Attack the Block

Alternate titles : Attack of the Aliens

Tagline : "Inner City Vs Outer Space"

Young nurse Sam (Jodie Whittaker) is walking back to her flat in South London, when she is mugged by a group of youths, lead by an unsavoury chap named Moses (played by a pre-"Star Wars" John Boyega) . But just as she is handing over her purse, they are interrupted by a meteorite which crashes down nearby, containing a strange dog-like alien. Sam seizes her chance and runs, whilst the group of youths end up battling the strange creature.

Having dealt with the small vicious creature, they spot a further shower of meteorites landing around the estate. Suspecting an alien invasion of some sort, they quickly tool up and set out to protect their turf from them. Only to discover these aliens are a lot bigger, nastier and vicious then the previous one they encountered, and the group quickly find themselves out of their depth.

Heading back to their tower block, the group actually end up taking refuge in Sam's flat, much to her chagrin. But when the creatures finally manage to break into the building, it seems her former attackers might be the only ones who can now save her. As they are forced to fight a series of running battles as they fend off the creatures whilst trying to escape the building.

Funny, gory and action packed, the film is bloody good fun. It's probably best described as "Shaun of the Dead with aliens" and even stars Nick Frost from that film in a similar role. Though I will admit, that when I first saw this at the cinema I wasn't initially that impressed. However, when I saw it again on DVD I found that I really enjoyed it, as it does seem to play better on home video for some strange reason.

But anyway, if you enjoyed "Shaun of the Dead", you should enjoy this. Also worth watching just to see John Boyega in an early sci-fi role.

Overall Marks : 6.5/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• Director Joe Cornish said he got the basic idea for the movie whilst watching the Mel Gibson film "Signs" and imagined what it would be like if it happened in South London.
• The films budget was $13,000,000.
• The mugging scene was inspired by a real life incident that happened to the director, when he got mugged by a group of youths one evening and noticed that the group were as nervous as he was.
• Edgar Wright, who wrote and directed "Shaun of the Dead", served on this film as executive producer.
• The road and building names were all named after British science fiction authors. IE, Wyndham Tower (John Wyndham); Moore Court (Alan Moore); Huxley Court (Aldous Huxley); Wells Court (H.G. Wells); Clarke Court (Arthur C. Clarke); Ballard Street (J.G. Ballard); Adams Street (Douglas Adams); Clayton Street and Clayton Estate (Jo Clayton); and Herbert Way (Frank Herbert).
• Nick Frost's long hair was his own and not a wig. He'd grown it for the film "Paul", which he made right before this and, co-incidentally, was also about aliens.
• Originally there was to have been a scene where Moses (John Boyega) has to escape the creatures by climbing up the outside of the building, however they had to scrap this idea as it would have taken too long to set up and film and the budget simply wouldn't stretch.
• The marijuana cigarettes being smoked in the movie were actually made out of herbal tobacco
• It took several attempts to get the scene right where they're in the lift heading up to Ron's apartment to take refuge, as the cast continually kept fouling up the line "Ron's weed room".
• The movie was filmed in and around the old Heygate Estate in Southwark, London, just prior to it being demolished.

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