Movie: "Attack The Block"
Year: 2011
Rated: R
Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy
Directed by: Joe Cornish
Writing credits: Joe Cornish

Reviewer: -RoG-
Posted: 9/1/2011

Plot: A young gang of South London hoodlums find themselves fighting for their lives during an alien invasion.

Review: This new science fiction horror-comedy straight out of Britain surprised me. I was expecting a mediocre film at best, but instead found myself smiling and laughing through most of the film.

Attack the Block all begins with a group of young hoodlums in South London who mug a nurse on her way back home. Just as they finish taking her purse, something from the sky crashed into a nearby car. When the leader of the gang, Moses, goes to investigate, an alien jumps up, scratches his face and runs away.

Moses and his pals chase down the alien, kill it and then bring it back to their building thinking they're going to get rich and famous off of this extraterrestrial discovery. What they don't realize is that the alien they killed was a female, and now a bunch of males are crashing to the ground outside and following her scent.

The female was no walk in the park, but the males? They're absolutely vicious. Black as anything you've ever seen, with huge sets of glowing blue teeth and claws being the only thing that helps you spot them. Now the young gang members are fighting for their lives in an attempt to rid their block of all these angry, deadly alien invaders.

I actually thought the creatures appeared to be inspired by the Critters films, just larger and darker. That said, I personally like how one of the gang members describes them as "big gorilla wolf motherfuckers".

For a movie with not the biggest budget, it's done quite well. All the young actors were spectacular and served as a constant source of comedy in the film from both their inventive methods of fighting the aliens (fireworks, waterguns, etc.) to their running commentary about how insane the night is. "This is too much madness to fit into one text!" Well said, young one, well said.

The only negative I have to say about the movie is the lack of variety in the aliens. I was definitely hoping for more of them to come along later in the film, and it would've been nice if some were actual puppets during the attacks on humans instead of CGI. It would be far more visceral had they done so. Still, considering they had a limited budget and the aliens are simply pitch black anyway, the CGI didn't bother me nearly as much as it does in every other modern horror film.

Fans of Nick Frost will also be happy to hear he has a nice little role in this movie... basically playing the gatekeeper to the weed room. Sounds about right.

The best way I can describe the film is that it's a lot like a modern day Monster Squad, but based in the UK.

I'm not surprised at all to hear Attack the Block has been received so well; it's an original story (in the age of remakes) and the action and laughs are constant. It's currently playing in limited theaters, but hopefully it will be everywhere soon. Considering this is the directorial debut of Joe Cornish, it's one hell of a good start for the guy, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can bring us horror fans in the future with (hopefully) a bigger budget. As they would say in the movie... believe.

Overall rating:
(Scored on a 0.5 - 5 pickles rating: 0.5 being the worst and 5 being the best)