10

DAVID MORGAN