Member review

The 4 lions is a very interesting film. The story line focuses on a group of men who are badly plotting a suicide attack together. However they cannot all agree on a plan, eventually deciding on joining the London marathon and carrying out their attacks there. But will they be able to carry out such a big plan with such little preparation and knowledge of what they are doing? While being consistently humorous, it portrays some stereotypes which we all have while at the same time breaks some of them. This is done through the main characters being Islamic, living in Sheffield (a very diverse area) and being able to speak many languages demonstrating mainly "London slang" however one is an English white man who we would not associate with doing what he is doing. Because of how the stereotypes are played, it leaves us wondering how the story and the men’s plan will play out, who will go through with it? Will the stereotypes be followed or broken further? The humor used leaves us feeling uncomfortable as we begin to question whether we should be finding such a serious, current topic so funny, allowing power to be added to the film as it causes the audience to want to know whether the director will play on this uncomfortable humor he has created or turn the film around, and build up to show the serious aspects of the issue. However, i do feel at times that the director did take the humor too far, as with terrorism being such a current issue, it did, at instances cause the issue to appear as a "joke" despite the fact that to many it is a very serous and personal issue. Overall i found it an enjoyable watch. The actors portrayed their characters very well and with the unexpected, very sudden and shocking ending on the film, it created a very successful and clear story line which i would watch again and recommend,though not necessarily to those who may be sensitive, but to those with a "darker" sense of humor due to the audience it is aimed at because of the issues shown throughout.