Allow me to begin with the obvious, which some people seem to be unaware of. First of all, this was directed by Chris Morris, however he shares writing credit with 3 other people. Knowing the quality of Morris' other projects, this indicates that he did not have as big a role writing this as he did with all of his other projects. The film is wildly unfunny, chronically boring and hits absolutely no real point throughout it's overly long runtime.
A rough synopsis is, a rag-tag group of British Jihadists begin to plan a terrorist attack. Sadly, as per usual in these kinds of comedies, only one has any brains, and the rest are slapstick comedy fodder. There's the overly aggressive one, the overly stupid one, and the overly stupid sidekick. None of the are fleshed out to any great degree, as you don't really need it. They spend the entire time being the butt of unfunny jokes about stupid people. It is obvious stuff, and brought forth no laughter at all.
The worst part is, this was advertised as being a relatively brave subject, having a laugh at the expense of terror attacks. But the laughs aren't at the terrorists, more often than not it is seemingly some kind of in-joke with the culture itself. I was in a cinema with a fairly diverse crowd, and I noticed that none of the white people, myself and friends included, were laughing particularly hard, if at all. The West Asian contingent however? Ending themselves. I have no idea how this was missed during the trailers, but this isn't a film making fun of terrorists, it's a film which ignores the subject matter, and throws out jokes that are only aimed for a specific section of the audience, none of whom were warned prior.
I didn't walk out, but my two friends did. I didn't on principle, but were it not for that principle, and "giving it one last chance" about 30 times, I would have followed suit. There were family scenes that bordered on sickening, as one of the terrorists has "touching" conversations with his family, about mass murder. They weren't funny to anyone, nor were they meant to be. It was just crass stupidity. I cannot emphasise how much this film is both overrated and unfunny. Avoid if you love Chris Morris, or if you love comedy. Neither interest will be fulfilled with this film.
A rough synopsis is, a rag-tag group of British Jihadists begin to plan a terrorist attack. Sadly, as per usual in these kinds of comedies, only one has any brains, and the rest are slapstick comedy fodder. There's the overly aggressive one, the overly stupid one, and the overly stupid sidekick. None of the are fleshed out to any great degree, as you don't really need it. They spend the entire time being the butt of unfunny jokes about stupid people. It is obvious stuff, and brought forth no laughter at all.
The worst part is, this was advertised as being a relatively brave subject, having a laugh at the expense of terror attacks. But the laughs aren't at the terrorists, more often than not it is seemingly some kind of in-joke with the culture itself. I was in a cinema with a fairly diverse crowd, and I noticed that none of the white people, myself and friends included, were laughing particularly hard, if at all. The West Asian contingent however? Ending themselves. I have no idea how this was missed during the trailers, but this isn't a film making fun of terrorists, it's a film which ignores the subject matter, and throws out jokes that are only aimed for a specific section of the audience, none of whom were warned prior.
I didn't walk out, but my two friends did. I didn't on principle, but were it not for that principle, and "giving it one last chance" about 30 times, I would have followed suit. There were family scenes that bordered on sickening, as one of the terrorists has "touching" conversations with his family, about mass murder. They weren't funny to anyone, nor were they meant to be. It was just crass stupidity. I cannot emphasise how much this film is both overrated and unfunny. Avoid if you love Chris Morris, or if you love comedy. Neither interest will be fulfilled with this film.