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RE: Four Lions - 21/5/2010 4:08:01 PM

paul_ie86

Posts: 11224
Joined: 4/1/2007
From: Chelsea Hotel #2

There is a screening Four Lions followed by a satellite Q&A with director Chris Morris and cast members. I won tickets for them on twitter but I can't go and I don't want them to go to waste. Just tell me if you want them, you can collect them at the box office. These are the cinemas where it is being broadcast:

Gate Picturehouse - London
Greenwich Picturehouse - London
Ritzy Picturehouse - Brixton, London
Belmont Picturehouse - Aberdeen
The Little Theatre Cinema - Bath
Duke of York's Picturehouse - Brighton
Arts Picturehouse - Cambridge
Cameo Picturehouse - Edinburgh
Exeter Picturehouse - Exeter
Regal Picturehouse - Henley-on-Thames
Picturehouse at FACT - Liverpool
Cinema City - Norwich
Phoenix Picturehouse - Oxford
Harbour Lights Picturehouse - Southampton
Stratford-upon-Avon Picturehouse - Stratford-upon-Avon
City Screen Picturehouse - York

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Post #: 61

brilliant - as funny as in the loop - 23/5/2010 2:31:50 AM

tysmuse

Posts: 261
Joined: 24/9/2007

Really great film - would never have thought that it would work this well. Great dialogue is supplied by the In The Loop writers once again, but the acting is probably the strongest element on show here.

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Post #: 62

RE: You've Got To Laugh - 24/5/2010 7:31:49 AM

Timon

Posts: 14551
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Bristol

"Fucking mini Babybels..."

A great film, funny and poignant, especially the final scenes.

Still, it does a great job of showing incompetence on both sides ("Is a Wookie a bear?!") and the confusion behind the entire Jihadist motives.

4/5

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Post #: 63

RE: You've Got To Laugh - 25/5/2010 1:21:57 PM

Fit Kisto

Posts: 469
Joined: 15/8/2007

Good to see it doing so well at the UK box office:

http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/?region=uk

I would have predicted a more modest public reception, much like how In The Loop was greeted last year.

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Post #: 64

Brave and Brilliant - 26/5/2010 9:48:52 PM

stevos

Posts: 165
Joined: 5/2/2006

But very complex... :-)

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Post #: 65

- 30/5/2010 4:34:17 AM

nukky

Posts: 2
Joined: 8/5/2006

being a british asian myself, i found this film absolutley hilarious! The comedy timing of all the actors was executed to perfection which is refreshing. went in with an open mind and came out quoting "rubber dinghy rapids" all the way home!

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Post #: 66

Lion Hearted - 1/6/2010 10:04:46 PM

vipey

Posts: 28
Joined: 19/2/2009

As brave, touching and funny a film as will be released this year. And yet, as consistently funny as 'Four Lions' it is, it is also an understandably uncomfortable watch - these characters are never one-dimensional and the 'Daily Mail' brigade who might deem the film (unseen) offensive miss the fact that at it's heart this is a very human drama.

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Post #: 67

RE: Lion Hearted - 2/6/2010 9:09:01 PM

robwillphill

Posts: 393
Joined: 15/4/2007
From: Maidstone

Dodgy subject matter, hilarious film. I loved The Day Today and BrassEye, and Four Lions lives up to Chris Morris' reputation - a funny, controversial comedian and now a fantastic director. And as comedies go, this is most likely my favourite comedy of 2010 - let's see if anything else can top it...

8/10

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Post #: 68

- 22/6/2010 11:51:25 AM

twistedmango

Posts: 2
Joined: 26/10/2007

I guess i saw a different film to the four star reviewers on here then because it wasn't that funny and didn't have any kind of message to say. It was too cowardly to side with the 'terrorists' and make a statement about capitalism etc etc or to side against them and show that terrorism isn't the answer.
It was keystone Cops for most of the running time with a sudden and jolting 'tender' moment in the hospital. Poorly written, it was a group of scenes strung together with characters you just couldn't believe in.

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Post #: 69

- 2/9/2010 9:37:24 PM

gzus

Posts: 49
Joined: 4/10/2009
From: Middle Earth, Brum

This film does contain two, maybe three quite hilarious scenes, but it certainly doesn't maintain that comedy throughout. The beginning is slow and uninspired not helped by the two main leads being the most unlikeable of characters. Both Ahmed and Lindsey are two good British actors, but both are uncomfotably irritating here and the other three members of the suicide gang are dim- simpletons played for laughs.

There are moments of satire when the coppers are trying to distinguish between a honey monster and a bear at the marathon. It's a sticky subject to tackle on film and gets props for such bravery, but it's just not that good anyway.

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Post #: 70

Hits most of it's targets - 8/9/2010 11:37:25 PM

ronnie barko

Posts: 2
Joined: 7/9/2010

When it was first announced that provocative comedian Chris Morris was planning on directing a film about a group of jihadist suicide bombers my reaction, as a long term fan of Morris' work, was "that will be brilliant...if it ever gets made."

Over the years Morris has taken acerbic and absurdist pot-shots at politicians, celebrities and the press and all the while gleefully trampled his comedy boots over any topic that could be even remotely labelled 'taboo'.

So when I sat down to watch 'Four Lions' I braced myself for a film that would sail close to the winds of controversy with a disregard for whomever may find any of the content offensive.

In actuality it turned out to be quite.... soft.

Well, maybe 'soft' is the wrong word, Four Lions has definitely got bigger balls than any other comedy films of recent years; Morris (along with co-writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstong) should be applauded for having the guts to tackle such a touchy subject. But compare Four Lions to the rest of his comedic output of recent years and it seems oddly unique, a comedy that isn't afraid to put a smile on the audiences face.

Not since 'The Day Today' has Morris injected his work with such a degree of silliness and fun. Four Lions is full of memorable characters, good gags and snappy dialogue. I think that this shows a maturity to Morris' work, he clearly no longer feels the need to goad or shock the audience to elicit laughs (Jam) or populate a project entirely with dislikable characters (Nathan Barley). If anything this, despite the subject matter, seems like Morris' most 'traditional' style of comedy he's approached. A luxury he can surely afford himself, given the amount of ground he's broken in the last two decades.

The film centers around a gang of five young muslim men in the north of england and their plans to stage a memorable and epic suicide attack. Led by Omar (Riz Ahmed), the group wrestles with power struggles, hair-brained schemes and general

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Post #: 71

RE: Hits most of it's targets - 9/9/2010 2:30:26 PM

UTB

Posts: 9047
Joined: 30/9/2005

I watched this last week, and I have to say, I haven't laughed so much at a film in ages.

That's not to say the film is hilarious all the way through, far from it. For the first 3/4 of the film, it is reasonably funny, with the occasional touch of comic genius, but the last quarter of it really is incredibly funny.

It's uncomfortable to watch, but always engaging. Some of it doesn't quite work. They're a little too stupid, and Barry is overly psychotic, but on the whole it's an enjoyably daft film, I was crying with laughter by the end.

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Post #: 72

Insensitively Sensitive - 17/1/2011 3:09:08 AM

blaud

Posts: 722
Joined: 13/12/2007

This thoroughly amusing story of a group of hapless, London-based muslim extremists is most certainly not for everyone. Snobby idiots and narrow minded pricks, mostly. But, despite the indelicate handling of the tightrope subject, the film is always amusing, and the characters always feel like very real human beings, which is frightening in its' own right. One of the best black comedies for a real long time

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Post #: 73

Dreadful - 18/1/2011 11:19:52 AM

emmagd

Posts: 3
Joined: 30/4/2006

I thought it was really unfunny. I admire what they were trying to do but did not enjoy it at all or laugh once.

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Post #: 74

The line between comedy and tragedy... - 2/3/2011 11:55:56 AM

neopol

Posts: 126
Joined: 9/11/2006
From: Manchester, Egland

I can remember first hearing about this early in 2010, and was unsure as what to expect. On one hand this could have been a nasty hate film, mocking the wave of Muslim extremism which is taking a firm hold in this country, merely for the entertainment value, or this could be one of the important satires on the subject to date.

It was by far, without a shadow of doubt, the latter. Four Lions follows five amateur, lackluster Muslims from Sheffield who all believe that they are a primed terror cell on the frontline of the war against the infidels. Unfortunately for them, they are bunglers, whilst achieving the ability to create explosives, they have failed to control how and when it explodes!

The plot culminates with an attempt to attack the London Marathon but it is a long road, taking our protagonists to the terror camps of Pakistan, and the town halls of Sheffield. This film is written and directed so expertly, it is literally frightening.

Morris and his pitch perfect cast deliver a film which so perfectly walks the razor wire tightrope between comedy and tragedy that every laugh is tinged with sadness or pity and every dark moment, seemingly comedic.

Is this a comedy? Decidedly not, but is this funny, and intentionally so? Yes. It's almost as if the laughs are out of sheer relief, as moments which should shock are delivered or followed up by some of the most profoundly realistic and yet ridiculous conversions.

The Lion King explanation for the war against the west; The almost horrifically callous 'Honey Monster' exchange as a police sniper may well have just shot an innocent civilian will stick in your mind. Let alone more simple humour, such as the eating of the sim cards to prevent tracking, which resembled the Catholic method of taking of the bread at mass.

But this was also about grooming: Grooming the audience to sympathise with a terror cell plotting in our midst was genius, whist having to watch the various methods employed within the group

< Message edited by neopol -- 2/3/2011 11:56:18 AM >

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Post #: 75

RE: Four Lions - 23/1/2012 7:55:15 PM

Super Hans

Posts: 2307
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Watford

I finally watched this the other week after picking it up cheap in the sales. Meant to watch it sooner but alas, never got round to it!

I'm not quite sure precisely what I made of it really. It's certainly gripping and, in agreement with what I've read, works well as story of how a bunch of blokes are capable of fucking up any plan they embark on. It kept me wondering how it would all end right to the last minute.

The one thing I'm not so sure of is whether it was really as funny as I'd been led to believe. I haven't watched all of Chris Morris' output but I've watched enough of Brass Eye to have expected more hard laughs to go with the uncomfortabkle subject matter. It was amusing, but certainly not as hilarious as I expected.

One thing that didn't sit quite right with me was that Omar's wife and kid were so aware of his intentions and seemed to embrace the idea of what he had in mind. Obviously I'm not a would-be Muslim suicide bomber so for all I know this could be quite accurate, but it definitely seemed a bit odd to me.

All in all, it was an interesting film and worth a watch if you're not offended by the subject matter. Other people's senses of humour will vary, but perhaps try and watch it without expecting to be as hilarious as the poster quotes insist it is.

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Post #: 76