Monday 25 June 2012

Attack The Block (DVD Review)

Attack the block is a dark comedy, which was released in 2011. Directed by Joe Cornish and starring John Boyega, Alex Esmail,Franz Drameh,Leeon Jones and Simon Howard all in their debut feature film. Attack the block follows the story of a group of teenagers who are trying to defend their block from an alien invasion. 

I've been wanting to see this film since it's release back in 2011, so when I finally got round to watching it last week, my anticipations were high. Thankfully the film did't dissapoint supplying a funny yet scary film, which is bursting with originality. The film begins differently to what may be expected, showing the group of teens mugging a defensless woman, howver instead of following the woamn home afterwards, we as an audience, follow the gang after the mugging has taken place and we are introduced to the personalities of each charcter, which are quite different to the steriotypical teen. The teenagers are presented, realistically and are shown with a human, more gentle side to them which supplies comedy and even an odd connection which means that after 10 minutes you've forgotten about the mugging and are rooting for the hilarious gang. Then when the aliens appear, a perfect mixture of comedy and genuine horror in sues. The aliens are amazingly unique showing, a primate type creature which is terrifyingly gymnastic and vicious. These two factors are what makes this film brilliant, the continuous contrasts of the hilarity of the group, and then the tense scenes in which the teens are running away from the aliens, is just perfect. 

Although I liked the majority of the film , I do feel that the ending did disappoint and felt slightly out of place. It just did't seem that realistic, and in a film of such originality and realism to see quite a clique ending was frustrating. 

This is only a minor hiccup however, as on the whole I thought the film was brilliant. With 2011 being such a bland year for films, and then to see attack the block appear out of nowhere and show a original story that perfectly depicts the lives of 5 young teens whilst providing hilarious situations and intense alien sequences, is absolutely outstanding. 

90%- An energetic comedy, filled with moments of tense horror. Let down slightly with a out of place ending, which however shouldn't deter you from the overall brilliant film. 

Calum.Rusell

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