Review of Four Lions (2010) by Tomas T — 13 Mar 2011

Provocative, akward and oddly funny are all subjects to describe Four Lions as a movie. A British comedy about four wannabe terrorists can be called daring; so daring that one must give hats off for the director for choosing such a provocative script in the times we live in.

As said the movie is provocative to the bone. Making a comedy movie about suicide bombers cannot be on high on anybody's "morally correct" list. The movie lightens the athmosphere by portraying the terrorists in a clumsy and carefree manner. This makes the viewer at times forget that they are indeed terrorists and are dealing with dead serious matter. The movie manages to keep the package at least somewhat believable thanks to some shocking wakeup calls, like accidently blowing up a person, between the comedy.

There are big name actors involved in the movie and the actors are in somewhat side roles as what they represent, the terrorists, takes the center stage. Each one of them have different personality, you have the fanatic, moron, brains and a not so important sidekick. The movie works out rather well up to the middle of the movie but sadly the movie suffers from the basic comedy syndrome where the first part is funny but the second one becomes repetitive. The ending is also worth mentioning as it is too dramatic for the otherwise funny comedy. Even so there is no question that Four Lions is funny and entertaining movie for who appreciate black humour and are not put off by the whole suicide bomber scheme.