Four Lions - Cineworld - 17/5/10

Chris Morris isn't a man who worries about causing offence.

"Brasseye", "The Day Today", "Jam", "Blue Jam", "Nathan Barley" and now "Four Lions" have all played with ideas that may have caused other creative forces to pause and say; "Not yet...". From paedophillia and dead babies plugged into plumbing systems, elephants with their trunks trapped inside their own anus to Jihad it seems that Morris is a man on a mission to confront us with taboos.

The young British muslims who occupy the world of "Four Lions" are fools...trying to train crows as suicide bombers, killing Osama Bin Laden while visiting a training camp in Pakistan, blowing up microwave ovens and singing along to "Dancing in the Moonlight" en route to their final destination. Ultimately though these boys are only fools to a point because they achieve their aim...albeit in a messy and "unsuccessful" fashion.

I don't think Morris is trying to claim that we would all be better served by laughing off the threat from radicals of whatever creed, I think he is highlighting the fact that there is something inherently ridiculous about radicalism and about a society that bends to their will. While there may well be a threat to our society from exactly the sort of people painted in the film it would seem that the response to that threat is disproportionate...

I'm straying dangerously close to rant and further away from "review" here.

Right.

The only question that really matters here is...is it funny? The answer is that, yes, it is. There are moments of high comedy and genuine laugh out loud moments (lol soz). Each of us may well arrive at a different conclusion regarding Morris's motives/message but he has, undeniably, made a funny film from source material that would have lesser talents floundering looking for laughs. As with his "Paedogeddon" he has tackled one of the big issues and managed to do so while scoring hit after hit with his jokes. Where the likes of Frankie "I'm outrageous me" Boyle and "Jimmy "I'm not Jim Davidson, honest" Carr rely on controversy to cover up the fact that they aren't very funny Morris is a man who takes taboos, confronts us with them, makes us laugh and makes us think about why.

Alongside Armando Ianucci, Morris may just be the best comedy writer of his generation.