Attack the Block (2011)

Attack the Block: Directed by Joe Cornish. With Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones. A teen gang in South London defend their block from an alien invasion.

“This neat little movie by first time director Joe Cornish (in the UK many will be aware of him from his late u0026#39;90u0026#39;s TV show u0026#39;Adam and Joeu0026#39;), is a very straight forward alien invasion picture. The angle is simply in itu0026#39;s setting. We are introduced to a bunch of generic, stereotypical u0026#39;hoodiesu0026#39; on a London high-rise estate. After an attempt to mug a young woman, lights begin to fall from the sky. What ensues is a battle between the u0026quot;yoofu0026quot; protecting their block.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is no great film, the general idea, and itu0026#39;s execution are standard for the genre. What is evident is Cornishu0026#39;s confidence in directing. The actors u0026quot;under the hoodsu0026quot; are quite brilliant, displaying both the hard exterior that they portray on the u0026quot;streetsu0026quot;, but also their tender side, whilst along the way highlighting the reasons these young men are so disenfranchised; they are all from broken homes. This is quite a poignant issues when juxtaposed with the scenes of riots we saw in London this summer.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt must be hard to come up with new u0026#39;alienu0026#39; monsters these days. Weu0026#39;ve seen in recent years some diabolically b******s monsters, but the creatures in this film are different and quite exception. Wolf-like, they seemingly have no eyes, and are completely black. Much of the early part of the film we see only shadows, silhouettes, until they open their mouths, displaying glow-in-the-dark gnashers.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhilst not a ground breaking cinematic masterpiece, or even a great film, it has much to love. It has charm, some good performances, and the tension is palpable at times. It will be interesting to see what Cornish does next (apart from the co-writing job on Spielberg/Jacksonu0026#39;s Tintin films with Edgar Wright).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ewww.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com”