Country: U.K.
Genre(s): Comedy /
Drama
Director:
Christopher Morris
Cast: Riz Ahmed /
Nigel Lindsay / Kayvan Novak
Plot
Four British Muslims
plot to martyr themselves in a coordinated suicide bomb attack. Their only problem is that they’re all
idiots.
What I Liked
There’s no getting
around it; the movie’s damn funny. When
one first hears/reads that the film is about terrorist plotting a suicide
bombing, comedy isn’t the fight genre that might come to mind. In fact, when one learns it is a comedy, one
might take offense. After all, most
would agree that mass killing is no laughing matter. “Four Lions” will make you laugh out loud,
despite yourself. The film presents the
quite plausible hypothesis that most terrorists are far from the mysterious,
mad geniuses or even the devout religious fanatics they are often portrayed as
being in film; they’re dumbasses who can’t get themselves organized, constantly
screw up at every endeavor, and could care less about the Koran.
However this is no
bare-bones “Three Stooges” serving of buffoonery (Don’t get me wrong, I love
the Stooges). Despite their imbecility,
the characters in “Four Lions” are never allowed to become simply caricatures;
they are very well fleshed-out characters both emotionally and psychologically
and thus seem entirely believable. Which
is where the film is truly frightening.
Every laugh comes with a twinge of fear, yet the laughs are unavoidable.
What I Didn’t Like
Of course, as I
mentioned previously, there is often an uncomfortable feeling one gets due to the
subject matter of the movie; but that’s part of the films point and part of
what makes it so funny. Just know that
it’s there.
While this film is
terrifically funny, part of its humor relies upon the very shock of taking people
who are regarded as such devious villains in popular culture and turning all of
that on its head with pure silliness.
Much of the comedy that takes place on screen wouldn’t be so funny if it
wasn’t making fun of aspiring mass murderers.
Take away the novelty of the subject matter, and the film would be about
half as funny.
Most Memorable Scene
You can see some of
these gags coming long before they happen, but they’re executed so well that
the laughs never suffer. The one
involving a bazooka being shot at a U.S. drone has been done countless times on
film and television, but still had me in stitches. Funniest moment of the movie.
My Rating: 3 out of 5