As Chris Morris has said 'being controversial for the sake of it is the most boring thing you can do'. I agree with much of what Wolves has said. I don't think Morris has really abandoned anything about what made him great either, or really gone in a different direction. He has always, in his best stuff, used sudden flashes of sympathy for his characters to really enhance the depth of the comedy (I don't think it was all about brutality); this is what made Jam so bleak and so hilarious. Take a look at the sketch I linked (Living Outside, my favourite Jam sketch) as an example, or a number of similiar sketches like 'Marrying Myself'. These sketches have, essentially, no jokes (except some brilliant Morrisonish language). They are simply small portraits of seemingly nice men who have decided to destroy themselves for no real logical reason, and they are fucking hilarious. This is essentially what Four Lions is. Barry is a wanker, and Hassan is almost an islamist Nathan Barley, but Omar, Waj and Faisal all have redeeming qualities which gives their situation, and the way in which they egg each other on, real pathos. And what is not cruel about the way they were treated? Although I knew it would not happen, I was hoping, towards the end, that at the very least Waj would be saved. But alas. You've got to remember that the brash, over the topness of Morris's satirical work was not down to his inherent qualities as a writer, but because of the satirical character of the other Chris Morris, louche insensitive self-obsessesed hypocritcal arsehole news personality, which he played throughout On The Hour, The Day Today and Brass Eye. Because, during this time, he would always (when he appeared in public) appear as this character, (he has only very recently started giving interviews as himself, pretty much just to support Four Lions), people seem to have forgotten that Chris Morris is not, actually, just an arsehole. I really don't see what there is not to like about Four Lions. The message doesn't seem confused, the farce is only taken to unbelievable levels a couple of times, mostly just showing us tedious mundanity, the writing and comic timing is fucking brilliant ("Rubber dinghy rapids!") and the urdu subtitles in particular are classic examples of Chris Morris's personal brand of filth. The characters are great, the film is well put together vis a vis editing, music etc. and so on.
Interestingly, Tommy's criticisms seem to somewhat echo the Guardians (down to 'Missed opportunity'). Don't become too much of a cliche Tommy, you already vote green and have no real personal ethics!
Also Tommy, Four Lions has been given a widened release because it's proved to be surprisingly popular. I saw it in a Cineworld on the Isle of Wight, for fucks sake, so I doubt it's outside the cinema-going reach of 95% of the UK population.
EDIT: solved!
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Topic: Four Lions, a comedy about modern Jihadism (Read 4022 times)