Today I surprised myself. I never thought that I would wind up writing something good about ATTACK THE BLOCK. In fact I felt it was horrible during the first 20 minutes. I already had my thoughts on how to send in my piece for the movie until it began to grow on me and now I have done a complete 180 and its all looking good from here.
Majority of the 2011 summer releases always are productions done in the Americas with American talent. So when an all Brit cast takes to the screen it takes time for them to grow on you. This was the case; not anymore. Moses, Pest, Jerome, Dennis and Biggs live in a small town in South London and are a tightly knit group of 15 year olds who smoke marijuana and get into trouble. The boys mug Sam while she is on her way home from work not knowing that in fact they all lived in the same building. Sam manages to escape them thanks to the aid of a rock that fell out of the sky. Yes there also happened to be an alien in it! These boys are tougher than they seem. They hunt it down and Kill it and carry the prized dead alien over to Ron’s with the hopes of storing it in Ron’s Weed Room. I am guessing these kids have not watched the movie ALIENS; hence the surprising bravery. Aliens start falling out of the sky. The boys then realize they messed up. ATTACK THE BLOCK is funny as it is interesting and the Aliens are quite creepy too with some decent visuals. These aliens are much more realistic than some of the home planets of our dear superheroes!
Joe Cornish has most certainly written and directed this movie with a vision. I am quite certain the way it turned out to be is exactly how he wanted it to be. One may argue about the aliens and the lack of the background detail to them and how the authorities are not more involved during an alien invasion. Well if you are one of those readers, well then why don’t you watch BATTLE LA instead! I am sure it would make more sense to you :) ATB is as funny and fun filled as GOONIES was back in the day. A movie for the young at heart and certainly for you Nick Frost fans. Why am I not surprised to find Nick Frost in a Joe Cornish movie? I was actually hoping for Simon Pegg to appear somewhere down the line but he didn’t. That would have made this perfect then don’t you think folks?
This movie undoubtedly is for the whole family, especially for you younger folk out there. Tolerate the accents at first if you find it uneasy, you will begin to love it. Not a summer blockbuster, but much better than most so called HITS of summer 2011.
This is how I see it, nothing more nothing less
Title: Attack the Block
Directed by: Joe Cornish
Starring: Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones, Franz Dramen, Simon Howard, Luke Treadway and Nick Frost
Rated: R for creature violence, drug content and pervasive language
Rated: 07/10
88 Minutes