Attack The Block Blu-ray Review

• 13th Sep 2011

So it seems South London has come under attack from hairy beasties and our first line of defence is a bunch of hoody muggers. Strap in folks, for another slice of Brit-comedy horror true to the form of what you are probably already familiar with.

The trouble with the set up is having a group of characters who are by and large not very nice kids. But then that’s the point really isn’t it. The more real the characters get, the less sympathetic they are. But then half the humour in this film is watching and listening to the characters interacting in modern day South East dialect. And then you have Nick Frost who sticks out like a sore thumb playing a caricature.

Much of the appeal of this film is how much you want to laugh at the set up, which is kind of a one gag wonder. But if you get it then you well find some fun to be had. But if you look too far beyond the gag then you’ll start to see some real obvious cracks. There are some cheeky obvious set ups in the early story – Hmmm that character reckons he can leap from one landing to another, I wonder if he’ll give that a go later on when he needs to. And oh what is that nature programme prattling on about that one character is watching a little too intently. To speak plainly; the script needs some serious work.

The humour is truly of the cheap British sort ala Shaun of the Dead. So if you love a bit of pub humour then this will be the one for you. It’s an odd beast then full of inventive film-making, but segregated to a partial dynamic of comedy.

Full points though to a natural cast and to Joe Cornish for his direction – He really knows how to stylise some of the shabbiest areas of London. With some clever angles and clever mis-en-scene throughout. He’s clearly a director with a bright future.

The Blu-ray comes packed with several commentaries and behind the scenes features that vary in length from 4 minutes to an hour.

Steven Hurst