Sunday, April 27, 2014

Four Lions  ***1/2

Needing neither big budget production values, art direction or set pieces, nor requiring expensive gear to produce, the mockumentary has seen explosive proliferation recently as the gateway to entry for beginning filmmakers. Fortunately, as long as one has good writing and onscreen talent, it's very hard not to make a mockumentary that's will be seen as at least passably good by those who enjoy the genre.

One of the more amusing ones in recent years was Four Lions. The film depicts the misadventures of four incompetent Islamic jihadists. Imagine This is Spinal Tap except the story follows terrorists rather than a heavy metal band, and you have a pretty good idea of what the movie is like. While the film is never quite as funny as This is Spinal Tap (really, what is?), when it hits the mark, it really hits the mark. Minor spoiler: the terrorists plan to bomb a marathon prefigured the actual Boston Marathon bombing by a few years! It is a tad dated (it was made at a time when Osama Bin Laden was still at large), but worth a look if you can appreciate good dead-pan black humor.

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