Four Lions, the feature-length directorial debut for Chris Morris,
takes a sideways look at suicide bombers supposedly focussing on being part of the mujahideen, i.e. terrorists, and wanting to
blow up the kuffar, aka disbelievers, which, to them, is generally anyone who isn't a muslim.
Omar (Riz Ahmed) works as a security guard overnight in a warehouse, alongside Matt (Craig Parkinson),
who boasts about how much keeping fit he does. When telling his colleague that he suddenly needs the next two weeks off as he
has to go to a wedding in Pakistan - which is actually a trip to go training as a terrorist and suicide bomber - the response
comes, "I thought you were serious about this job, Omar. I mean, where do you see yourself in five years' time?"
He's joined in his task by Waj (Kayvan Novak, aka the Fonejacker), an utter simpleton; Barry (Nigel Lindsay),
one of a few Caucasian terrorists who have joined the cause - and is clearly a few sandwiches short of a picnic; and
Feesel (Adeel Akhtar), not quite a stupid as Waj but still not firing on all cylinders. Along the way, they're joined
by Hassan (Arsher Ali), who Barry spots at a conference being... 'disruptive' in the audience, shall we say...
As the eventual plan comes together, taking in a local fun-run - hence the first picture, Omar and Waj go off training, which
doesn't exactly go to plan but I won't say here what happens, and it causes them to return home early, where Barry has had to
stay home with Faisal, recruiting Hassan along the way.
Other stand-out moments include the fact that Waj has a prayer bear, which "does my prayers for me"; later, Waj and Hassan try
to avoid their picture being taken when out and about, by shaking their heads from side to side as it "makes the photos come
out blurry"; Faisal straps explosives to a crow, telling him to fly to a toy house on a bird table, which he refers to as a
sex shop, and then "sends him to heaven" - and not in a way that results in a happy finish. Finally, out of this bunch, Barry's
car breaks down. He blames Jewish parts on the car's demise after he allegedly got it fixed, saying that the Jewish invented
the spark plugs to control global traffic.
There's also a couple of interesting cameos with Kevin Eldon and Darren Boyd as police snipers and Benedict
Cumberbatch as a terrorist negotiator. Meanwhile, there's blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearances from Preeya Kalidas
as Omar's wife, Sophia, The Thick Of It's Alex MacQueen as an MP and Julia Davis as oddball neighbour, Alice.
Overall, a lot of this is priceless stuff. Note that it doesn't glorify suicide bombers in any way, it just points out what a
complete bunch of fucking morons they all are. People who blow themselves up because it's God's plan? Yeah, tell that to your
shrink(!)
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