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As we near the end of what has been a fairly disappointing season
for popcorn movies, here comes a band of underprivileged British teenagers
to save the day. The directorial debut of comedian Joe Cornish is an
unexpectedly good action-thriller, set in a high-rise council estate
(British for "projects") in the south of London. Already drawing
comparisons to GOONIES due to it's ensemble teen cast and light-hearted
joking, ATTACK THE BLOCK is a whole lot darker, a little farther from
the beaten path, and even more class conscious in its approach. Looking
past the basic plot about some hooligans who save the earth from an
alien invasion, the best part of this movie is the morally challenged
hero, Moses, played by the 19 year old John Boyega. He initially displays
some of the more prevalent stereotypes of the angry black teen: the
film opens with Moses leading a group of thrill seeking youths through
the knife-point mugging of a female neighbor; he then follows that up
by eagerly agreeing to sell drugs for the local kingpin. But, as the
mysterious aliens grow in number and the body count inside the Block
piles up, Moses begins to make the right choices, and protect both his
gang and his neighbors. In this tale of redemption, the tough kid from
a broken home, wise beyond his 15 years, comes through and saves the
planet. Excusing the preachy, didactic, conspiracy theory-laced monologue
that Moses delivers at the end of Act II, what makes this film special
is the political stance the filmmakers take in favor of the poor and
systematically oppressed. Cornish champions the boys in Moses' gang
by showing them as fun-loving, feral kids, trying to act like grown-ups.
Where Mikey and his friends were young adventurers out on a treasure
hunt to save the family home in GOONIES, Moses and his crew begin as
petty criminals in search of a power trip. Instead of giving us characters
to instantly root for, we're shown realistic grit and violence inside
public housing, along with brief glimpses of the broken home lives that
spawn it. Like all good blockbusters there are plenty of funny moments,
mostly courtesy of Nick Frost (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ) as the pot
dealer on the top floor, and the film eventually delivers a good guy
to root for. But, the real guilty pleasure here is watching a teen thug
find the tools to play the hero. (2011, 88 min, Digital Projection) - Cine-File.info
