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Quick fire dialogue from fully realized characters in a well shot fable about misunderstanding well intention people with different ideas

The Day Shall Come: Chris Morris directs a dark comedy/satire/thriller along the same grounds as Four Lions but this one doesn't quite reach the Lion's level. It strays into SpyFi with the constant monitoring through drones cctv, wires, hidden bodycams. Morris says that this is based on 100 true tales of LEAs in the US entrapping hapless individuals incapable of carrying out any real attack. Moses (Marchant Davis) is the leader of a small cult which worships Jesus, Black Santa, Muhammad and Toussaint Louverture, a duck told him to found it (when he doesn't take his medication animals speak to him). His small group based in Miami is dragged into an elaborate plot involving a false Sheikh, guns, uranium and a horse.

The film is quite funny in parts but it doesn't hang together so well. The FBI/Police office politics, insults and wisecracking involving Anna Kendrick, Denis O'Hare and James Adomian seem divorced from the main plot yet they seal Marchant's fate. Things perhaps get over-complicated when a nazi gang are introduced as end customers for the uranium. Worth watching and with a running time of 88 minutes it doesn't drag but I was expecting better from Morris. 6/10.

"Based on a hundred true stories," as the title card reads, Morris' second feature finds the darkest humour in the most lunatic home truths. Examining how the FBI were out to lure antiAmerican groups into acts of terrorism to stop them being terrorists, the Miami-set story sees a field office train its sights on a revolutionary named Moses Al Shabaz (Marchánt Davis). Leader of the skeletal Star of Six, Moses is out to save AfricanAmerican communities, even banning guns from his group. But he's mentally troubled, believing God and Satan talk to him via a duck. It's when FBI agents try to entrap him via a snitch (Kayvan Novak) and turn him into an arms dealer that the farce really kicks in, like a Dr. Strangelove for the 21st Century. Morris and co-writer Jesse Armstrong set up the FBI - with the exception of Anna Kendrick's G-Woman Kendra - as clownish, somewhat softening the intended blows. The satire doesn't quite hit as hard as earlier Morris projects, nor is it as funny. But it's still brimming with ideas and, in his first feature-length role, the charismatic Davis is a real find.

I'm a huge fan of Chris Morris. Ever since stumbling on The Day Today one evening on BBC 2, I've found his output to be pretty much spot on. Four Lions is easily one of my favourite films, and Brass Eye is one of the few perfect comedy series I've ever seen.

With that said, The Day Shall Come is less of an outright comedy than Four Lions, and may alienate some fans due to the American setting, mostly unknown cast, and relatively stripped back levels of humour. Does that mean it's not a good film? Absolutely not. Does it mean that anyone who expected an out and out comedy in the vein of FL will go away disappointed? Quite possibly, and I'd wager that the lower scores on here are testament to that.

On the whole, the cast do a great job. Moses is an inherently likeable character, and for that reason I found myself rooting for him a fair bit. His wife was played in a similarly loveable manner, and the two of them had a great deal of chemistry.

Anna Kendrick (of whom I'm not really a fan) has some great lines and is very believable as an FBI agent with one eye on career advancement and the other on, you know, functioning like an actual human being.

The rest of the supporting cast are all perfectly fine, with nothing really standing out as bad to me at least.

Where the film really shines is in the dialogue however. I won't quote it here, but there's one line about a toy weapon that made me howl, and another gag about mangos which had me chuckling after the movie was done.

In all, it's a good comedy and a superb satire, but recalibrate your expectations accordingly. This isn't a British film, it's an American one with some excellent writing from a British national treasure. Go in with as little foreknowledge as possible and you'll enjoy it. Just don't expect another Four Lions.

The Day Shall Come has a lot of interesting ideas going for it, and the first half hour of the movie is great, but unfortunately it does not manage to develop into anything interesting. The protagonists family and friends are a charming bunch but unfortunately they are 2-dimensional props in the universe. The drama between them feels too hastily executed and forced. Despite the potential for more their relationships never seem develop in any significant way. The premise is strong, but the absurdity and incompetence of both the government agencies and the protagonist makes it hard to get invested in the problem. What bothered me the most was the story featured several themes that I didn't think added anything substantial to the story or could have been used better. Especially the story around the crane felt like a missed opportunity to keep the misunderstandings rolling.

All in all it felt like a four lions knock off. It had a few laughs, but wasn't nearly as funny.