Movie Review: ATTACK THE BLOCK (2011) – Before The Empire, John Boyega Took On The Block
It seems there has been quite a few films made that were inspired by certain genre movies but with a twist. ATTACK THE BLOCK is a British Film about the typical Sci-Fi Space Alien Invasion storyline… with a twist. (You didn’t see where I was going with the introduction?) Here’s my Movie Review…
Page Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
In ATTACK THE BLOCK, the invasion seems to be limited to an inner-city apartment building in London. The people responsible for stopping this invasion are a bunch of inner city Brit kids. Yea, that’s right. Once I got the hang of what they were saying… I quite enjoyed this movie.
The story is works pretty well. A group of delinquent juveniles find an Alien that crash lands on Earth, and kill it, a time honored hobby of misdirected youth. They then go around bragging about it to anyone and everyone, again, typical of youth. When they realize that more Aliens are dropping in all over the City, they go to kick more ass, only to find that the new batch of Aliens are different; bigger, more violent and out for blood. Retreating to their Apartment Building, they realize that it’s up to them to stop this invasion. What ensues is an fast paced tale of action and adventure.
ATTACK THE BLOCK features no big names, except for maybe a guest appearance by Nick Frost from the Edgar Wright films. This movie is also executive produced by Edgar Wright himself of the HOT FUZZ, SHAUN OF THE DEAD and the soon to be released THE WORLD’S END films. But despite a lack of ‘star power’, it does pretty well in singling out some decent performances of idiotic teens fighting it out with Aliens. Basically the opposite of E.T. It’s not breath taking cinema, but it is great entertainment, which is hilarious at the most inappropriate of times. The best characters have to be the preteen Brit gangsta boys going around with Water Guns. It’s an enjoyable story made purely for entertainment, which is does… but not gratuitously.
The kids have to figure out why the Aliens are attacking them only, and not taking over the entire world as they go through the Apartment building, gaining friends, allies… even making enemies, all the while trying to defend themselves. ATTACK THE BLOCK is a great entertainer. It’s like GOONIES meets every other Invasion movie ever, but with a more mature Sci-Fi take on it, but the same idiotic kid dialogue.
ATTACK THE BLOCK does feature some cool storytelling. There is character development. The lead character of Moses is struggling with something, a personal conflict, which is brought to light during the Alien invasion. He goes from irresponsible thug, to savior during the length of the movie. Even the Alien invasion story features a bit of suspense as the revelation comes to us about why they’re only attacking these kids.
It’s a great small movie, which completely twists the Sci-Fi Alien Attack kind of films wit this new modern take. People will either love ATTACK THE BLOCK or hate it, but it’s definitely an entertaining movie.
5 Comments
lauren · July 20, 2013 at 12:16 PM
Good review. I enjoyed this film, it was a different take on the whole alien envasion idea.
CMrok93 · July 21, 2013 at 2:05 PM
Good review Shah. Pretty solid flick, even if it does feel like it’s “Too British” at times for my own wit.
Shah Shahid · July 22, 2013 at 12:58 PM
Same here man. But once I could understand what they were saying (subtitles!) I got into it. I deleted a lot of comments in my Review imitating “Brit Talk”, but good judgement got the better of me. 😐
ruth · July 28, 2013 at 9:04 PM
I still haven’t seen this yet, though I generally like Edgar Wright’s style. I was actually at the Comic-con panel a few years back and the trailer does look intriguing, though yeah, I probably turn on the subtitles too, ahah. Seems rather gory as well though.
Shah Shahid · July 28, 2013 at 9:43 PM
It’s not a usual Edgar Wright film. Not as good anyways. But has its moments. The gore is alright. Actually, it is gory. Lol.
Damn your Comic Con experience. One day.