Four Lions (Christopher Morris, 2010)

Morris's recent output certainly couldn't be called prolific; his debut feature has been 5 years in coming after his last satirical pennings. It therefore has to come with raised expectations; is Morris running out of things to lampoon after caustic attack upon attack on the idiocies of popular culture throughout the '90s?
Not many satirists could be accused of mellowing out in picking a Muslim terrorist cell as a target for black humour, but there's a degree of affection on show towards the bumbling protagonists which Morris's darkest works have largely eschewed as counterproductive to really getting stuck in to the chosen targets of ridicule. By making the Sheffield Jihadists more daft and directionless than dangerous or vicious, Four Lions runs the risk of coming out as toothless as its wannabe suicide bombers. It seems that Morris may have held back out of a desire to avoid aggravating an incendiary situation. Though he probably also didn't particularly want death threats.
Nevertheless, Morris's ear for the finely turned nonsense phrase remains acute and there are plenty of decent comic scenes. It actually manages to be quite poignant by the end, too. So, whilst some more barbs might not have been amiss, it does get marks for being more fully rounded than just a piece of slapstick.

7/10