Review of “Attack the Block” (2011)

This was our Saturday pizza and bad movie night movie, a little something different. I’m glad it came with subtitles.

Plot:

On Guy Fawkes Night in South London, nurse Sam (Jodie Whittaker) walks home after work, on the phone to her mother, explaining that she got stuck at work. Young gang members— Pest (Alex Esmail), Dennis (Franz Drameh), Jerome (Leeon Jones), Biggz (Simon Howard), and Moses (John Boyega)—surround her and demand her phone, wallet and ring. A meteor (or something) strikes a car near them, severely damaging it.

Sam takes off. The boys want to go after her, but their leader, Moses says, “Allow it.” He turns his attention to the car, rifling through it for more valuables. Instead, a creature bearing an uncanny resemblance to E.T. of movie fame claws his face. He and the other boys kill it. They realize they have a strange animal and might be able to make some money out off it.

They decide to take it to Ron (Nick Frost), a drug dealer, who watches National Geographic, and ask him to keep it in his weed room. He tells them he only works there. They’ll have to get Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter) to agree. Hi-Hatz agrees on one condition: Moses has to start selling “white” (cocaine) for him.

Moses agrees.

“You’re my boy now,” Hi-Hatz tells him.

The boys notice something odd about the Guy Fawkes Night fireworks. It’s coming down from the sky rather than going up into it. More aliens are coming down in ships like meteors, like the one that smashed the car.

The boys go home and arm themselves—cricket bats, machetes, fireworks. The new aliens are different. They’re blind, but with mouths full of glowing teeth and look something like a cross between black gorillas and wolves. They kill Dennis’s dog, Pogo. The boys flee, right past a police van where Sam is waiting to identify Moses as the boy who mugged her. Two police officers arrest Moses only to die gruesome deaths at the hands—claws— of the aliens while the rest of the gang watch.

Thoughts:

While there is some humor in this, the outlook is mostly dark. It humanizes the criminals, which is a good idea, IMHO, but it also forces the nurse to accept their help and deny that she was wronged. People on the block stick together against the conventional authorities, who do nothing for them.

Moses later admits he was wrong to steal from someone who lives on the block.

When Sam says (reasonably enough), “My fucking heroes,” Pest (?) tells her, “Hey, he’s trying to apologize.”

The aliens attack only the building the boys, Sam, and Hi-Hatz live in. (There is a reason for this). The police do nothing, nor can they do anything. It’s up to the gang to save themselves and, consequently, the world.

I guess I was hoping for something more playful. There was back and forth among the boys, but mostly, this was a deadly serious movie with some brief horrific killings. I found it rather depressing. And damn, Pogo died.

Plenty of people disagree with me and love the movie, however.

According to IMDB, this film was nominated for thirty-nine awards and won nineteen, including the 2012 Black Reel Outstanding Foreign Film.

I could not find it for free. It is recent.



Title: Attack the Block (2011)

Directed by
Joe Cornish

Writing Credits
Joe Cornish…(written by)

Cast (in credits order) verified
Jodie Whittaker…Sam
John Boyega…Moses
Alex Esmail…Pest
Leeon Jones…Jerome
Franz Drameh…Dennis

Released: 2011
Length: 1 hour, 28 minutes
Rated: R