I'll be honest here, I never had any real intention of watching Attack the Block. People everywhere were talking about it but I never had any desire to burn up precious minutes reading into it. All I ever saw was that poster up there and I just kinda glazed over the whole "Inner City vs Outer Space" tagline. And all the aliens falling to Earth. I just thought it was some fucking rave movie or something.
How wrong I was.
That trailer actually does a really good job showing you what this movie is about without giving away everything.
What I like most about this movie is that it is a fairly cliche'd story but nothing about it is cliche at all. It did things completely different then I would have ever expected to see. Like when the first alien crashes to Earth. The alien is quite terrifying, it's like a hairy Xenomorph. When it first shows its ugly face, nobody runs. Nobody screams. A group of kids just beats it to death. HAHAHAHAHA Then when more crash to Earth, the same group of kids get even more excited to beat MORE to death HAHAHAHAHA! YES! That's right aliens, fuck you! You can't just drop in unannounced.
This movie is from the producers of Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Attack the Block isn't as funny or as exciting as either of those movies but it's close. I didn't know that ahead of time but thinking about it and thinking about those two movies...you can tell it's by the same people. The lightheartedness and seriousness of it all is there.
The special effects are really good and mostly practical. Practical is the only way to go. What little CGI there was...was good. So nothing to complain about there. The aliens themselves were pretty awesome. Just a bunch of gorillas with a mouthfull of glow in the dark teeth. Fuck yeah!
What magical teeth you have, AARRGGHHA OH GOD IT'S EATING ME
I'd recommend this movie to everyone. It's a fun ride. The first 15-20 kind of drag on. After the opening scene it's like a 15 minute tour of the block...which is necessary as all of it comes into play in the last two thirds of the movie. After that though, it's all alien asswhooping and racism! (seriously, you know how a lot of horror movies have just one black dude and he's the first one to get offed? Well this movie has a few white people and the aliens only kill black people. Mostly.)
I enjoyed it. I'm gonna buy it. Everything I've seen by these producers is fantastic and I can't wait to see what they do next. Don't fuck with the Block or the Block will fuck with you.
Good review! Will definitely watch this when it comes to dvd.
ReplyDeleteYeah, thanks for the heads up. I didn't get much into the review for fear of spoilers but this definitely looks like something I'd like to see. Loved Shaun of the Dead so I'm very curious about this.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard the title I thought it was going to be a sequel to Stomp the Yard, or another one of those gay movies were kids have dance-offs with kids from rival schools. But I have heard a lot of good things about Attack the Block. I will def be catching this when it hits DVD.
ReplyDeleteGood review... Watched this last night. Suprised you didn't mention the mugging at the start, ruined the film for me. Just thought they were dicks after that.
ReplyDeleteWow, I'm surprised I didn't. Thanks for pointing that out. I thought they were pricks too until they started getting attacked by the aliens and then they discovered the woman they attacked actually lived on their block. I thought that was kind of cool...they protect their own and everyone else is just fodder.
ReplyDeleteWas totally disappointed by the mugging at the start- totally turned me off the film:-(
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