Four Lions Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Four Lions Blu-ray Movie Review

Terror-ifying imbeciles.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater March 5, 2011

Jihadi comedy. Wait…Jihadi comedy? It just doesn’t sound right, does it? Is there anything funny about terrorists making martyrs of themselves to push their radical ideologies? Well, of course there is. Set aside the seriousness of the matter—the shocking violence, loss of life, and mourning—and you find, at its core, an existential absurdity: What’s more ridiculous than a guy who blows himself to smithereens? It’s like real-life Looney Toons. Furthermore, what’s more ridiculous than a guy who blows himself to smithereens thinking that 1.) it’s a good way to enact change, and 2.) that doing so will assure immediate access to a celestial paradise where 70-some doe-eyed virgins will attend his every need? Sounds like someone just needs to get laid before the afterlife. Chris Morris knows there’s humor here. In Four Lions, a film about a ragtag terrorist cell in Northern England, the incendiary British TV personality—making his directorial debut—explores the extreme stupidity of extremism with gleeful irreverence.

Hey...buddy...check the arrow.

Anglophiles may also recognize the comedic talents of co-writers Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, and Simon Blackwell, who—in various collaboratory arrangements—have penned the brilliant TV shows Peep Show, Nathan Barley, and The Thick of It, along with last year’s Thick feature film spin-off, the acclaimed international diplomacy bust-up In the Loop. The latter, which drew near-universal comparisons to Dr. Strangelove, is most similar to Four Lions in tone and style. Both are bleak black comedies that satirize seemingly untouchable hot-button topics. Where In the Loop spoofs the lead-up to the War on Terror by turning the political powerhouses of Washington and London into zoos for self-serving middle-management buffoons, Four Lions brazenly takes on terrorism itself, making a mockery of martyrdom. I’m almost surprised the filmmakers haven’t been slapped with a death-to-the-infidels-style fatwa from some fanatical religious cleric. But let’s get one thing clear: Four Lions is not an indictment of Islam, and it most certainly hasn’t been made out of hatred or fear or racism. Morris draws a strong distinction between the peaceful majority of Muslims and the small faction of idiots who delude themselves— or are deluded—into thinking that killing scores of innocents is somehow an acceptable way to praise and obey Allah. The film’s comedy would work just as well for kamikaze pilots, abortion clinic bombers, eco-terrorists, or far-rightwing, weapons-stockpiling American militiamen. An extremist is an extremist is an extremist.

But perhaps some are dumber than others. In Four Lions, the four extremists are extraordinarily obtuse. When we open, the dullest dullard of the group, Waj (Kayvan Novak), is filming one of those threatening anonymous videos that masked terrorists are always posting online. Only, he’s holding a comically undersized toy AK-47 and, with no clue what to say, he bumbles on and on about the halal meals at Chicken Cottage. Fessel (Adeel Akhtar), who’s been stockpiling bleach for three years and who has an idiotic idea to strap explosives to trained crows, isn’t much brighter. And then we have Barry (Nigel Lindsay)—yes, Barry—a working-class white convert to radicalism who buys ingredients for bomb-making on Amazon.com and who once made the local news by baking a Twin Towers cake and leaving it in a synagogue on 9/11. (“That is part of the plan!” he says in defense. “Hide in plain site!”) These al-Qaeda wannabes are led by the slightly smarter Omar (Riz Ahmed), a family man and mall security guard who serves as the Moe to this group of stooges, keeping them in line and chewing them out with explicit Urdu tirades. Did I mention the fifth lion to join the tribe—a college prankster (Arsher Ali) who composes jihadist rap anthems? Here’s his masterpiece: “I'm the Mujahideen and I'm making a scene, now you's gonna feel what the boom-boom means! It's like Tupac said, "When I die, I'm not dead.” We are the martyrs, you're just smashed tomatoes. Allahu Akbar!”

The plot is less tightly wound than In the Loop, but Four Lions wanders from scene to scene in a series of sardonic—and mostly hilarious—shaggy dog incidents. When Omar and Waj fail miserably at a mujahideen training camp in Pakistan, they return to the U.K. determined to blow up…well, something. They can’t decide. Fessel suggests the pharmacy Boots, because “they sell condoms that make you wanna bang white girls,” while the ever-aggressive Barry is dead set on bombing a mosque to “radicalize the moderates.” Omar shoots down both plans. After much half-assed scheming—and the deaths of a crow and a sheep—the inept terrorists end up in a “charity fun run” marathon, their ready-to-blow bomb belts hidden under outlandishly puffy costumes. I won’t explain exactly how it all goes down, but I will say this: Morris doesn’t go for the cop-out Hollywood happy ending. He follows his suicide bombers to their logically explosive conclusion, making a lucid point about the absurdity of pointless martyrdom. And what’s truly scary is that as moronic as Omar’s flunkies sound, Morris based their actions on years of research about real-life amateur-hour terrorist cells operating in England and abroad.

Four Lions Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shot on high definition video, Four Lions arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's satisfyingly sharp and colorful. The image definitely has a video-ish look—you'd never mistake this for film—but it works well for the movie's mostly handheld, quasi-documentary intentions. Fine detail is represented nicely throughout—see the individual hairs in Barry's beard, the loose weft of Fessel's ill-fitting sweaters, or the fuzzy texture of Omar's "Honey Bear" costume—and there's no trace of any added edge enhancement. Color is largely realistic and unstylized, but there are occasional splashes of vividness, mostly during the "fun run" marathon. While black levels are solid enough, highlights can sometimes seem slightly overexposed, a trait you see often in lower-budget shot-on-video productions. Overall, though, there are no glaring flaws in the presentation. Aside from some minor spikes in noise, usually during darker scenes, Four Lions seems true to it's HD video source.

Four Lions Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track also works well, making good use of all channels during the few scenes that come closest to what you might loosely call"action sequences." When Omar and Waj are at the training camp in Pakistan, for instance, you'll hear gunfire pepper through the surround speakers, rockets zipping from side to side, and dirt spraying from front to back, among other multi-channel movements. The rest of the film is quieter, but there's an appreciable amount of city ambience and the occasional effect, like a helicopter hovering in the space behind your head. There's really no score, per se, but the incidental music sounds strong and there's a great Aphex Twin track that closes the film. Dialogue is always easy to understand, although it sometimes sounds a bit "thick" and mid-heavy in the mix. English SDH and Spanish subtitles are available in easy-to-read lettering.

Four Lions Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bradford Interview (SD, 3:59): A quick series of talking head interviews with the director, writers, and stars.
• Behind the Scenes (SD, 12:36): Raw behind the scenes rehearsal and on-set footage, broken into four parts.
• Lost Boys (SD, 8:27): This is definitely the most interesting inclusion on the disc, a short documentary film by associate producer Afi Khan comprised of interviews with young lower-class Pakistanis in England.
• Interview with Mo Ali (SD, 13:00): An extensive interview with a young white convert to Islam awaiting trail for "preparing an act of terrorism."
• Deleted Scenes (SD, 19:16): Seven deleted and alternate scenes.
• Storyboards (1080p, 00:49)

Four Lions Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you liked In the Loop—or if you're a fan of British comedy in general—you should track down Four Lions, a slapstick satire that puts terrorism rightly in its place. As usual, Magnolia Home Entertainment has put together a great Blu-ray package, with strong A/V performance and supplements that, while on the short side, definitely add to experience. Recommended!