Review

Recently graduated Nurse Sam is walking home late one night during some sort of fireworks event, as she nears her block of flats she is accosted and mugged by a gang of five teens. Which would have been her worse problem if it wasn't for the start of an alien invasion that just so happens to kick in during the assault. Naturally the gang lead by Moses are distracted by something that crash lands on a nearby car, allowing Sam to escape, and Moses to receive deep gashes from something in the car. Not being ones to take a backward step the gang chase and kill the alien interloper.

Deciding they can make some cash from the alien corpse the gang drag it back to the most defendable flat in the block, Ron's home which happens to also house a large crop of marijuana. The gang are hoping Ron can identify the creature they have, he can't, but local drug Lord Hi-Hatz decides Moses can sell drugs for him. Which would have been sort of cool except the alien invasion starts in earnest. Moses and his team, Pest, Jerome, Dennis, Biggz, tool up and head on out to confront the invasion of the block head on. Unfortunately they find the new aliens are bigger, badder, and more ferocious than they could have imagined. It's the block versus alien bear like creatures, believe, the Feds aren't going to be of any use.

Attack the Block is one of those movies that didn't get a lot of attention from even dark genre fans that turned into a cult favourite that you simply have to see to have any street cred. If you dig Shaun of the Dead and similar fare then Attack falls into the category of must see for mine. While being a simple enough tale of alien creature incursion into London the movie deviates from the expected plot lines with some interesting views on the council estate and its residents. Block in a good dose of humour and you have a movie with a little bit of something for most viewers. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the movie however is that as opposed to the current rush of alien invasion movies this one goes down in London rather than one of the long suffering U.S cities.

First a little warning, the language used is barely discernable as English, so if you have problems with accents or local speech patterns then you may want to pick up a copy with subtitles. Actually subtitles probably won't help really. Stick with it you'll get the meaning however, as language is one of the devices used to separate the various character groups.

Writer/Director Joe Cornish kicks off his movie with Nurse Sam walking home, I assume from the underground, anyway she is talking on her mobile to Mom and is clearly being setup as either the first victim or the lead character. By Sam's manner of speech we can deduce she isn't from the Block and appears to be a middle class fish out of water. Immediately after she is mugged by the local teenage gang the focus switches to that gang and their leader Moses. Sam will keep reappearing in the movie as things develop and a secondary focus of conflict is Sam versus Moses' crew as the teens are brought face to face with one of their victims.

Best alien invasion movie since, well since forever probably.

And it's right here that Attack the Block raises itself out of the norm and makes you a believer. While the main focus is chav teens vs alien bear monsters, and I'll get to that shortly, the themes are rolling out strongly. We explore the plight of the victim of inner city crime, their reaction to their tormentors, but also perhaps why some people turn to preying on others. It's telling that Sam is told she wouldn't have been mugged if they knew she lived in the block and even more so when she asks why that should make a difference, the teens are forced to confront a victim of their crimes and don't like what that tells them about themselves. But even more importantly Moses grows as a character as he realises there are consequences to what you do and sometimes you really are going to have to step up to the plate and take responsibility for what you have done. A life lesson that many teens from whatever walk of life apparently are unaware of in real life, I blame the yanks for this development on general principles.

Okay so we have themes, and by god even sub plots, but the main action we're here for are inner city hoods versus alien monsters right? Joe Cornish doesn't disappoint, the alien bear/dog creatures are well visualised, was loving their fangs being the only bit of colour they possessed and the fact that while they could rip apart individuals they could also be killed. While probably not going down in my top ten of all time favourite movie monsters I was still digging the visualisation here and the single minded purpose the aliens brought with them.

While the main characters are lighting up the screen there's a number of supporting characters that really do add dimension to Attack the Block. The chicks provide some humour but also help underline some character growth, particularly in Moses. Hi-Hatz and his gangsta mates were welcome and once again show horror views monsters from all sorts of angles. And finally the two tweens, Probs and Mayhem, were a hoot. Sort of like irritating little brothers who suddenly develop their own plans for dealing with the alien menace, loved the scene were the pair come face to face with armed Feds, (weirdly what the block call Police). Almost forgot to mention Brewis, middle class dope smoker, and Ron (Nick Frost) who almost add a running commentary to things.

So this isn't the movie for T&A, nothing happening blood, or for gorehounds to get too excited about. The soundtrack was interesting and is worth having a listen to, though my wife is already sick of me absolutely torturing one of the tracks.

Brilliant performances from all involved that had me rocking out to the movie. Jodie Whittaker (Sam) was across her role and got the nuances Sam brought to the movie. John Boyega (Moses), Alex Esmail (Pest), and the other teen gangsters really nailed things and had me smiling. While being tough inner city kids they also had to report home to Mom and promise not to get in trouble, excellent multi dimensional characters presented in fairly stunning fashion.

Attack the Block was one of those movies I kept meaning to see but which wasn't available at my local rental place and that was always full price at JB for no apparent reason. Finally secured a copy in a Virgin buy four movies for $50 deal and the wait was worth it. Full recommendation on another Brit movie that manages to combine very solid dark genre vibes with some social commentary all wrapped up in a light hearted movie that isn't taking itself seriously. The only proviso, as mentioned previously, is the language in use.