Attack The Block Review (2011)

Director Joe Cornish has been around for while, working on TV with the Adam and Joe show, radio (again with Adam Buxton) and writing screenplays, most recently working on the Tintin script with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. So it has come with no surprise that he should eventually try his hand at directing with Attack The Block being his first film and hopefully not his last.

Joe came up with the idea for Attack The Block after he was mugged in London by a gang of hoodies and later thought what if a Alien race had crashed landed just as the mugging was taking place. This is where the film kicks off as Jodie Whittaker's character is mugged by a group of young kids just as an Alien crash lands right next to the them. The young group decide to chase and Kill the alien, but don't realise the danger they are bringing to the rest of the estate.

People who see this film will easily compare it to Shaun of the dead and to an extent, rightly so as the film was produced by Edgar Wright and stars Nick Frost, but I feel this would be doing the film a disservice as Joe has managed to create a original Sci-fi Film with laughs and jumps throughout. Although you shouldn't go in thinking this is an all out comedy, the film gets darker as it gets closer to the end and has some violent deaths.

Most people dislike gangs of teenagers who wear hoodies but as the story unfolds we begin to actually like the gang and start to root for them to destroy this invasion of aliens. This is great work from Joe and the actors as its fair to say if we were to think of heroes a group of hoodies wouldn't be top of are list. All the actors who play the gang are pretty much all first time actors but they all give fantastic performances with the stand out being John Boyega who plays the gangs leader Moses. Also the aliens created are well suited to the tone of the film, all black with glowing blue teeth and no eyes.

Overall this is a great debut from Joe Cornish who has created a funny, scary and enjoyable sci-fi film.

Attack the Block is out now in cinemas.