My Review of "Attack The Block"

Attack The Block had come out back in 2011 and I remember watching it in the theaters when it first came out. It aired in a local independent theater that specialized in small independent movies. What I remembered was a really entertaining movie about young British kids fighting an alien invasion.

Since then I had been looking to buy this movie. After 9 years I haven't been able to find it in Canada until now. It's weird because I couldn't find it on DVD and the only Blu-Ray copy of it was region coded so I couldn't watch it. Only one streaming service was able to stream it but I wasn't going to subscribe to a service just for one movie. Luckily there was a sale on the PlayStation network of all places. I was able to get a digital copy for only $5.

This movie starts up with a bunch of kids in a low economic housing area. I guess you would consider them a gang but we later consider them just as a group of loyal friends that fell down the wrong route.

There's a woman by the name of Sam who just recently moved to the area. These kids unknowingly mug her late at night and suddenly there's a meteor or something that smashes a car beside them. Sam runs away but the kids go to see what they can rob the car of since it's messed up.

What they found was an extraterrestrial being. It attacks the main character Moses so he grabs his knife and stabs the alien to death. The kids rejoice in their victory and parade around the neighborhood of their kill.

They hope to profit from the body of the alien so they needed a place to hide the body. There really is no place to go since they all live with their parents so they go to their local drug dealer and leave the alien body there.

Soon thereafter they realize that the alien that they killed wasn't an isolated incident. There's a huge amount of these creatures lurking in their neighborhood and they're not having any of it. Confident because of their initial kill they go out with the intention of killing more aliens.

They quickly realize this isn't such a great idea because these aliens quickly outnumber them. It then becomes the predator becoming the prey. These kids are pretty resilient and creative so you can't count them out either.

There is a lot of comedy that comes out of this movie. The mere fact that these kids are so overconfident in themselves is pretty humorous. We soon realize that without their mob of friends these kids are just merely kids. The fear eventually sets in with these kids and we learn more about each of them.

They even learn valuable lessons in their actions when they realize that they all have consequences. I think this was a great moral lesson especially since you can tell this movie is kind of geared to the youth. It even ends appropriately to stick with the theme of the movie.

A ton of social issues are addressed in this movie and the issues are pretty universal around the world. Even though this movie was based in the UK, I think people from all over the world can still relate to the issues that are brought up.

After 9 years this movie still holds up. Some of the references are pretty dated but I still had a good time watching it the second time. As each scene unfolded a flood of memories came back and I was able to appreciate this movie just as much as I did the first time.

Overall, I think this is a really fun ride for everyone. There are very small scares here and there but there is more comedy in this movie than you expect. I was impressed at what they could do with a low budget. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. I'm glad I purchased it because I think I'll probably watch it again in the future.