Review of Four Lions (2010) by Paul S — 24 Nov 2011

Playing like an extended Monty Python skit, Four Lions is a mostly hilarious (though a bit too long) send up of Jihadists yearning for martyrdom.

Nothing is sacred here, from the Pakistani living in England to an angry Englishman, they all want their 15 minutes of fame, each recording their terrorist tapes, claiming responsibility for some action that the cell is too bumbling to carry off.

The Englishman wants to blow up a mosque, reasoning that such an action will incite the remaining Muslims to join in the jihad. There's a gleeful look in his eye as he proclaims the end of days and revels in the thought of the great final battle in which Islam will be victorious. Of course the leader of the cell, who has ties to Pakistan, informs him that if the mosque is blown up, there will be far fewer Muslims available to fight. Later the Englishman records his glory tape, taking credit for the upcoming Mosque bombing, in the name of some bogus Islamic Jihadic organization (think the Christian Leftest Front from Life of Brian) - totally ignoring the fact that if he wanted to enlist more Muslims, he shouldn't be claiming that the bombing came from a Muslim group.

There are some truly hilarious scenes here - for example, the Pakistani gets called back to Pakistan by an uncle to receive "terrorist training". He takes his best friend, and once in Pakistan they boast to one another that they will kill each other in the name of the cause. Further, once entrenched at the "secret training facility", they use their cell phones to take a video of themselves decked out as terrorists (including the requisite shooting of machine guns into the sky) - the transmission of the cell phone is traceable and soon, while the leaders are having a secret meeting on the other side of the valley, the base is attacked by a US drone. Our heroes get a rocket launcher and intend to take out the drone, but point the wrong end - sending the rocket backwards and into the other side of the valley where the leaders were having their pow-wow. Check out the ending credits for a very funny bit showing the US news report on the incident.

Furthering the Monty Python theme, there is a scene requiring the foursome to walk/run in a bizarre crouch, holding bags of explosives in front of them (think the Ministry of Funny Walks), plus several goofy scenes of things blowing up that also harken back to The Flying Circus days.

Finally, there is an off the charts scene where one of the foursome is encouraged to climb over a wall while holding explosives - there is a group of grazing sheep on the other side, so when the "terrorist" fall over the wall he manages to blow himself and a couple of sheep to smithereens. The remaining three cell members then argue whether the fallen comrade should be considered a martyr for sacrificing himself even though he didn't really advance the cause. They finally rationalize that by killing a sheep, they were negatively impacting the food chain, hence their fallen friend would be rushed to heaven and given the virgins he deserves as a martyr for the cause.

Of course not all the jokes work, and the zaniness and stupidity of the four lions does wear a bit thin - but all in all, as a piece of indy type satire, this film is quite enjoyable.