Movie: Attack the Block

[wideawakewesley]

Let's get it out of the way up top...DO NOT BELIEVE THE HYPE!

I'm a Brit, I love our movies, but Attack the Block is being overhyped to hell and back by the geek press in America. I caught it a couple of weeks back and reviewed it with my fellow co-hosts on Media Pulp, and while we all enjoyed it to varying degrees, it is NOT the second coming of the Goonies or anything like the kind of awesomeness they're comparing it to imo.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/media-pulp/id438893292
http://www.mediapulp.co.uk

Slashfilm did some free screenings the other day and are printing feedback from attendees. All of which is positive and most of which is gushingly so. Please take into account these people just saw a free movie and are trying to get their comments onto a HUGE movie website when reading the following:

http://www.slashfilm.com/early-buzz-30-film-readers-attack-block/

All that being said, please see the movie when it's eventually released in the US. It's a fun movie and I'd be suprised if you didn't enjoy it, but go in with lower expectations than "it's the next Goonies...but with gore".

You have been warned.

:)

[tsmith15]

I have low expectations going into it (if i get the chance to see it in cinemas) because the premise is awful and overdone, but few British movies make it overseas and most of them I end up enjoying. And I really didn't like what slashfilm did on twitter/the site, tooting their own horn by only highlighting peoples positive comments.

I hate Goonies anyway.

[blacksymbiote]

I hate Goonies anyway.

I have never seen this said before, but I can't say I disagree. I never saw Goonies as a kid, and when I finally did see it I was well into my teens. Whatever magic it holds over kids and then their minds as they grow up totally didn't hold up on me. I didn't think it was anything special, but I've never seen or met or heard someone who said what you just said. Kinda blown away a little bit.

[moeez]

I won't be expecting Shaun of the Dead (man, who knew that movie at the time would be the benchmark for horror comedies?!), like Mark Kermode said, but I love the idea of chavs using their street wits against aliens. The novelty alone, and Nick Frost, is too much to resist, and not many british geek movies.

[wideawakewesley]

I won't be expecting Shaun of the Dead (man, who knew that movie at the time would be the benchmark for horror comedies?!), like Mark Kermode said, but I love the idea of chavs using their street wits against aliens. The novelty alone, and Nick Frost, is too much to resist, and not many british geek movies.

If they were chavs it might have worked. These boys are just hoodlums..

[wideawakewesley]

As much as I've said, don't believe the hype. The movie is now out stateside, so have a listen to our review, then go and make up your own mind. It's worth your $ and as I mentioned above, I'll be surprised if you don't have a good time, just go in with lower expectations than Slashfilm would like you to have.

[phairus]

So I drove to Chicago to go see it yesterday and I have to say that I enjoyed it. I didn't get the Goonies feel, it felt more like Super 8, but more intense and out there at moments.

Overall I enjoyed it and am recommending it to people to check out if they can see it.

[rokov]

I finally got around to seeing it and maybe it's because I didn't go in expecting it to be Goonies (or any other movie for that matter), but I completely agree with all of the hype. It was absolutely, flawlessly brilliant. Great comedy, great action and great scares. This is the kind of movie that Carpenter should have been making all along and it is easily be best of this summer's movies that I've seen.

[wideawakewesley]

I'm glad so many people are enjoying it, although I'm still surprised by comments like "It was absolutely, flawlessly brilliant", because I just don't see a film of that quality. I do plan on watching it again though, so maybe it'll blow me away on second viewing or maybe it just plays better to non-UK audiences...or maybe I'm just plain wrong ;)

[rokov]

Or it may just be a matter of personal taste. I'm in a similar (albeit more extreme) situation with Black Swan. Everyone else seems to think that it's amazing, but IMO it's one of the worst movies that I've ever seen.

[heyseuss]

Was a buttload of fun. Really great pacing. I have to commend the filmmakers for caring that much while making it. They planned well enough ahead of time, to make a cheap movie look pretty good.

Really weird plotpoint to have the older thug guy 'HiHatz' be out to get the kids, so much so he'd rather waste his bullets on the kids than on aliens. Aliens everywhere but his priority is keeping his ego inflated/revenge.. .:rolleyes:

How come the news or the real-world never came into play, other than those 2 cops ?

Very good use of slo-mo. Nice choice, both visually and it's sparseness. It was a moment well saved for slo-mo.

Really wish the whole gang had survived. Some of them lived that were subliminal, when they only established others simply to be used as sacrificial lambs. Rather unbalanced character development.

Super-active score. Soundtrack and score continuously used, and used well.
Fucking funny, plain and simple.

[satori]

last year was a great year for me and gave me TWO surprise movies that to my mind came out of nowhere. Attack the Block was one, but the other one was Monsters. Monsters had a budget of $500K and yet is still mindblowingly good... do not expect a shoot em up if you see it. Attack the Block had a fairly small budget, but it was certainly in the millions. Joe Cornish is a god! I also loved his writing in Tin Tin. I expect great things from this man.

[damnedeyez]

Blockbuster sent this to me as my next rental...maybe I'll get around to watching it this weekend, finally.

[heyseuss]

Blockbuster sent this to me as my next rental...maybe I'll get around to watching it this weekend, finally.

Crack a beer and sit back and enjoy a ride. (Boatswain's IPA at Trader Joe's is $2 and INCREDIBLE) It's got amazing pacing, you will not want to pause it to get a new drink or pee, it's GO from the get. I was -SO- impressed with film-making tricks and techniques and variety of comic styles it touches on, from that smart subtle Leslie Vernon clever acting funny, to wisecracks and cheek in the dialogue to tongue-in-cheek horror moments nods. I guess it's got scares too, I only found one scare impressive and that's cus they set up an audio visual scare and then dropped the visual out and just went for an audio scare with the super important-role-playing-soundtrack, then they delayed the visual after I was coming down from the audio scare, and the visual got me, cus they kept them seperate. It's got some plotholes and character holes though. You might want to counter-balance it with another, longer, different genre, more serious movie with meat on the bone to sink your teeth into, same night.

[damnedeyez]

Disappointed. More of those bastard kids should've died.

...and from not living in the UK, it was kind of hard to take them seriously with the local slang.

[satori]

To be honest even living *in* England you'd likely find it hard to deal with the slang... it's right stupid. Sadly it's very much their reality, and part of the reason I think this movie is so good.

[gglynn00]

Disappointed. More of those bastard kids should've died.

...and from not living in the UK, it was kind of hard to take them seriously with the local slang.

That's funny, because I had a hard time accepting them as being "bad" or "hard" when all they have are fireworks and a pocket knife for weapons. I think the characters would have connected better with me if they were more like the Super 8 kids...just normal kids in an extraordinary situation.

I understand that the story is about inner-city London but, come on.

[stubadub]

The "bad" kids I knew in high school weren't running around with AK-47s. They'd bring switchblades to school and act tough. Most of their bad deeds were shoplifting. In general it was more affectation than anything. I think that aspect was fairly convincing. Give them a few more years to get into serious trouble before condemning them for not being hard enough.

[heyseuss]

Agree, that they were hard to connect with. I thought they were a lil 'bad' when doing the mugging at the beginning, but soon realised they were just lil nothings. I was wanting them all to either live or die. There was no reason to really root for any of them, but I didn't care enough about any of them to feel bad when one died or root for the survivors. As a group, they were very unbalanced, both in terms of interactive significance and story.

The girl, Jodie Whittaker looked like Emily Mortimer with a weird nose.

The only slang I didn't recognise was 'Wagwan' and 'bare'. Those kids were much easier to understand than gypsies.

Still, it was buttload of fun.