Something funny happened the other day. I went to the dentist. If you remember I don't like dentists, especially ethnic ones. However, I waltzed into my new dentist, shook his hand, and noticed he was Egyptian or Turkish or something. The funny thing was I didn't mind him poking his hands around my molars. I blame my new-found lack of ignorant racism towards Middle-Eastern (I think) people on Four Kings. It was pretty damn good.
But goddamn reviewing good movies is hard. I can't just rage and let you slugs feed off my hateful energy like the... slugs you are. Four Kings follows the lovable-fuckup-underdog comedy structure, cleverly woven onto a tale of four Islamic terrorists planning an attack in London. It successfully and refreshingly pokes fun at Muslims,a religion/people/culture/whatever that is usually sickeningly immune to such fun-pokery. When that type of fun-pokery, like a cartoon drawing of Mohammed, usually results in riots and death threats and decapitations. I think where Four Kings succeeds is in its fun poking at not only the religious extremists, but the society that surrounds and spawns such whacky individuals.
All shits and giggles aside, Four Kings is dealing with a serious thing, the fact a lot of world wants to blow you up because you are a lazy cracker that doesn't bow to the east eight times a day. All logic aside, Four Kings manages to make us like these guys. Is it because they are idiots and we sympathise with them? Nope, the British police are also dickheads and we don't like them. We like them because they are the underdogs. We watch them tumble and fumble on their rocky-road to success (blowing up people that don't share their humble religious views). How easily manipulated WE BE.
Which brings to my point at long last. The unsettling thing about Four Kings is how easily manipulated an audience is. An hour and a half long series of images and sounds has us hollering and cheering for people that no ifs-ands-or-buts want to murder you me and everyone in between.
At the risk of sounding paranoid, if a feature length movie can manipulate so well, what about the non fucking stop streams of advertising molesting our eyeballs at any given second?! I'm just counting my lucky stars I live in a cave on the moon and am transmitting this bullshit one-way through the new fillings in my teeth. PEACE OUT EARTHLINGS
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