99¢ Review: Attack the Block

I watch a lot of movies (Check out my list of movies seen in 2011), but I don’t always have the time to write up a full review. Instead, I thought I would start up a new column where I give you the discount version of the review. What’s good, what’s bad, if it’s worth your time.

The Movie: Attack the Block

The Good: Fun dialog. Cool creature design.

The Bad: The story of redemption falls a little flat.

Attack the Block is an alien invasion film from the UK – funny accents, yay! – that is a pretty fun time, but could have been brilliant. It follows a group of disaffected youth who are bored and looking for something to do. This group of teenagers spends most of their time being hooligans, robbing their neighbors, selling and smoking pot, threatening people not from ‘The Block’, etc. That is, until aliens land and start attacking people. Then the ruffians must defend their turf from a threat that none of them could ever have accounted for.

One of the best parts of the film is the acknowledgement that our heros are kids. They have to check in with their parents before going out and taking on terrifying alien beasts. They are worried about homework and curfews and all those other things that kids feel keep them from being adults. The kids often just want to give up and play FIFA instead of risking their lives. Unfortunately for them, they are on their own with the crisis. This is because they are all thugs and wanted by the police. It’s not a good idea to call the police for help with an alien invasion when you’ve been smoking pot all day. It’s up to the kids to improvise their defense and find a way to neutralize the aliens.

There’s a concept in film known as ‘Save the Cat’. In almost every film you see, there is a scene early on where the good guy is identified by some small act of kindness. It’s usually just a brief moment, a quick scene that you might even miss. But, subconsciously, you catch it and from then on you know whom to root for. A good example of this occurs in John Rambo, a movie about a tough-guy military veteran who later on in the movie dispatches scores of Laotians in hyper-gory fashion. However, at the start of the movie, upon returning from hunting snakes in the Cambodian wilds – a tough-guy activity if there ever was – he hands a string of fish to some passing elderly locals. He helps the locals. What a nice thing to do! From then on, we associate Rambo as a nice guy, even as he mows down dozens of soldiers with a .50 cal from point blank range.

I bring this up because there is no ‘Save the Cat’ moment in Attack the Block and this really hurts the film. These kids are thugs through and through. When an alien is chasing the kids or some plan of attack goes horribly wrong, it’s difficult to care. This lack of compassion for the characters is the only flaw in the film.

Everything else in the movie works well. The action is fun, the banter with the cast is fun, the creatures are very cool, there are some tense moments and the resolution is satisfying. It really is a fun movie. I just wish that I would have connected with the characters better.

3.5 out of 5 stars