Attack the Block (R) ★★★★
In the audacious sci-fi action-comedy Attack the Block, British comedian-turned-director Joe Cornish fuses alien-invasion epic with coming-of-age drama, spikes it with heavy doses of irreverent humor and wry social commentary, and serves up a cinematic concoction unlike any glimpsed on this side of the Atlantic in quite some time.
The action centers on a gang of excitable, hoodie-clad street kids, all hailing from the same south London council estate, whose interests include hip hop, videogames, marijuana, and larceny. They're engaged in the latter – robbing a young woman at knifepoint – when a mysterious meteor-like object comes roaring down from the sky, smashing into a nearby Volvo. As their leader, the grimly focused Moses (John Boyega), approaches the car to investigate, a strange creature leaps out from it and bests him in a brief tussle before fleeing, panicked.
Chastened by the unprovoked bum-rush, Moses declares "I'm killing it," and lights out in pursuit of the creature. And kill it he does – but only after entreating his pals to lend a hand finishing it off. Soon the boys are parading the corpse of what appears to be a newly discovered alien life-form around their hood, to the delight and horror of their fellow-residents, many of whom assume it to be an elaborate movie prop.
Before long, many more mysterious objects are landing in south London, their cargo significantly larger and more ferocious than the comparatively small and timorous first arrival. (They're savage buggers – hairy, wolf-like, with glowing blue eyes and fangs.) Confronted by an invasion of feral, bloodthirsty extra-terrestrials, Moses and his mates react in just the way you'd expect a crew of inadequately supervised adolescent boys, their judgment perhaps impaired by a mix of pot and surging hormones, would: They grab all of the weapons in their midst – a hodgepodge of kitchen knives, decorative swords, and fireworks – jump on their bicycles and scooters, and head out in search of a fight.
Director Cornish's comic sensibility, dark, biting, and pop-culture-laden, is similar to that of his countrymen and occasional collaborators, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. (Wright produced the film; his frequent muse, Nick Frost, appears in a supporting role as a friendly drug-dealer.) But Attack the Block is less of a parody than the rollicking genre send-ups Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. There's an earnestness to counterbalance the irreverence – Cornish shows real affection for his adolescent anti-heroes, and their depiction feels genuine.
For the most part, Cornish mixes Attack the Block's broad tonal range effectively, creating a film that is at various points hilarious, suspenseful, heart-wrenching, shocking, and exhilarating. Occasionally his boldness gets the best of him, as in a few of the death scenes, when the gore is laid down a little too thick. The bloody bits feel gratuitous and unnecessary, seemingly added only to win points with genre fans, and they mar what is otherwise a sparkling feature-film debut from a filmmaker we'll surely be seeing more of in the future.
Hollywood.com rated this film 4 stars.
To get the full Quicklook Films experience, uncheck "Enable on this Site" from Adblock Plus
box office top 10
Civil War Released: April 12, 2024 Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura 11.1M
Abigail Released: April 19, 2024 Cast: Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens 10.2M
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Released: March 29, 2024 Cast: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry 9.5M
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare Released: April 19, 2024 Cast: Henry Cavill, Eiza Gonzalez 9M
Spy x Family Code: White Released: April 19, 2024 Cast: Takuya Eguchi, Saori Hayami 4.9M
Kung Fu Panda 4 Released: March 8, 2024 Cast: Jack Black, Viola Davis 4.6M
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Released: March 22, 2024 Cast: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon 4.4M
Dune: Part Two Released: March 1, 2024 Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson 2.9M
Monkey Man Released: April 5, 2024 Cast: Dev Patel, Sikandar Kher 2.2M
The First Omen Released: April 5, 2024 Cast: Nell Tiger Free, Bill Nighy 1.7M