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Four Lions Review
04 May 2010
Critics rating: 5 stars out of 5
Reviewed by Jonathan Crocker , LOVEFiLM
Four Lions

A comedy of terrors?

Once again, Brit genius Chris Morris – the man behind groundbreaking TV satire series The Day Today and Brass Eye – leaves you marvelling at the size of his balls.

Cast details

Audacious, original and brilliantly executed, writer/director Morris’ big-screen debut puts the mental into fundamentalist to follow the half-baked plans of a bumbling group of British Muslims intent on blowing themselves up in the name of Allah.

Think suicide-bomber Spinal Tap. Aggressive white radical Barry (Nigel Lindsay) wants to bomb a mosque to “radicalise the moderates”. Endearing numbskull Waj (Kayvan Novak) takes pictures of his face to decide how he feels. Fessel (Adeel Akhtar) straps bombs to crows. Hassan (Arsher Ali) makes Jihadist raps. Young middle-class father Omar (Riz Ahmed) has to figure out how to lead them all on a deadly mission.

Crucially, they’re not foreign insurgents but next-door northerners - playing it straight - with the superb cast ensuring that it’s impossible not to care about each of their characters. From botched martyrdom home-videos to Maj’s suggestion to blow up the internet, Morris’ script – co-written with Peep Show scribes Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain – is as ludicrous and alarmingly plausible as anything he’s done previously, while keeping the tragic absurdity of fanaticism in his satirical sights.

Morris makes sure everyone gets caught in the cross-fire: the white face-stomper who accidently converted himself to Islam, the devout Muslims, the bungling police sharp-shooters, the liberal politicians.

Four Lions

There’s some serious research behind the comedy, but even Four Lions’ most provocative satire feels deft and free-wheeling. A little too much so, in fact. There’s not much sense of cinematic style here and, while moving at a busy pace, the movie often feels more like a run of episodic skits than a propulsive story. And as loveable as they are, the characters feel too broad to be a believable glimpse into extremist thinking.

But Four Lions is so irreverent and so keen, you rarely care. As the film motors towards its explosive climax, Morris pulls an ever-more-breath-snatching balancing act between slapstick and seriousness, idiocy and emotion, farce and fear. Brilliantly constructing laughs that can stop dead in your throat, it's one of the funniest, riskiest comedies you’ll ever see.

Four Lions Reviews

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LOVEFiLM Review Four Lions

  • 5 stars out of 5  

    By Jonathan Crocker from LOVEFiLM

    Brass Eye's Chris Morris serves up a satirical take on terrorism.

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Most helpful review Four Lions

  • There is nothing remotely controversial about this movie!

    Rated - 3.0 stars  
    By a customer from Beddington , 09 May 2010

    [Highly rated reviewer]

    I headed out to the movies to see why yet again some people were offended by this movie but Britain has become a nation of people that have nothing better to do than be overly pc and offended over anything it seems. Clearly those that have made these judgements have done so before seeing the movie, so if anyone has to be offended it should be terrorist bombers as they have been portrayed as thoroughly thick and quite pathetic in this movie! This movie was funny sometimes over the top but I didn't find it controversial at all in the way that it would refer to 7/7 bombings etc... (Personally I do not think every bomber is as thick as the characters portrayed in this movie, however Chris Morris did prove a valid point by creating characters that were so laughably hopeless: the utter futility of using violence to solve any problem). There is always a choice how one chooses to tackle a problem and the fact that there are people in this world ignorant and deluded enough to believe that by taking their own lives in the hope of being met by virgins (that's like saying there's a Disneyland in the afterlife!!! How silly, I find it laughable that grown men believe such piffle!!!) they will make any kind of difference. Proof of the pudding is simple and it's called results: if their actions work why do more and more of them kill themselves and others? I applaud Morris for making this point, I think there should be more movie makers out there tackling issues that most people find sensitive, because the reason these jihadists do what they do is through faulty thinking and beliefs, shedding some light on that is always a service to humanity!
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All reviews

(513)

  • Just Bad

    Rated - 0.5 stars  
    By a customer , 19 May 2013
    Just bad. Tried to keep watching but after 20 minutes I had to turn it of otherwise I would have wasted more of my life. waste of a DVD.
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  • Bored, bored bored.....

    Rated - 1.0 star  
    By Kelly76 (93 reviews) from Crowthorne , 17 Apr 2013
    I tried, I really did. Its very rare I swtich a film off but this just didn't float my boat. I can see how people would like it, and maybe I was in the wrong mood to watch it, but 32 minutes is all I lasted before skipping scenes to finally see what happened in the end. It had some breif moments of comedy, it had a good stroyline but I just didn't gel with it. Sorry to say this one bored me to death and I can't say i'd recommend it.
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  • Chris Morris Takes On Terrorism

    Rated - 3.0 stars  
    By Lugodoc (106 reviews) from Portsmouth, UK , 06 Apr 2013
    Po-faced Yorkshire humour that doesn't aim for a laugh a minute slapstick but hits somewhere between edgy political satire and plain uncomfortable, which is where Morris usually aims anyway. I found myself wanting to see this done as a serious film, which it nearly is. The extras on the DVD are actually a lot more interesting with candid interviews made around Northern England towns as research for the film that reveal a lot more about the crazy surreal situation up here than the film itself. Cumberbatch is in it for 1 minute right at the end. Before he was famous.
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  • Not bad

    Rated - 3.0 stars  
    By a customer , 18 Mar 2013
    Funny at times. There were quite a few bits where you just look at each other. It is black comedy but misses the mark.
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  • Laugh out loud funny

    Rated - 3.0 stars  
    By a customer , 14 Mar 2013
    A laugh out loud comedy following impressionable and misguided terrorists. The characters are very well portrayed. The subjects dealt with are of course, touchy, to say the least, it's an adult themed movie and the characters could have been any colour or culture, 'fighting' for any cause. I didn't find it offensive, quite the opposite, I think the story tries to take the sting out. A comedy triumph in a world of big budget lack lustre blockbusters.
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