Comedian Chris Morris is probably best known for his subversive TV series “Brass Eye”, the spoof investigative documentary series that genuinely fooled a number of celebrities into recording a public service announcement to keep kids off a new designer drug called ‘cake’ and whose ‘special investigation’ into paedophilia sparked a record number of complaints to its UK broadcaster. Continuing his reputation for safe, politically correct fare, Morris’s first foray into the film world is Four Lions, a wicked black comedy about four likely young lads from Sheffield who become radicalised and decide to become suicide bombers. After failing at their attempts to train crows to become suicide bombers, the gang set their sights on the London marathon.

Morris’s own description of the film is that it exposes the ‘“Dad’s Army” side of terrorism’. The film uses a mix of sharp political satire, that plunges the knife into both the left and right, and almost Goodies-inspired slapstick and absurdity to highlight the insanity of fanaticism on all levels. Though the comedy itself is decidedly dark, the tone of the film clearly promotes diversity in the community and the message (well, point of view) buried amidst the chaos is humanist.

Centurion tells the (heavily fictionalised) tale of the ill-fated attempt of Rome’s 9th Legion to take on the Picts in 117 A.D., through the experience of centurion Quintus Dias (Fassbender).

After Dias finds himself the sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman border station he is subsumed into the legion of Titus Flavius Virilus (West), en route to Scotland to take the Picts head-on. That doesn’t turn out so well, to the point that Dias and a small band of survivors find themselves desperately trying to rescue their commander and retreat to the safer side of Hadrian’s Wall.

Centurion is bloody and exciting. The action is sharp, the cast ham it up for all it is worth, and the story is vaguely plausible enough for history snobs to buy into it. Leads West and Fassbender have a great machismo chemistry and there are a number of familiar faces in the mix – Bond-girl Kurylenko is fantastic as a mad Pict warrior and Noel Clarke and David Morrissey perform well in their supporting roles. You’ll only need to check half your brain at the door to enjoy this one!