Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Attack the Block


(2011) *1/2

I was stuck on a plane and this one the only flick that listed itself as horror, so watch it I did. I'd never heard of it, but upon my return to the states it started popping up in all sorts of places, and gets great reviews (a 90 on rotten tomatoes). I'm so confused. I didn't think it was good at all. It was not scary, it was not thrilling, it was not even all that funny. Come to think of it, it was a perfect plane movie where you don't care if its interrupted by the pilot telling you it's unclear how long you're going to be stuck circling in the air awaiting information on which airport is clear for a landing. A London gang (or what seemed like gangster kid wannabes) during a regular evening of mayhem, violence, and crime are distracted while mugging Sam (Jodie Whittaker) as a beast from outer space fireballs down to land like a meterorite nearby. Sam escapes and attempts to get police assistance while Moses (John Boyega), lead's his gang in killing this outer space beast. The thugs carry it back to the safest place they can think of: a drug dealer's grow room in their apartment building. As the night progresses, the block gets attacked (isn't the movie cleverly named) by and more more meteorites and our thug kids are pursued with growing intensity by ferocious alien werewolf creatures whose fur is blacker than black dogs and whose rows of teeth are a glowing blue. The glowing toothed beasts were by far my favorite part of this movie. Check them out:


5 comments:

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Ball sac! I've been patiently waiting for this movie for over a month now as Netflix recommended it to me based on my interest in Shaun of the Dead, Inglorious Bastards and Kick-Ass. The fact that it's been in "very long wait" status only amplified my anticipation. Your *1/2 star rating is bumming me the hell out!

Still.. those glowing tooth beasts look pretty sweet. I think I'm gonna have to check it out anyway.

Tami said...

keep in mind, i did see it on a delayed plane after flying for 9 hours, having never heard of it.... Mood dependent assessment was definitely in play. Had I known it was from the same folks as Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, I might have been prepared for satire rather than thinking I was about to watch some super scary aliens type thing.

That said, while everyone else seems to like it a lot, I didn't. Reddit, rotten tomatoes, and random reviews I found online looking for pictures informed me that people absolutely love it.

JPX said...

This year there was such a swell of fanboy frenzy over this film on sites like Aintitcoolnews that I just knew that it would suck. The exact same thing happened last year with Scott Pilrgram. I have not seen Scott Pilgram but something about the ad campaign annoyed the piss out of me and I could tell I would hate it, starting with the seemingly unlikable woman that Scott was supposed to be fighting for. Thank you for confirming that Attack the Block is garbage.

Crystal Math said...

As cool as the glowing tooth-beast moving picture is, I can't look at it for very long without getting freaked the hell out. Which makes me want to see it even more!

Octopunk said...

I'm sorry this was a letdown. I heard good things about it and planned to see it but I never did. I'm even more tempted to now that I've seen those groovy abstract monsters.

I liked Scott Pilgrim for the most part, but I don't think you would, JPX.

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