Attack the Block (Cornish, 2011)

[Dukefrukem]

http://s3.amazonaws.com/coolproduction/ckeditor_assets/pictures/2771/original/atb.jpg?1312242923

This is getting good reviews (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/attack_the_block/), enough for me to make a thread about it.

has anyone seen it yet? It's not coming to Boston until August 19th.

You can check local theaters here: www.facebook.com/attacktheblockmovie

sgXWKqIGbEk

[number8]

I did. It's a ton of fun. It's sort of what would happen if the characters from The Wire are stuck in the movie Gremlins.

[DavidSeven]

has anyone seen it yet?

A couple people had positive words for it in Chac Mool's Fantasia Film Festival thread.

[number8]

My review, by the way. (http://www.justpressplay.net/reviews/8267-attack-the-block.html)

[eternity]

It's basically Shaun of the Dead with aliens instead of zombies. And that's just fine.

[Chac Mool]

It's basically Shaun of the Dead with aliens instead of zombies. And that's just fine.

I enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than "Shaun of the Dead" -- better characterizations, cooler setting, more interesting "monsters", sharper social insights and certainly more laughs.

[MadMan]

Probably will have to rent this when it comes out on DVD since it won't come to my area, but it looks like great fun.

[Henry Gale]

The movie's pretty great, easily one of the most enjoyable of the year for me. If Cornish can do this with such a limited budget and scale, then I can't wait to see what he may do with something bigger down the line. The way the film treats the attitudes of the kids over the course of the film is probably the most impressive aspect of it. It establishes them as almost cartoonishly thuggish early on, but slowly humanizes them, but refreshingly with more humour than predictable melodrama.

The Basement Jaxx score is pretty fantastic too. A nice companion to the other high profile, unconventional, first-time scores that Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Trent Reznor and Nigel Godrich and have recently done.

***½

[Fezzik]

I REALLY want to see this asap. Unfortunately, now that our little indie/art house theater has closed, the chances of that happening have plummeted drastically.

This one, sadly, will have to wait for Netflix and/or DVD.

[Ezee E]

Despite a good amount of people seeing it, there's not much discussion here.

Cornish shows himself to be a capable action director, especially in the latter half of the movie when he's no longer having to really worry about the look of the alien, and can concentrate on his action pieces. The best bits are when there's no actual action on screen, but guys that are in the hunt for them... Such as the hallway scene filled with smoke, or the elevator shootout. It took a bit for it to get started for me, but once it got going, I enjoyed it a lot. John Boyega is impressive.

[MadMan]

Completely forgot to post my write up for this flick-it'll be entered in my blog, of course. Needless to say it was a pretty good movie, really entertaining, and that Cornish has a bright future in movie making, at least I hope so.

[Dukefrukem]

My movie of the year so far. Loved this.

[Dukefrukem]

I did. It's a ton of fun. It's sort of what would happen if the characters from The Wire are stuck in the movie Gremlins.

The box says "Goonies meets Gremlins", but I was disappointed that

two of the kids ended up dying. I didn't think that was necessary and was hoping the whole group would end up surviving.

[Rowland]

I loved this too, and wrote some thoughts about it elsewhere, which I'll copy and paste here:

Attack the Block isn't a laugh riot, as it operates on a less farcical wavelength than the works of Edgar Wright to which it's most often compared, but Cornish and his delightfully charismatic ensemble strike a careful balance between the jaunty and the deadly serious, so that the film doesn't shortchange its dual identities as both a cheeky monster-movie mash-up and an almost anthropologically-minded examination of urban anxieties, the two instead complementing one another in a most vibrant manner.

As an action film, it's easily one of the most badass siege picture in recent memory, one that doesn't shy away from killing off the members of its adolescent cast in a frightfully gory fashion, and significantly, without doing so in a flippant manner. Cornish crafts the thing with a surprisingly accomplished formal dexterity and a wicked facility for pacing, shaming most of the year's genre output, and the practical creature effects his production team devised for the film are ingeniously witty and resourceful, evoking the low-budget production values of its forebears while transcending any potentially chintzy vibe through the ingenuity with which Cornish orchestrates his setpieces, the sheer ferocity of the creatures, as well as the endearing imagination evident in their design.

[MadMan]

As Promised (http://madman731.blogspot.com/2011/11/this-neighborhood-watch-doesnt-screw.html)

PS: I realized I forgot to mention how good the movie's score really was.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I loved this too, and wrote some thoughts about it elsewhere, which I'll copy and paste here:

Attack the Block isn't a laugh riot, as it operates on a less farcical wavelength than the works of Edgar Wright to which it's most often compared, but Cornish and his delightfully charismatic ensemble strike a careful balance between the jaunty and the deadly serious, so that the film doesn't shortchange its dual identities as both a cheeky monster-movie mash-up and an almost anthropologically-minded examination of urban anxieties, the two instead complementing one another in a most vibrant manner.

As an action film, it's easily one of the most badass siege picture in recent memory, one that doesn't shy away from killing off the members of its adolescent cast in a frightfully gory fashion, and significantly, without doing so in a flippant manner. Cornish crafts the thing with a surprisingly accomplished formal dexterity and a wicked facility for pacing, shaming most of the year's genre output, and the practical creature effects his production team devised for the film are ingeniously witty and resourceful, evoking the low-budget production values of its forebears while transcending any potentially chintzy vibe through the ingenuity with which Cornish orchestrates his setpieces, the sheer ferocity of the creatures, as well as the endearing imagination evident in their design.

Fantastic write-up. Complete agreement. This movie was a blast.

[Irish]

Exceedingly well made but completely trivial.

If the movie succeeds at all, it succeeds because of its pacing and runtime, two areas where recent American genre films tend to be lethargic and bloated.

It's run and gun sci fi horror and the finer points made me think of movies like Critters, Slither, and Night of the Creeps. AtB isn't as self consciously tongue in cheek as those pictures, though, and it's a helluva lot more violent. But the broad strokes are the same, almost depressingly so.

The score and the photography help out quite a bit, making it feel better than it deserves to be. The British accents don't hurt either, giving the perfunctory dialogue a certain Old World weight. (If this had been made in America, it would bomb, seem ridiculous, and nobody would give a shit.)

American theaters are drowning in passable, pleasant entertainment, so I'm not sure why we need to start importing product from England, even if the craft is done well to an almost mechanical precision.

[dreamdead]

Slightly above average, with the grade bump drawing on the excellent score and Cornish's very assured directing. It's a film I want to like more than I do. The main relationship between Moses and his alienation from society, such as how he believes that the aliens were sent by the government because drugs and guns aren't killing the urban kids fast enough, isn't developed enough to move beyond a cursory social consciousness. Any time it seems that it'll explore some fascinating aspect of the symbolism or theme, it retreats, so that while it does advance a consciousness, it remains far too tied to the plot mechanisms, which are embraced energetically but not dynamically.

The script is too rote to uplift the game performances and direction. Sad.

[megladon8]

I really wish I could see the greatness here that others did.

What I saw was cliche, derivative sci-fi horror with too little of either to be truly successful as a genre film, and such shallow social consciousness that it isn't effective as satire or commentary either.

There was not a single character to root for or like, and at times I caught a fleeting whif of racism inherent in its depiction of inner city thugs.

Some interesting concepts marred by everything else being generic as all hell. That the neatest part of the movie was the colour of the aliens is kind of sad.

That it's competently shot didn't make up for everything else being so...blah.

[Pop Trash]

Don't worry, I'm totally with you meg. I couldn't fully rate it because I shut it off halfway through, but it seems you felt I wouldn't miss much.

[Raiders]

I really wish I could see the greatness here that others did.

What I saw was cliche, derivative sci-fi horror with too little of either to be truly successful as a genre film, and such shallow social consciousness that it isn't effective as satire or commentary either.

There was not a single character to root for or like, and at times I caught a fleeting whif of racism inherent in its depiction of inner city thugs.

Some interesting concepts marred by everything else being generic as all hell. That the neatest part of the movie was the colour of the aliens is kind of sad.

That it's competently shot didn't make up for everything else being so...blah.

I found it to be somewhat uninspiring once you get past the creature intro and the gang's group dynamic, but the criticism of having a character to root for or its "racist" portrayal are alleviated by the film once it delves into the kids themselves.

Still, I agree it is ultimately far shy of a great film.

[megladon8]

but the criticism of having a character to root for or its "racist" portrayal are alleviated by the film once it delves into the kids themselves


I don't agree.

Even when Moses has supposedly learned the error of his ways and "redeemed" himself, I didn't like him, nor did I really feel his character had grown or learned anything. He saved the neighbourhood by doing what he already did best - violence and destruction. And he gets cheered on for it.

I may very well be remembering wrong (we watched the movie late at night and I had to be up very early), but was any of the killing in the movie done by anyone other than the black characters? Also, aside from the two white cops at the beginning, weren't all of the characters who were killed black?

Again, even when the movie attempted to redeem the kids and make them likeable, they never were. They were annoying punks, and the fact that they banded together to fight a larger threat did not, to me, redeem what they did to the woman at the beginning.

[Morris Schæffer]

My appraisal of it consists entirely of superficial descriptors. Energetic, cool, defiant. Along with Chronicle, a good example of what can be accomplished with "modest" means. I gave it ••½

[Raiders]

Even when Moses has supposedly learned the error of his ways and "redeemed" himself, I didn't like him, nor did I really feel his character had grown or learned anything. He saved the neighbourhood by doing what he already did best - violence and destruction. And he gets cheered on for it.

I think you are making a moral argument that isn't the point to the film. The film displays numerous moments that do humanize him quite a bit. I don't think that a hero to a film such as this can only be pure of heart or "learn" to be a great person. It can just be someone who is a street thug who ultimately steps up when faced with a tough task. He's not "redemptive" but that doesn't make him an anti-hero or a "bad" person either.


I may very well be remembering wrong (we watched the movie late at night and I had to be up very early), but was any of the killing in the movie done by anyone other than the black characters? Also, aside from the two white cops at the beginning, weren't all of the characters who were killed black?

I don't know what you are getting at. The film's primary focus is a group of black kids.


Again, even when the movie attempted to redeem the kids and make them likeable, they never were. They were annoying punks, and the fact that they banded together to fight a larger threat did not, to me, redeem what they did to the woman at the beginning.

Maybe it is a personal thing, but you seem to be far more judgmental and damning of them then I think I could be or most people are.

[megladon8]

No, the group was a big mix of races. A few white kids, a few black kids, and a couple mixed.

I don't think it's judgmental that I didn't like the characters, nor did I feel any positive feelings building towards them as the film went on. Others say that as the film went on the characters and their personalities grew on them. They didn't on me. I saw them as the same muggers that the film opened with.

I'm not saying they were a group of mini Patrick Bateman's, but I didn't find them charming or funny at all in the film. They just annoyed me.

[D_Davis]

I don't see race.

[Pop Trash]

I'm not saying they were a group of mini Patrick Bateman's, but I didn't find them charming or funny at all in the film. They just annoyed me.

Yeah me neither. I live in a mixed race area with quite a few thugged out types so I don't particularly want to watch a movie about them, especially when there is zero depth going on.

I mean, would this movie get the same reaction if aliens crash landed in Michigan while a Gathering of Juggalos was going on? Actually, nevermind, that sounds kind of hilarious.

[EyesWideOpen]

I'm with Meg also. The unlikability of the main cast was my main reason I didn't like the film as much as most.

[number8]

RACISTS, ALL OF YOU.

D too.

[Rowland]

Still love it.

[Watashi]

Still love it.
Me too. Seen it a bunch of times.

[transmogrifier]

The point of the whole film is the tribal unlikeability of the main cast - it is who they are, what they do, and the film charts how their narrow world view first instigates the whole mess, then helps them survive it. It's the whole chicken and the egg scenario - are these tough guy personas the cause of or the response to the environment they strut around in?

It is to the film's credit that it doesn't soften them - they remain immature fuckups right to the end, and that smile that ends the film is a perfect note of ambiguity; is it because he did something good, or because he is a legend who can now use his clout to fill the power vacuum of the criminal fraternity in the block.

And any film that can have that awesome sequence where the girl goes into Moses apartment - as affecting and conflicted a scene as you can afford to have in typical genre fare - is doing something very, very right.

[megladon8]

The point of the whole film is the tribal unlikeability of the main cast - it is who they are, what they do, and the film charts how their narrow world view first instigates the whole mess, then helps them survive it. It's the whole chicken and the egg scenario - are these tough guy personas the cause of or the response to the environment they strut around in?


That's actually a pretty neat way to look at it, I didn't think of that. I was just so unimpressed by the whole, and annoyed by these characters, that I admit I didn't really think about that subtext.

I'll have to watch it again with that in mind. Might as well since I blind-bought the DVD.

[Dukefrukem]

https://deadline.com/2021/05/attack-the-block-2-sequel-john-boyega-joe-cornish-reunite-nira-park-studio-canal-film4-cult-classic-1234758463/

[DFA1979]

Glad they are making a sequel. I hope it addresses some of the weaknesses of the original, which I still like a lot. I'm just gonna let the old posts go from folks who don't post here anymore. Also I still can't decide who is more old man get off my lawn on this site based on some posts around here. I'll let them figure if out.

PS: I miss Rowland. He was good people.