MovieChat Forums > Attack the Block (2011) Discussion > Terrible. Awful. Almost beyond descripti...

Terrible. Awful. Almost beyond description. But I'll try.

posted 11 years ago by user-153
16 replies | jump to latest

There is nothing to like about this celebration of the violent, drug peddling morons. Where to start? Well, firstly, this is nothing like the violent kids who torture inner city estates. Joe Cornish, a man I find funny most of the time, has bought an Ali G DVD boxset and used it for the 'street lingo'. I suspect he wouldn't know an estate kid like those supposedly portrayed in this film if he was robbed at knife point by one. The dialogue is painful to listen to.

Which, incidentally, is where we start the film. These anti-heroes robbing someone at knife point and being portrayed as 'cool'. A strange ambition, Joe.

Then there's the CGI or whatever they have used in the film to show the aliens. They should have used cardboard cut outs. It's 20 years out of date.

Then there's the acting. They all should be shot. All of them. Including Nick Frost. And I love Nick Frost. And yet he has to die.

In truth, I'm an hour in and I can watch no more. I sat through Plan B From Outer Space. I watched MORE of Transformers. But this dirge is...is....is..... ok I give up. Worse than my ability to describe.

[–] PhoenixTail92 11 years ago

If I may make a few points:

- It was not a celebration of their anti-social behaviour. It was about children who learn from their actions and show their humanity.

- Joe Cornish lives/has lived in Brixton where the film is set, and will have used his own observations for the 'street lingo'. And, he was mugged, his car was stolen.

- They weren't potrayed as cool. Showing them mugging Sam isn't the same as condoning thier behaviour.

- Dated effects doesn't make it a bad film. Would you rather the aliens were unrealistic super-sharp CGI monsters? They'd look out of place in the block.

-The acting was good. They were like real teenagers.

So, make your way on down to the sea; something has taken you so far from me.

[–] user-153 11 years ago

The characters were portrayed as 'cool', their possession of weapons the same. Here's something that might interest you. Please reflect on the number of teens who have died from stab wounds:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7777635.stm

The street-lingo they use is supposedly catchy and funny. It was about as funny as watching a beached whale slowly die.

If, as you say, Joe Cornish has lived or lives in Brixton, he either hides it well, or has no idea how to write a screen play. The dialogue is terrible. Painful. Clunky.

You're saying modern, sharp CGI would be worse than the black blobs with painted teeth? We park our cars in very different garages, my friend.

I don't know how to respond to what you say about the acting. They were as similar to real teenagers as Dick Van dyke is to a cockney chimney sweep.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] user-153 11 years ago

One of the worst moments was a kid saying 'you'd be better off calling the Ghost Busters, love'. There's so much wrong with that sentence alone.

That it was used in the adverts as something 'funny' is bizarre.
That a chavvy kid would call someone 'love'.
That every second word he used wouldn't be a swear word.

But worst of all, name-checking the film Ghost Busters, a film made in 1984. The proposition that the film would be a cultural reference for kids on an inner city estate is absurd. It'd be easier to imagine him saying: 'no point using the phone, darling, you might as well say au revoir les enfants!'

I read Joe Cornish had to remove 15 pages of script because of budgetary constraints. So we have something to be grateful for after all.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] activista 11 years ago

@mandriod

Oh,just shut the hell up, you racist-a** troll.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] Gwasgray 11 years ago

But worst of all, name-checking the film Ghost Busters, a film made in 1984. The proposition that the film would be a cultural reference for kids on an inner city estate is absurd. It'd be easier to imagine him saying: 'no point using the phone, darling, you might as well say au revoir les enfants!'

Ghostbusters is not an arthouse film! I'm sure plenty of kids born in the 90s will have seen it at some point, it still gets repeated on TV fairly often.

That a chavvy kid would call someone 'love'.

Why not?? It's a widely used British phrase and it's not like only old ladies use it.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] Levtones 11 years ago

Most of the creatures were stuntmen in black suits, with very minimal CGI used to enhance the teeth.

[–] Frogfisher 11 years ago

Hmm... are you a sociolog film connoisseur from a Brixton estate who is studying to become a CGI artist?

If not at least some of your points must be invalid.

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.

[–] pancakeswine 11 years ago

What a tool

[–] user-153 11 years ago

haha, ouch!

[–] hellcanwait 11 years ago

Why don't you make a movie about a Group of kids sitting in a circle singing "what a friend we have in Jesus"...

Etiam dii contra stultitiam frustra luctantur

[–] JamesMitchell451 10 years ago

Wow.....you're that delusional?

Sometimes you just gotta sit down and endure the bullsh**

[–] Dick_Hollywood 10 years ago

"I sat through Plan B From Outer Space." - It's actually 'Plan 9 From Outer Space'...

Don't You Know Who I Am? I Am Dick Hollywood!