Comedy

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday February 5, 2011

George Palathingal

If you know the television work of Brit fruitcake Chris Morris - think The Day Today, Brass Eye and Jam - you will know he is something of a genius when it comes to sometimes controversial, often absurd and usually hilarious satire.Four Lions is Morris's first feature and, being a comedy about a group of inept wannabe jihad soldiers, it casually ticks all those boxes. We see them film terrorist statements unintentionally funnier than anything on Australia's Funniest Home Videos, mess up at a training camp in Pakistan and try to train crows to carry bombs, on the way to the mission that will lead them, they hope, to the glory of martyrdom.The smartest of the group (which isn't saying much) is a family man with a wife and son. His cohorts are spectacularly thick but similarly dedicated to their cause. That they all gain your sympathy by the film's climax might take you by surprise.As well as a surplus of quality lines in the deleted scenes, the DVD's special features include interviews with young British Muslims that, worryingly, show how accurate some of the film's portrayals are. As ever with Morris, Four Lions is a lot smarter than it may seem. FOUR LIONSRated M, 98 minutes(Hopscotch)Rating: 3.5/5

© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald

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