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Richard Corliss, Time: OUTSTANDING "...brilliantly incendiary... the blackest, ballsiest political comedy since 'Dr. Strangelove.' And, for those of strong stomach, one of the funniest." (Read the full review...) 1,512 words, 11/12/10 David Germain, Associated Press: OUTSTANDING (cg) "If the Three Stooges tried to carry out their own Islamic jihad, the results could not be funnier than 'Four Lions,' director Chris Morris' wonderfully absurdist nightmare about terrorist wannabes." (Read the full review...) 571 words, 11/04/10 Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: EXCELLENT (cg) "...iconoclastic British filmmaker Chris Morris pushes the 'stupid' angle to outrageous heights in his burnt-black satire about clueless British jihadists with no clear ideology and even worse guerrilla skills." (Read the full review...) 103 words, 11/12/10 Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com: VERY GOOD (cg) "...impossible to categorize. It's an exceedingly dark comedy, a wicked satire, a thriller where the thrills center on the incompetence of the villains. It's fueled by both merriment and anger.... you can't call it boring." (Read the full review...) 662 words, 11/11/10
A.O. Scott, New York Times: EXCELLENT "...tickles the audience with matters that may be too painful, too awful, to contemplate otherwise and builds toward an ending that manages to be grim, appalling and uproarious all at once. You laugh until the laughter turns to ashes in your mouth. And then you laugh some more." (Read the full review...) 850 words, 11/05/10 Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times: VERY GOOD "...challenging and often hilarious... It's not your usual comedic fodder, but the director and co-writer's extensive research and profound intellect elevate the film above mere farce." (Read the full review...) 332 words, 11/05/10 V.A. Musetto, New York Post: POOR (cg) "Director Chris Morris has taken what might make a funny sketch and forced it to run more than an hour and a half. There's just not enough funny material to warrant the length." (Read the full review...) 123 words, 11/05/10 Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: VERY GOOD (cg) "...impossible to categorize. It's an exceedingly dark comedy, a wicked satire, a thriller where the thrills center on the incompetence of the villains. It's fueled by both merriment and anger.... you can't call it boring." (Read the full review...) 662 words, 11/11/10 Dan Kois, Village Voice/LA Weekly: EXCELLENT "Is director Chris Morris tweaking the untweakable by choreographing a farce around terrorists killing innocent Londoners? Sure, but not, it seems, as a political stance: He's breaking taboos because broken taboos can be hilarious." (Read the full review...) 302 words, 11/03/10 Peter Howell, Toronto Star: VERY GOOD (cg) "...pretty funny, right down to the bad math in the title, although it is comedy of the darkest kind." (Read the full review...) 494 words, 02/25/11 Stephen Cole, Toronto Globe & Mail: MODERATE (cg) "...has a provocative, ticklish premise... [but] after a while, we feel like we're trapped in a broken jihad with the Five Stooges." (Read the full review...) 495 words, 02/25/11 Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: EXCELLENT (cg) "It's a credit to director Chris Morris's intelligence, skill and sensitivity that things play out as they do, with moments of mordant wit and piercing satire slowly giving way to the creeping sense that these idiots might actually pull off their scheme." (Read the full review...) 191 words, 02/24/11
Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: MODERATE (cg) "...the movie falters with an inconsistent tone.... as the movie draws to its conclusion and the body count starts climbing, each scene becomes increasingly weighed down by the unmistakable feeling of sincerity." (Read the full review...) 444 words, 11/05/10 Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: GOOD (NOT GREAT) (cg) "When it works - and it doesn't half the time - it's as if Monty Python were back, putting its merrily imbecilic stamp on the dark world of terrorism." (Read the full review...) 428 words, 11/05/10 David Lewis, Houston Chronicle/San Francisco Chronicle: MODERATE (cg) "...a daring, brilliantly conceptualized film, but like the bumbling bombers of the title, the execution tends to be hit-and-miss." (Read the full review...) 249 words, 11/12/10 Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: VERY GOOD (cg) "...a very funny British send-up of the dimwitted children of parents smart enough to escape their repressive Islamic homelands." (Read the full review...) 662 words, 12/29/10 Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: VERY GOOD (cg) "...a dark farce sitting somewhere between 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'Duck Soup.' It will blow you away.... frantic, outrageous and surprisingly touching..." (Read the full review...) 266 words, 01/07/11 Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: VERY GOOD (cg) "...full of outrageous laughs.... betrays its low-budget origins in cinematography, editing, acting and locations. Really, none of that finally matters. Mainly, you'll laugh." (Read the full review...) 523 words, 12/10/10 Ty Burr, Boston Globe: MODERATE (cg) "...a brazenly comic, fatally inconsistent romp that tries to destroy radical fundamentalism with ridicule." (Read the full review...) 419 words, 11/05/10 John Hartl, Seattle Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT) (cg) "...an ambitious, uneven new farce that dares to mock the motives and personalities of four suicide bombers who plan to attack the London Marathon." (Read the full review...) 345 words, 11/05/10 Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian: EXCELLENT (cg) "...dense, sharp, hilarious and unflinching... a group of British Muslims who seek to shock the world with an apocalyptic act of jihad but are too dumb, contentious and accident-prone to succeed at anything much more audacious than ringing a doorbell and running." (Read the full review...) 611 words, 11/12/10 Tom Long, Detroit News: VERY GOOD (cg) "...[a] hilarious, biting British comedy that's far more about human folly than religion.... funny stuff tinged with just enough topicality to sting a bit." (Read the full review...) 278 words, 01/14/11 Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: VERY GOOD (cg) "...director Chris Morris sets a satirical tone that is simultaneously funny and unnerving." (Read the full review...) 617 words, 12/31/10
Dan Kois, Village Voice/LA Weekly: EXCELLENT "Is director Chris Morris tweaking the untweakable by choreographing a farce around terrorists killing innocent Londoners? Sure, but not, it seems, as a political stance: He's breaking taboos because broken taboos can be hilarious." (Read the full review...) 302 words, 11/03/10 Betsy Sherman, Boston Phoenix: VERY GOOD (cg) "...well acted, and the dialogue is howlingly funny. And just because it's a comedy doesn't mean the actions don't have consequences." (Read the full review...) 168 words, 11/04/10 Nathan Rabin, AV Club: EXCELLENT (cg) "...a ballsy romp through one of the least lighthearted subjects imaginable, a wacky slapstick comedy that gleans big, cathartic laughs from the surreal juxtaposition of the mundane and the militantly spiritual..." (Read the full review...) 356 words, 11/04/10 Nick Schager, Slant: MODERATE (cg) "...comedy about four bumbling jihadists attempting to carry out an attack in northern England is part ironic farce, part politicized treatise, and mostly a snooze, failing except in certain instances to generate prickly live-wire energy..." (Read the full review...) 591 words, 10/31/10 Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: EXCELLENT (cg) "It's a credit to director Chris Morris's intelligence, skill and sensitivity that things play out as they do, with moments of mordant wit and piercing satire slowly giving way to the creeping sense that these idiots might actually pull off their scheme." (Read the full review...) 191 words, 02/24/11 Curt Holman, Atlanta Creative Loafing: EXCELLENT (cg) "...presents hilarious slapstick set pieces.... finds room to attack indiscriminate anti-Muslim profiling, but generally goes for laughs in its portrayal of selfish, shallow and misdirected lives." (Read the full review...) 558 words, 12/03/10
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: WEAK "...an adolescent stab at a grown-up subject.... lacks a moral base. If the terrorists are hapless clowns, the cops are silly fools, and the closest the movie comes to political satire is the terrorists' penchant for videotaping themselves. The only reason to see it is Riz Ahmed's performance as Omar..." (Read the full review...) 170 words, 11/05/10 A.O. Scott, New York Times: EXCELLENT "...tickles the audience with matters that may be too painful, too awful, to contemplate otherwise and builds toward an ending that manages to be grim, appalling and uproarious all at once. You laugh until the laughter turns to ashes in your mouth. And then you laugh some more." (Read the full review...) 850 words, 11/05/10 Anthony Lane, New Yorker: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "The invective energy of 'Four Lions' is never in doubt.... It mocks the dumb relentlessly, and in so doing it allows us to believe, with a dab of smugness, that we know better. Whereas director Chris Morris, in his prime, showed that we know nothing at all." (Read the full review...) 514 words, 11/08/10 Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times: VERY GOOD "...challenging and often hilarious... It's not your usual comedic fodder, but the director and co-writer's extensive research and profound intellect elevate the film above mere farce." (Read the full review...) 332 words, 11/05/10 Dana Stevens, Slate: EXCELLENT "The very existence of 'Four Lions' is an act of audacity; the fact that it's also smart, humane, and frequently hilarious is nothing short of a miracle." (Read the full review...) 832 words, 11/11/10 Andrew O'Hehir, Salon: EXCELLENT "You'll laugh uproariously at what seems like a nihilistic but good-humored film, until you realize that director Chris Morris isn't actually kidding about any of it... a first-rate example of the self-lacerating, take-no-prisoners current in British comedy." (Read the full review...) 182 words, 01/25/10
Justin Chang, Daily Variety: MODERATE "...a ballsy but wobbly high-concept farce that sends up the bumbling schemes of a Blighty-based jihadist cell.... packs its share of explosive laughs... [but] the men's broadly overplayed idiocy simply doesn't gel with the pic's would-be-convincing portrait of the jihadist's everyday mindset." (Read the full review...) 777 words, 01/27/10 Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter: OUTSTANDING "...a hilarious farce and a brilliant takedown of the imbecility of fanaticism." (Read the full review...) 382 words, 10/26/10 Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times: VERY GOOD "...challenging and often hilarious... It's not your usual comedic fodder, but the director and co-writer's extensive research and profound intellect elevate the film above mere farce." (Read the full review...) 332 words, 11/05/10 Michael T. Dennis, Cinema 24/7: GOOD (cg) "...audacious... does the seemingly-impossible by making a funny movie about suicide bombers.... manages to earn laughs at every step of the way." (Read the full review...) 850 words, 11/08/10 A.O. Scott, New York Times: EXCELLENT "...tickles the audience with matters that may be too painful, too awful, to contemplate otherwise and builds toward an ending that manages to be grim, appalling and uproarious all at once. You laugh until the laughter turns to ashes in your mouth. And then you laugh some more." (Read the full review...) 850 words, 11/05/10 Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: WEAK "...an adolescent stab at a grown-up subject.... lacks a moral base. If the terrorists are hapless clowns, the cops are silly fools, and the closest the movie comes to political satire is the terrorists' penchant for videotaping themselves. The only reason to see it is Riz Ahmed's performance as Omar..." (Read the full review...) 170 words, 11/05/10
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