Friday, April 13, 2012

Attack the Block thoughts and rant!

Attack the Block



WOW!!!



In the past few years, Hollywood has been glutting the market with a series of movies like “Skyline” and “Battlefield: Los Angeles.” You know the movie: Unlikely cast of characters try to fend off an alien invasion with big budget explosions and CGI alien attacks. Well, the British did throw their own hats in the ring though I missed the initial theater outing. So I waited for Netflix to send me the latest “Blue-Glowing Alien Invasion” film with very small expectations of greatness, and this is despite warm reviews from fellow genre fans. I’m eating my expectations and vomiting giddy joy in the aftermath! “Attack the Block” was everything that the recent trends of alien invasion films have wanted to be. It has good scares, a smart script, and a cast of oddly likeable characters. The film also boasts a small percentage of the budget the other films carried so every effect works to bring the film forward instead of wallowing in hype and spectacle.



Here’s the gist: A group of young teen hoodlums are interrupted in the middle of a street mugging when an object from space crashes through a car nearby. Their victim makes her getaway in the confusion and the teens are briefly attacked by a small “gremlin”-like creature before chasing it down. They easily kill the creature and we’re quickly introduced to a number of side characters as they carry the body to their friends for safe-keeping. The “friend” is a dealer played by Nick Frost, and other side characters include his boss, the local girls, a college kid looking to purchase drugs, and the aforementioned “victim” who happens to live in the same building as the boys. Events quickly escalate when the first creature is joined by a number of others who crash to earth and the boys quickly find out that these creatures quite larger than the first. They are, in fact, far more vicious and dangerous.



The boys are chased back to their building by the creatures, which prove themselves quite capable of ripping and shredding the police and other area hoodlums. There are some great little gory scenes, plenty of splatter for the gorehound, and we find ourselves starting to actually like this group of misfits and hoodlums. The thing is, they also start to like themselves. They start to see themselves as Heroes at roughly the same time as the audience, even though their victim is always quick to remind them of what they just very recently did to her. These kids really aren’t angels, but we do root for them and we also start to understand why the aliens are invading. But look, all of that stuff is spoiler and doesn’t have much to do with the rant.



This is a great film! Just check it out, you won’t be sorry, and be prepared for a crash course in British slang because this film is chock full of it. Truth, Bruv. Grab your fam and get yerself a telly to watch this bloody good film, truth! Okay, I’m not British, I don’t quite have the slang down, but seriously you should watch this film.



5 out of 5. Truth.

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