Attack The Block - Reveiw

   At first I was wary about watching this film. I have a certain taste when it comes to sci-fi and know that it can go fantastically or be soul-crushingly awful. I was amazed at how much I liked it.

 Set in South London, it is centred round a gang of youths lead by 15 year old Moses, and a young nurse named Sam – whom teams up with the gang. She is reluctant at first due to the fact the gang had mugged her earlier that night, however when a pension of aliens attack the block (funnily enough) where they live.

   The film was written and directed by Joe Cornish and I believe he did a marvelous job with a budget of only $13,000,000 (around £8,026,200) and I think that he didn't focus too much on making the film either a sci-fi or a comedy, and so made it more realistic - it had the sort of jokes people use in every day life instead of obviously scripted humor, referencing popular culture as well, such as Britain's Got Talent, Ghostbusters, and  Gears of War.

  The characters themselves were interesting. I loved how they were at first depicted to be petty criminals - making them 'typical' London teenagers - but then we got a glimpse into their home lives just before they went out to try and find one of the aliens - which gave them more depth, showing them as just normal kids with families. Joe Cornish himself interviewed various kids in youth groups in order to find out what kind of weapons they would use if an alien invasion actually occured and also did researcg on the type of language the film characters would use to accurately show how South London street kids speak. I think this was a great idea to make the film more realistic rather thab gaving a script meant for well-spoken teenagers with machine guns.

  One of the reasons I enjoyed the film was the aliens themselves are not the typical grey beings, they are dark and fury, so they cannot be seen clearly in the dark - which would be believable evolutionary camouflage on another planet.

  The film used relatively unknown actors (the most famous being Nick Frost) which I thought was better than having an all-star cast. This way it was more believable that they were just normal kids off of the street and would have brought down he production costs. I did enjoy Nick Frost's cameo in the film although i had hoped he would be in it more.

  Attack The Block got a worldwide gross of $5,824,175 (around £3,606,911.58) so it appears to not have done as well as it was predicted to. This may have been because the film was promoted poorly, with there being only the one trailer and only one or two movie posters.

  Some people didn't like the film because of the main characters used: a gang of London teenagers who had mugged a woman in the first five minutes of the film.They argued that this was in bad taste and encouraged anti social behavior. Although I recognise where these views are coming from, I think the film portrayed the message that people are neither bad n'or good, as the gang of youths ended up saving the woman they mugged and killing all the aliens.

Attack The Block Research

   Attack The Block is a british film written and directed by Joe Cornish. It is set in South London and is about a gang of teenagers that attempt to save their home from an alien invsion.

   It was produced by a variety of companies such as Studio Canal - that finances films such as Bridget Jones's Diary, the UK Film Council - which had funded The Kings Speech and Nowhere Boy, Big Talk Productions - which makes films such as Paul and Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World,  and Film4 - which is most famous for making Slumdog Millionaire. 
  
   Attack The Block  was inspired by the directors experience of being mugged near his home in London, which is portrayed in the first scene where Sam is attacked by the gang. He began to research into the lives of teenagers in gangs and wanted to make a movie featuring the young culture of South London but with the added sci-fi element to it.

   The main problem that arose during the film was the budgetary constraints. This resulted in 15 pages of the script having to be removed.

   The producers of the film did tried to save money by using the bare minimum of CGI so they showed the aliens when absolutely necessary and they used people in constumes for the aliens in some of the shots, which apparently made it more realistic for the actors. The actors themselves were reasonable unknown - the biggest person in it was Nick Frost. This would have saved a lot more money than if they used big, well known stars. The main bulk of the film was filmed in 67 days which would also add to the savings, resulting in lower costs for things such as hiring out sets and equipment.

   The film is rated 15 due to profanity, drugs, violence, and scenes which some viewers may find disturbing.

   The film was promoted in a variety of ways, such as
Posters:

Promotional website:

Trailer:

And a premiere:

   Attack The Block had an original soundtrack that was composed by Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton, from the electronic music group Basement Jaxx, and Steven Price.