"I am too high for this shit."

-Pest

What if the Earth was invaded?

Well...not invaded, really.

What if it was more, like, visited?

And what if the visitors got rowdy when they showed?

And then what if said visitors, having gotten said rowdy, made the mistake of getting rowdy on somebody else's turf on the bad side of town?

Well, then, you'd have Attack The Block.

This movie is about one evening in South London. I'm going to presume it's Guy Fawkes night or some other holiday, because there are fireworks all over the area. It takes place in and around a particular block of Council Flats (called, in reality at least, Heygate estate - thanks to both Andrew Aguecheek and Hazelnut for that info). The movie starts with a woman walking back to the block from the underground. On the way, she meets some of the local kids, who aren't friendly. During the course of their meeting, something large falls from the sky and through the roof of a parked car. When the kids decide to rummage through the car which is now conveniently accessible, something short and gray screams at them and attacks the leader before loping off through a fence into a park.

So of course, they follow it.

"You discovered a species hitherto unknown to science, possibly extra-terrestrial in nature, and you kicked its head in."

-Ron

Of course, that's not the end of it. Oh no. Trailing their prize corpse back to the block, the fellas later run across the cops, or perhaps the cops run across them...and then their first victim turns out to be their new neighbor...and then, of course, it turns out that their second victim has friends. Or something. Who turn up in force. And who, of course...

ATTACK THE BLOCK!

Yep, that's it. The whole plot. Mostly. And that's fine. It's all that's needed. There's crime, and punishment, and heroism, and cheap humor, and even some redemption. All through the common task of fighting off an alien invasion.

The effects are cheap, simple, and very well done. The fellas turn out to have a few, y'know, odds and ends stashed around...some sharps, like...and some fireworks, o'course...maybe a bat. And if you got the stones, that's all you might need.

This is a proper nod to a horror movie in that it isn't sunshine and light. People get gnawed on here, oh my yes. Beasties get slain. And sometimes you need a really good place to hole up. And it's amazing what you can find around an apartment block that might help.

"What's Ron's weed room?"

"It's a big room. It's full of weed. And it belongs to Ron."

-Sam & Brewis

it's not a very consequential movie. Nick Frost is his excellent usual self, although somewhat muted without his pal Simon Pegg to play off of. The acting in it is pretty darn good, especially considering the ages of the cast. Strongly recommended.

Attack the Block (Released May, 2011)
Directed by Joe Cornish
Nick Frost - Ron
Jodie Whittaker - Sam
John Boyega - Brewis
Alex Esmail - Pest

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