And now, we have Four Lions, a nice little film about Islamic terrorists plotting mass murder in London. Wait! Don’t get me wrong! The film’s much better than it sounds.
The eponymous Four Lions are Omar (Riz Ahmed), Waj (Kayvan Novak), Barry (Nigel Lindsay) and Hassan (Arsher Ali), a group of Islamic terrorist wannabes in Sheffield. The keyword here is “wannabes,” a sharp indication that things are going to get silly.They want to carry out the cause of Jihad, but really, they have no clue about what they’re getting themselves into. It all comes to a head for all of them when they decide to blow up the London Marathon.
How clueless are they? Barry’s grand plan is to blow up, and take credit for, a mosque bombing to start a revolution. Their fifth member, Faisal (Adeel Akhtar), trips and blows himself up carrying explosives. And Omar and Waj can’t fire a rocket launcher the right way to save their lives. I can go on, but I won’t.
This film is to over-zealous fanaticism what Dr. Strangelove was to mutual-assured-destruction. In other words, it takes a very serious topic and brings it down with laughter. It’s something that director Chris Morris and his co-writers, all veterans of British TV satire, have done so well. It's certainly a movie worth looking at if you have the time.
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