Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

bowmanblue I know that British science fiction films are always a bit hit and miss, due to the lack of budget for special effects and actors. 'Attack the Block' is no different in as much as you probably won't recognise anyone in the cast (besides Simon Pegg's best mate, Nick Frost - and he's not in it much). However, this film knows that and plays to its strength enough to actually make it worth watching. It's set in (what I always called) a 'council estate' in London, but the locals tend to just call it 'the block.' It's a maze of run-down high rise, low income flats where you probably wouldn't want to walk alone at night. And that's pretty much where the story begins - a woman walks home from work, only to find herself fall victim to muggers. However, before she has time to call the police, a new threat arrives - aliens.So, it becomes one of those 'team-up' movies where two sets of people with vastly contrasting backgrounds/values etc, have to pull together in order to defat a greater foe. Now there's nothing wrong with that, but if one section of your 'heroes' (note the quote marks?) are the muggers who stole from a helpless nurse one night, it's a little hard to see them in much more of a better light than the monsters who are now ripping them to pieces. And they do get munched on quite soon. The aliens deserve a mention because - and maybe due to a lack of budget - they quite simple, but, at the same time, also quite well done. They have a different look and feel to any other monsters you've seen on screen and, for that, it actually works.Plus the film has John Boyega in his only real 'pre Star Wars' role. It's interesting to think how he went from low budget sci-fi to possibly the biggest budget sci-fi franchise ever known. Now, as anyone who's watched the new Star Wars films will know, he's very good at what he does and highly watchable. However, as I've mentioned, he's playing one of the muggers. Granted you could argue he goes through major 'character development' and in the course of the story mends his ways, but - again - a lot of the likeability of this film relies on the audience being able to root for these hoods over the monsters.So, if you can get over that 'minor' gripe then there's actually quite a bit here to entertain you if you're looking for a cheeky little sci-fi/horror number that is self-knowing enough not to take itself seriously. Plus I still think the aliens are cool.

dissident320 In terms of casting, this movie did a perfect job. Everyone is great, right down to the younger kids. And a large amount of the actors have gone on to be quite successful so the director chose well.In terms of the story and setup, it's all fine. They're attacked by alien creatures and they have to protect 'the block'. I had some issues with the overall execution of this premise. Its setup seems like it's going to be a bit goofier than it actually ends up being. It's not really a fun movie at all. The action is coherent for the most part and nicely shot. But it's very violent and is almost like a horror movie at times. I think Nick Frost was supposed to be the comic relief but he has barely more than a cameo of screen time compared to everyone else.It's an above average lower budget action movie but it only wants to dip its toe in humour and cheesy-ness despite having a fairly cheesy premise.

sykespj Since its' 2011 debut, this gem from rookie writer/director Joe Cornish has slowly worked its way into the sci-fi consciousness. The film also proves you can still make fun action movies that ooze a social conscience... and therein lies the magic.The movie kicks off with a South London teenage gang - led by a black Moses - mugging a young white woman. Immediately, my sense of social justice kicked in and I thought: "I'm going to hate this. Should I just turn it off now?" Glad I didn't.After a while I began to realize that the movie is about the enemy within... in this case represented by shadowy alien beasts invading "the block". Every time the film throws us an answer, it leads to yet another question. As others have pointed out, the movie is by no means perfect. But its' many good points far outweigh its' minor flaws.The performances are uniformly good to excellent. The special effects, while not brilliant, defy the movie's minuscule budget. All in all an impressive effort by Joe Cornish.Peter Sykes (Sci-Fi Lists)

timothytitus-61783 I'm a middle class 62 year old that upholds Christian values and principles. I happened to catch this film knowing nothing about it, when there was nothing else available that I fancied watching. I was amazed at some of the reviews here from those that simply didn't get it, so I thought I'd write my own - it has to be watched with a broad mind,and a realisation of what many of today's disaffected youth can be like.It was made plain right from the start that it was set in 'gangsta' land, and I thought that was novel for a sci-fi film to begin with. While I didn't 'like' these young thugs, I was gripped by the pace and acting, and as I like sci-fi/comedy (Earth Girls are Easy... Tremors etc) found I couldn't resist watching more. While I found it very entertaining throughout, what I particularly liked by the end was the way it demonstrated that each of these characters had somewhere inside them some glimmer of redeeming features, which I believe is very much the case in reality. I thought the producers got the tone just right with the run-down, un-cared-for surroundings, the subtle retro-throwbacks to other classic films, and the response of the gang to the bizarre situation they found themselves in.There's no point in going into detail about the production values, 'each to his own'. All in all a - yes, sometimes hard to watch - very successful bit of cinema, well away from the Hollywood norm.