Director: Joe Cornish. Starring: Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Nick Frost, Luke Treadaway. UK, 2011. Budget: $13 mln. Box office: $5.8 mln. IMDb: 6.6. RT: 90%. My rating: 3.5/4. A fucked up version of E.T.
– No idea. Not a bloody clue. Maybe there was a party at the zoo, and a monkey fucked a fish.
(Nick Frost’s character about the alien the boys found)
– Yeah.
– You sure about him? Where is he? Cos he ain’t exactly lookin’ out for you tonight.
– He’s in Ghana.
– You going out with an African then?
– No… he… he’s helping children. Volunteers for the Red Cross.
– Oh… is it? Why can’t he help children in Britain? Not exotic enough is it? Don’t get a nice suntan. Tsst.
(conversation between two teens)
This one is a true gem with a distinctive British flavour. A lovely movie indeed and it’s much more than it seems. It’s kind of a bad street teenager with rough manners, but with a good heart buried deep inside, sentimental and ready for the next adventure. The story starts with a teenage street gang of mixed race in South London suburbia – they find themselves right in a middle of an alien invasion. So i
magine mixing the life and language of street teenagers who try to seem cool and control, as they believe, through fear and minor crimes, with the sudden attack of the monsters. Hilarious, scary, atmospheric and sentimental. And all that wrapped in a social context.
Dedicated to all fans of Cornetto trilogy (the director Joe Cornish is a long-time collaborator and friend of Frost, Pegg and Wright).
”Maybe there was a party at the zoo, and a monkey fucked a fish.”
***
Like in most good sci-fi, the aliens are just a premise for something bigger. The gang members, who l
ook rather unpretty in the beginning of the movie when mugging a nurse (and most of them are barely 15 years old), start to gain our sympathy and trust. They learn how to find their own voice and character, to surpass their previous social and ethnic prejudice. I would even dare to say that it makes the film pretty unique. There are plenty of movies where some bad guys are locked up in a place and are forced to protect it and then finally we start to like them more and more (Hi, John Carpenter!). But these kids are not just some c
onvicted murderers in prison. They are real teenagers who live in that way, for one reason or another. And you have a chance to see them in a unique environment with aliens and stuff. Even leaving aside all the social context, this is a wonderful and entertaining sci-fi movie.
By the way, Cornish 
describes ”Attack the Block” as “a fucked-up version of E.T.” (one of movies that influenced him most). He is right, it’s pretty fucked up, and it gets quite bloody and violent at times as well. But like I said, remember that street boy. He might be not what he seems, just give him time.
Spectacularity: 3/4
Originality: 4/4
Pathos level: very low
Final vote: 3.5/4
Some cool fan-made posters:
Director/writer: 
Director: 
bones, every millimeter should be of a perfect beauty. Otherwise… don’t do it that minimal? Tarkovsky was a master of long, haunting scenes with stunning visuals, photography and music, thus, he could create endlessly slow scenes where barely nothing happened. In this debut film by Claire Carré, this kind of maturity is missing.
The reception. The biggest problem of “
The ideas and the plot. Let’s talk about the ideas. The film consists of several story lines. A guy and a girl, who supposedly are a couple and do not recognize each other every morning as they wake up. The do not remember their names and mostly sleep in abandoned buildings. As the day goes on, they find a way to restore the connection, but the next day the story repeats. Then there is a scientist, living in the forest with his everyday reminders how to heat up the water or start the fire. He is working on the cure to defeat the virus, but he struggles to keep all the things is his mind as they fade out too soon. A young fellow, who has unstoppable rage and violence inside, pouring it on anyone and anything he sees. Finally, 
a father and his daughter, who managed to hide from the epidemy in the high-tech bunker and are only characters, who escaped from the virus. The daughter struggles with her boredom. Locked inside, she cannot create new memories because every day seems exactly the same to he. We don’t know more than that, the characters shown are pretty blank, just like their memory.
This reflection reminds me of brilliant “
much better and create more atmosphere. The location sets are great (Poland and USA), but the photography seems to be not that careful (again, why so many close-ups? Show us more of the abandoned city with abandoned streets). It’s not visually interesting enough to be a video installation either. All this prevents from enjoying the movie fully and connect with the characters who are pretty blank already. Many scenes could have been cut easily, being repetitive or just dull. So I can understand many negative reviews. The movie for sure is not just for some random moviegoer. But a science fiction and independent cinema fan (like me) may see it differently.
Director: George Lucas. Starring:Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, Maggie McOmie, Don Pedro Colley. Budget: $777,777. Box office: $2.4 mln. USA, 1971. IMDb: 6.8. My rating: 3/4. Disturbing art-house dystopia at its finest.
Director: François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell. Starring: Laurence Leboeuf, Munro Chambers, Michael Ironside, Aaron Jeffery, Edwin Wright. Canada (Quebec), New Zealand, 2015. Budget: $60,000. IMDb: 6.7. My rating: 3/4. An eccentric childish post-apocalyptic sci-fi with lots of gore.
Director: George Miller. Starring: Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Vernon Wells. Australia, 1981. Budget: $2 million. IMDb: 7.6. My rating: 2/4. Post-apocalyptic gory gasoline obsessed car chasing sci-fi.
