Attack The Block (R)

Attack The Block (2011) - Review

"'That's an alien bruv, believe it."

When strange meteorites start falling on a rough South London neighborhood, the local street gangs investigate and find extraterrestrials have landed.  They rough up what they find and carry the trophy back to their "block", the apartment building where they live, unbeknownst to them the one they killed was a female, and the bloodthirsty males will come looking for it.

Filmed on location with local kids, Attack The Block's thick Southie accents are almost as unintelligible as the monsters vague gorilla like forms.  The aliens are formless, pitchblack with just glowing teeth and flailing limbs to distinguish them.  The gang is protecting their home from the E.T. invaders, bloodthirsty mindless animals making their way slowly to the top floor through anything that gets in their way.  The block kids are equally viscous and territorial, they see any outsiders (police, citizen or alien) as an unwanted presence that must be expelled.  The movie's focus is on "Moses" (they all have street names like that), an emotionally stunted and particularly violent young man who we follow through this scifi adventure.  Introduced in the film as a mugger, we slowly come to like Moses as we see beyond his gruff exterior into the inner kid who still lives with his grannie.  By the end he has become a local legend, a hero for defeating the aliens with fireworks and saving The Block.

The creatures are unique, though the more you see them the more like under lit muppets they are.  The kids around the block are entertaining, rough around the edges and obviously not professional actors, kind of like a deeply accented Goonies with streetcred.  The script is anything but ordinary, surprises are always around the corner with a special appearance by Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) as the ObiWan of marijuanna dealers.  Its all a light romp with a thick patina of hype, pop culture references and thicker language; the humor is definitely present but you just have to read between the lines.  A good, entertaining little film with some great ideas but unfortnately a bit small minded  The rah rah UK symbolism and general nationalism present here sticks a bit in the throat like bread pudding and the hero worship of an unrepentant antisocial delinquent like Moses doesn't sit quite right.  However, on the whole for a small time movie Attack The Block is original, true to its roots and wholesale entertainment.  Just like the inhabitants of the Block, the movie can't see beyond its own borders.

7 WTF did that kid say? out of 10 (GOOD)