Attack the Block (2011)
Directed by Joe Cornish
A South London teen gang must team up with the other residents of their housing estate to protect the neighbourhood from a terrifying alien invasion.
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8 films that influenced Attack the Block
What critics say influenced Attack the Block
Continuing the burgeoning subgenre of movies that are vaguely inspired by and decidedly superior to The Goonies , this film by first-time director Joe Cornish follows an alien invasion in a U.K. inner-city housing complex; it's a bit like Goonies and War of the Worlds filtered through the original English version of Skins (which one of the characters makes direct reference to) -- though that high-concept description does little justice to the film's many charms.
Rather, it takes the sense of empowerment kids felt while watching movies like E.T. and The Goonies and updates it, creating an exciting, intense adventure that lives up to the legacy of its predecessors by continuing it rather than simply celebrating accomplishments that were already made.
The film, a low-budget sci-fi/comedy from Britain that some critics have favorably compared to such '80s classics as "Gremlins" and "The Goonies," was ultimately picked up for stateside distribution by Screen Gems and must now rely on good word-of-mouth to draw in audiences as it slowly opens around the country.
The filmmaker achieves a darker version of “The Goonies” here, with the kids hopping on bikes for transportation, while using their underage, thinly ‘stached moxie to outwit adults and aliens, spitting out smartass comments along the way.
The film is something like "The Goonies" with a bit of "Ghostbusters" and then the sensibility of a Mike Leigh kitchen sink drama and the savvy humor of Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead."
A genre hybrid film with influences ranging from “The Warriors” to "The Goonies" to “Critters,” Cornish has created a lean, mean sci-fi action thriller that excels in getting the audience in and out without wasting a single minute.
It’s hard not to listen to the soundtrack of Attack the Block and think of those great, creepy as hell soundtracks on movies like Alien or The Thing.
His audacious debut feature, "Attack the Block" -- in which lower-class youths from a London housing project do battle with man-eating aliens -- combines the wry nastiness of "Gremlins" and "The Thing" with such siege dramas as "Assault on Precinct 13" and "Escape from New York."
Accordingly, Attack the Block’s premise about an alien invasion and the ensuing siege of a single South London housing estate has umpteen nods to John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Escape from New York (1981) and The Thing (1982), Walter Hill’s The Warriors (1979) and Streets of Fire (1984), Joe Dante’s Gremlins (1984) and the John Sayles-scripted Piranha (1978) and Alligator (1980), with a dash of French cinéma du look (Diva, 1981; Subway, 1985) and a Children’s Film Foundation romp thrown in for good measure.
Like "The Thing" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" before it, "Attack the Block" demands to be seen simply because it is a thrill - a pulse-raiser whose perfect construction and pointed wit make it one of the year's most exciting films.
"Attack The Block" may be the sort of film where you can pull apart the DNA to find traces of "The Warriors" and "Gremlins" and "Over The Edge" and "The Thing," but it has its own voice, and it never trades on easy references or simple nods.
This smartly assembled, effortlessly cool sci-fi comedy -- written and directed by Joe Cornish and produced by the "Shaun of the Dead" and "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" team -- makes instant stars out of the charismatic non-professionals who comprise most of the young cast.
As a protégé and sometime colleague of Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim director Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish shares in common a sensibility that feels youthful, while also having an execution that's sophisticated and mature; both filmmakers relish the inspiration they draw from other genre films, but have the presence of mind to use it as a building block rather than a raison d'etre.
"Shaun of the Dead" actor Nick Frost brings his trademark comic presence as a pothead named Ron, whose apartment is a gathering place for a like-minded younger generation.
Cornish makes a feature debut here that's almost as stunning as when his pal (and executive producer) Edgar Wright invaded the cineplex with "Shaun of the Dead."
One of his cohorts (Nick Frost of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) operates out of a small apartment in the British equivalent of the projects, which is where all the movie’s characters live.
Edgar Wright, Cornish’s co-writer on the upcoming Spielberg film, serves as an executive producer of Attack the Block, which is appropriate since Wright’s witty zombie genre spoof, Shaun of the Dead, bears an obvious kinship with Cornish’s film.
When John Carpenter made " Assault on Precinct 13 " early in his career, he demonstrated an invaluable formula to later low-budget generations.
Accordingly, Attack the Block’s premise about an alien invasion and the ensuing siege of a single South London housing estate has umpteen nods to John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Escape from New York (1981) and The Thing (1982), Walter Hill’s The Warriors (1979) and Streets of Fire (1984), Joe Dante’s Gremlins (1984) and the John Sayles-scripted Piranha (1978) and Alligator (1980), with a dash of French cinéma du look (Diva, 1981; Subway, 1985) and a Children’s Film Foundation romp thrown in for good measure.
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When John Carpenter made " Assault on Precinct 13 " early in his career, he demonstrated an invaluable formula to later low-budget generations.
Nick Frost expertly channels the weed-infused persona of druggie Danny from Withnail & I, while the young hoodlums (many of whom have soft centres) all come across as authentic rather than Blazin' Squad style stage school brats trying to act 'street'.
Cornish has a free-spirited sensibility making this picture and a playful willingness to take on the science fiction genre in an unhinged manner similar to that of 2009’s District 9, only with more comedy involved.
The beasties in both Joe Cornish's Attack the Block and Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens are inclined to subtle infiltration, as opposed to the park-massive-spacecraft-above-major-city approach of those in Independence Day or District 9.
For this, it strongly contrasts the overrated District 9, which explored the same kind of social and racial issues in the alien genre but failed to make any strong or valid points about those subjects.
With Hollywood fumbling its alien-invasion flicks at least three-quarters of the time (Cowboys & Aliens, the latest Transformers, and does anyone even remember Battle: Los Angeles?), it's nice to see that the rest of the global community can pick up some of the slack, with South Africa and New Zealand contributing District 9 and now the United Kingdom offering up this film.
And not particularly interesting criminals — like Kurt Russell in “Escape from New York” or Vin Diesel in “Pitch Black” — but stupid, violent teens who take a knife to a poor nursing student trudging her way home.