Barely roars.By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
Four Lions is a Brit satire about four jihadists trying to enter a heaven of virgins by pulling off a suicide bombing in Northern England. Mostly the humor is Three-Stooges' bumbling and stumbling and a bit of mumbling.
The uneven humor is not relegated to the Muslim extremists, however. Counterinsurgent snipers, taking a bead on the four inept bombers in cumbersome costumes at the London marathon, have an interchange about one of the costumes that goes like this:
Sniper#1: [into walkie-talkie] the bear is down. Repeat, the bear is down.
[to other sniper]
Sniper #2: We got the bear.
Sniper #3: I think that's a Wookie. That's a Wookie!
Sniper #1: No it's not! It's a bear!
Sniper #3: [into walkie-talkie] Is a Wookie a bear, Control?
The interchange is the heart of the film's satire?everyone's confused about identities, and they're all a variation of the gang that can't shoot straight.
Another silly moment comes between two of the extremists:
Waj: We'll blow something up.
Omar: What we gonna blow up Waj?
Waj: Internet.
The questionable goal is also emblematic of the absurd comedy itself, relying as it does on the ironic contrast between the enormity of jihad when it targets buildings and crowds and the moronic thought of blowing up cyberspace. Like skits on SNL, sometimes it's funny, and sometimes time it's just lame.
Director/satirist Chris Morris should be commended for trying to make fun of religion and politics with a subject, like incest, too difficult to discuss in public. Morris does better when he stays with pop culture topics such as cell phones and songs such as Dancing in the Moonlight sung by the four Jihadists on their way to suicide blast a crowd.
Four Lions is courageous comedy more courage than comic. It beats many romantic comedies out there, which are inept themselves.
Nobody's safe.
John DeSando co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com