Chris Morris read about a small group of Yemeni jihadists who planned to blow up a warship in the bay. They loaded their small boat with explosives, and the boat sank. Morris the English TV satirist whose The Day Today and Brass Eye prefigured The Daily Show and The Colbert Report but in much starker, more confrontational tones saw in this anecdote a larger truth about many of the Muslim fanatics who would destroy Western civilization: they're idiots. Hence this cauterizing comedy about some Anglo-Pakistani would-be terrorists in the northern city of Sheffield. One wants to train crows as tiny suicide bombers; another hopes to radicalize the faithful by blowing up a mosque. Morris provides no "normal" outsider to mediate the group's solemn lunacy and vagrant charm; viewers must decide on their own what's funny or awful, or awful funny. Be warned that the movie dares to question both the efficiency of homegrown terrorists and the public's sustaining fear of an unlikely threat. The result is the blackest, ballsiest political comedy since Dr. Strangelove.
The Top 10 Everything of 2010
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Apologies
- Top 10 Biz Deals
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Campaign Ads
- Top 10 Comebacks
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Facebook Trends
- Top 10 Fashion Statements
- Top 10 Feuds
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Food Trends
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Stories
- Top 10 iPhone Apps
- Top 10 Late-Night Jokes
- Top 10 Magazine Covers
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Movies
- Top 10 New Species
- Top 10 Nonfiction Books
- Top 10 Numbers
- Top 10 Oddball News Stories
- Top 10 Overreported Stories
- Top 10 Pictures
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Political Gaffes
- Top 10 Reality-TV Moments
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 Talented Web Videos
- Top 10 Toys
- Top 10 Travel Moments
- Top 10 TV Commercials
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Tweets
- Top 10 Twitter Moments
- Top 10 World News Stories
- Top 10 Underreported Stories
- Top 10 U.S. News Stories
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Viral Videos
In 50 wide-ranging lists, TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad, of the past 12 months