Review of Four Lions (2010) by Graham P — 24 Feb 2011

Satirical black comedy from Chris Morris - the creator of spoof tv news shows The Day Today and Brass Eye and the darkly surreal Jam - which tells the tale of a group of rather bungling would be Muslim Jihadists. Four Lions is a clever and smartly written film that manages to both ridicule and envoke a certain amount of sympathy for it's characters; who seem to be sorely lacking a sense of perspective to their often quite ridiculous actions.

Indeed, often the events of the story turn to outright farce, but Morris manages to shift the tone from comedy to tragedy and back rather better than many directors.

Good comic performances from all the cast make this a watchable film, and while I do not feel that it was laugh out loud funny very often, I did find myself chuckling through much of the running time. A bleak finale puts the earlier, lighthearted parts of the film in contrast, but seems to me to have been the most appropriate way to conclude proceedings. The message seems to be that terrorists are often easily manipulated and/or very stupid. But then again, so are lots of people. Four stars.