Movie Review: Attack the Block (2011)
Attack the Block is an excellent movie. It’s described on the back of the DVD as “The Goonies meets Gremlins,” and while I can see where someone would reach that conclusion, I think it undersells this movie’s originality and unique nature.
This is now the third time I’ve seen it, and it really is one of my favorite movies of the current decade. I sort of saw it originally on a whim. My first year in college, I got a shocking amount of advertisements for this on YouTube videos and stuff like that, and I must say I didn’t think it looked that good, but for whatever reason, a few years later, I eventually saw it.
The movie was billed as “from the producers of Shaun of the Dead,” and while Edgar Wright didn’t direct the movie, it still has all the kinetic and chaotic energy of any Edgar Wright movie.
The movie features plenty of likable characters, including the main character, Moses (John Boyega of Star Wars fame in his film debut), who has a lot of depth to him and is played wonderfully. Moses is 15 years old, which is a little hard to believe due to how old John Boyega is, but it turns out he was only 18 or 19 when this was released, which I found not only hard to believe because of how he looks, but because of how he acts. It’s a powerhouse performance, and it made me thrilled to hear that he had been cast in The Force Awakens.
The movie opens with Moses and his gang robbing nurse Samantha (Jodie Whittaker).
She gets away from them when a meteor hits a nearby car, distracting them. When Moses steps into the car to take any valuables, he’s attacked by an alien, who had used the meteor as a sort of cocoon. He ends up killing the alien, and walks around the streets of Brixton in celebration.
Thinking it’ll be worth a lot of money, he and his friends place it in Ron’s (Nick Frost, Shaun of the Dead) weed room.
More meteors crash and as Moses is arrested, it is apparent that there is an invasion. The aliens that come down this time are really interesting looking. They’re hairy and have glow in the dark teeth. They’re almost apelike. It’s a really neat design.
When he’s arrested, Samantha, who was in the police van, positively identifies him. Then the cops are killed by some aliens and Moses’s friends save them by launching some fireworks.
They all go to Samantha’s flat, which is in the same apartment building as Moses and his friends.
What ensues is a really fun ride, and I don’t want to spoil it too much. It’s pretty funny, action packed, and has a little bit of economic and racial commentary.
It’s an excellent movie that works in a lot of different ways. It’s funny, scary, exciting, and has characters you come to love.
Rating: 9/10
