ATTACK THE BLOCK, Hawks/Carpenter meets The Goonies in a South London council tower

Really, this was quite nice, certainly better than most Carpenter films I've seen. And even some of the pot jokes were funny.

yeah this is super fun imo

ya Nick Frost was decently understated/hilarious iirc

There was a little discussion of this on some other thread somewhere, can't remember where

here's armond's review

http://www.nypress.com/article-22688-attack-the-block.html

This is finally in Portland. Organizing a screening run next week.

Other thread was maybe 77.

Awesome soundtrack.

i loved this but relating the kids to the aliens as the "other" seemed to muddle things a little. but yeah, one of my favorites of the year so far.

Yup, loads of fun.

^ nothing more to say really

I want to say this film played one theater here for, like, half an hour.

I was super bummed.

enjoyed this. much better kids/alien movie than Super 8.

Hmm, watching this now. Not getting much Carpenter/Hawks (though I see why someone might say that, siege-wise) nor Goonies, but I am getting a nice comic book vibe from this. And massive amounts of, um, "Critters."

well, plot more than style of C/H, perhaps. I am unfamiliar w/ Critters and many comic books.

Yeah, didn't detect really any Carpenter/Hawks overall.

But figured you were basically just using it to bait and ignored.

jeezus

this was terrific

Eh, this was OK. Lots of low-budget shortcuts, with the monsters being the most ingenious work-around. A lot of it got kind of redundant, though I did like how easily these kids took out these giant all-teeth gorilla wolf beasts. The ending felt a little anti-climactic, but I had a good time overall. Love how age-approriate these little jerks were. Even when it's life or death they're compelled to fuck around and crack immature jokes.

Morbs, "Critters" isn't terribly good, but it was a smarter than it had to be cheap cross between E.T. and Gremlins, with these devious all-teeth space furballs laying siege to a little farm, intergalactic bounty hunters in pursuit.

Cosigning on the love here.

Critters 2 is probably even smarter, or at least more Gremlins 2-ian.

Kind of amazed that there was no British thread about this considering Joe Cornish is the sort of person UK ILX is generally all over. I suppose aliens rampaging round dark corridors translate pretty well. Is it doing well in the States?

This was pretty good, kind of came out a bit too early in Britain, had it emerged during or shortly after the riots it would've seemed incredibly pertinent politically. Middle class grime-listening comedy stoner brought the lols.

It's grossed about $1 million in the US, $4M globally. I caught it at the end of about a 6-week run in NY, where it never played more than 1 or 2 theaters.

I also would probably have liked it more if it was subtitled.

I would have liked it better if it were subtitled in Esperanto. Indeed, everyone would have liked it better.

As far as I can tell it didn't play in DC save a couple weeks at an art house in July, but I DL'd it.

Always hated Adam and Joe and Nick Frost but was moved to watch this tonight and thought it was terrific!

This was GREAT

WELCOME TO LONDON, MOTHERFUCKER

I'm gonna search but is this still playing in la

admrl

it is not, puff puff post

this movie was so funny and great. love how the stupid jokes never stopped and the action sequences were sick (like that kid says).

I only saw it a few days ago and already feel like watching it again. How can you hate a movie that just wants you to love it!!

The "council tower" in the thread title always makes me laugh.

Seeing this tonight

It's fun, but seriously, keep expectations in check. It's sort of one note. But a fun note!

The "council tower" in the thread title always makes me laugh

surely you've noticed by now that we Yanks like to call a bloody tall building a tower

"Hawks/Carpenter meets The Goonies" is pretty :\

Yeah. Hawks and The Goonies aren't endorsements.

There's no Goonies in this at all. There is more Warriors. It's like Lil Warriors meets Critters.

I saw this at a really cool London theater with big comfy chairs & a beer/wine/food bar back in the spring, and I enjoyed myself at the movies more than I have in many, many years

Eric, everyone but you knows that Hawks is great'

This film is significantly less stupid than The Warriors, whether that's a plus or not.

the Warriors has it majorly beat for photography & sound design though and I don't care how bad you hate on the Warriors you are compelled by your love of film to admit that

If anything, I didn't think "Block" was stupid enough.

I don't think you're stupid enough

Sorry, I didn't mean any actual offense by that, it just felt fun to post it.

I will be running my genre-film thread titles past you persnickety c*nts in the future

also I've never watched the fucking Goonies, and AtB blows away every Carpenter I've seen except Starman

Is that...challops?

I'm sorry, I still don't know how to use it right.

Anyway, pretty sure Attack The Block is great AND at least 2 or 3 John Carpenter films are as fun if not slightly more, and none of them are Starman.

Also don't be dumb, the Goonies is great. The Goonies is even better than Attack The Block, and if it was set in London instead of wherever it was set (which was where? I don't know) it would be even better.

If you've never seen the Goonies, why did you compare this to the Goonies in the thread title? And I'm hoping you're dead serious about this being better than any Carpenter save "Starman," when in fact it's better than every Carpenter save "Memoirs of an Invisible Man."

"also I've never watched the fucking Goonies, and AtB blows away every Carpenter I've seen except Starman"

This is why no one in their right mind should care what you think about movies.

Goonies was filmed in Astoria, Oregon. No idea where it was supposed to be set though.

Kindergarten Cop was also filmed in Astoria, Oregon btw.

my dad used to live in Astoria, I bought a necklace there

I've also never seen the Goonies and am deeply fucking suspicious of the assertion that not having seen it is any kind of blot on any cinemaphile's rep

Thinking that Starman is John Carpenter's best film is.

One point awarded to Alex in SF. Total likely to inflate greatly if Spielberg whiffs it twice in two weeks this December. Which he will.

henceforth it should be a requirement that anyone who wishes to post on a film thread must do the truffle shuffle

if Spielberg whiffs it twice in two weeks this December. Which he will.

Eric, The Real Morbs

also, Kurt Russell's best film is The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes

henceforth it should be a requirement that anyone who wishes to post on a film thread must do the truffle shuffle

Damn my flat stomach!

I really wanted this to be better than it actually was. Cool soundtrack though.

I enjoyed this.

I feel bad for that dog

i saw this on the plane over and fucking loved it

i love the way it slips actual serious points into the dialogue in a completely casual, natural way. (and also fixes little things that have always bugged me about action films - like the scene when the girls kill the monster instead of being rescued by one of the boys - it's weird, when you see a scene like that you kind of realise how rare it is)

Yeah I saw this the other day and really liked it.

This was great

otm

Yeah, really good fun all the way through.

lol @ Starman talk on this thread - its a somewhat underrated item in the Carpenter filmog that for sure!

just awesome

why wasnt this more of a commercial success

sorry for british

domestically it did ok but doesnt seem to have done anything in the rest of eu, jp, aus etc

so idk how this works in industry terms even if 'ppl' rate it

imdb feebs have it at 6.8

lot of people on imdb angry abt the glorification of youthful thugs who would be better shot by george zimmerman, iirc

it really wasn't that good

i'd like to see you do better

[/imdb]

I wanted it to be good

what were yr problems with it iyo

tell them to my HAND

this was a great cool as hell little movie!!

Not funny enough

like gold is "not shiny enough"

yeah. I have a feeling this probably worked better for mericans on some exoticism shit

thats prob true

""south london"" = ""foreign projects"" etc

yee gods, it's a funny, exciting action flick about kids fighting monsters. location and culture are important to the film, therefore important to its appeal, i suppose, but that doesn't necessarily = "exoticism shit". it made more on its opening weekend in the UK than its entire US run.

I'm glad it did well (Joe Cornish deserves it). I just didn't like it that much

It was excellent.

location and culture are important to the film, therefore important to its appeal, i suppose, but that doesn't necessarily = "exoticism shit". it made more on its opening weekend in the UK than its entire US run

i mean lets not play

you see surely how sentence two belies sentence once

*one

it did well, though not as well as it might've, largely because those to whom it effectively spoke were those who were prepared for a story for south london, that is to say, not vinton, iowa.

yeah, but that doesn't mean that those mericans who did dig it were "on some exoticism shit". i just dislike that phrasing, which seems terribly loaded and disdainful.

it's mildly surprising to me that this has an international audience at all, that kind of setting/humour doesn't usually travel well - can't think of any other instances

i mean i think the necessary converse (that it wasn't made for "vinton, iowa") means it was made for people prepared for a tale alien to their american experience (neither vinton, iowa nor ny, ny, so to speak), which this surely was in at least a couple of ways.

and let met clarify when i say "made for a people prepared for a tale alien to their experience" that i just mean that a non-british audience imo is p clearly included in its storytelling

yeah, totally. might also appeal to americans with some familiarity with the world outside their front yard. i'd prefer to speak of the curious and/or open-minded than those "on some exoticism shit", which has p clear negative connotation.

I was kind of being a dick with that phrasing. I just wanted it to be better!

i was kind of defending your wanting-to-be-a-dick

i don't know, i do that a lot lately, idk

okay, fine, i'm on some exoticism shit. you made me say it. i hope you're happy.

"exoticism shit" is so condescending to so many parties at once it's kind of amazing

like i said, i was being kind of a dick. What can i say, i'm drunk

domestically it did ok but doesnt seem to have done anything in the rest of eu, jp, aus etc

it ran for a few weeks here at least, without really having any promo or media attention. the following month Buxton sold out a five-night run of Bug btw!

Not really exoticism but some of the "street" dialogue might have sounded a little less like it was written by a middle-class white guy if you're in the US.

It was good, though. The kind of solid action / horror film Britain should be producing more of.

watched this last night, this was great fun. too bad it didn't get more than a superficial release in theaters here, I missed it entirely and never saw an ad for it.

Not really exoticism but some of the "street" dialogue might have sounded a little less like it was written by a middle-class white guy if you're in the US.

It did occur to me when comparing the film to Super 8 that I have no reason to assume Cornish has any more familiarity with 21st century council estate life than second-generation hollywooder JJ Abrams has with smalltown midwestern life. But at least Cornish is going out on a limb with something modern rather than faithfully regurgitating '80s Amblin fantasies.

i knew somebody had to make that complaint to which i say

http://www.1065thearch.com/emedia/stl/4/434/43412.jpg

It did occur to me when comparing the film to Super 8 that I have no reason to assume Cornish has any more familiarity with 21st century council estate life than second-generation hollywooder JJ Abrams has with smalltown midwestern life.

main difference between the two is that attack the block actually worked

ya tbh if the movie is awesome, "slang accuracy" is pretty low on my list of priorities

ya tbh if the movie is awesome, "slang accuracy" is pretty low on my list of priorities
--A Little Princess btw (s1ocki)

Otm

I thought the monsters were surprisingly effective too

i liked that children were shown using and enjoying drugs

xxp, yeah it doesn't really detract from the film as an action movie but the lack of believable dialogue is kind of annoying at points and might have stopped the film connecting in a huge way with some of the target audience in the UK. It's by no means the worst offender for this, though.

was it a huge failure in council estates?

lol

dialogue is alright

'bruv' rather than BLUDDD was kinda a faux pas

Watched this last night, liked it a lot.

When the credits came up discovered I went to school with one of the producers!

Just saw this last night, terrific.

ya tbh if the movie is awesome, "slang accuracy" is pretty low on my list of priorities

As a born (admittedly white, middle class and past 30) Londoner, the slang sounded fairly accurate to me.

And the trustafarian guy trying to use the same lingo as the kids provided some of the biggest laughs for me, if only cos it was such a spot on observation of dudes like that.

The fuck are they sayin

innit

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2383689/Baboon-burglars-How-gang-kleptomaniac-monkeys-terrorises-estate-South-Africa-residents-scared-leave-house.html

this looks fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TADKiHYj6RE