A teen gang in South London, England defend their block against an alien invasion.
This movie is a reasonably low budget affair ($13,000,000 I believe) form the director Joe Cornish and with me it fails one of my main criteria for most movies in that I have to give a crap for somebody in the movie (and that can be the bad guy or bad aliens) but the opening scene of our heroes mugging at knife point one of the female leads left me slightly angry as I now didn't care if they lived or died (the scene of mugging is interrupted by an alien crash landing on a car so it could have gone further). This alien is given a kicking by the gang and displayed as a trophy until it's far larger mates arrive (really large and shaggy with massive teeth).
What follows is the gang and some other residents (drug dealers, drug buyers, kids etc...) fighting the invasion with the aid of Halloween fireworks, samurai swords, baseball bats etc...). The effects are not bad, the aliens are not bad, the story is a bit lame about the alien intentions, there is some humour and it's an exciting quick ride for an hour and a half. This to me is a story about redemption that doesn't work because I don't care whether they survive or not.
Nick Frost is wasted but good and some of the dialogue will need subtitles to anybody unfamiliar with the slang and street talk.
At first glance this looks kind of awesome. I will check it out! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard of this. Is it only in Europe?
ReplyDeleteI gave up after about half an hour when the thugs broke into the woman's flat and demanded she treat their wounded friend. As you said, I had no sympathy or attachment to the supposed protagonists and was probably, subconsciously, rooting for the alien monsters. VERY disappointing.
ReplyDeleteLooks like I'll be missing this one.
ReplyDeleteChristopher
The first rule of film making - make sure the audience is rooting for the hero(es). If you don't care about what happens to him/her/them then watching the movie becomes a waste of time. I shan't be watching this one. Your review has only reinforced comments made by numerous other critics. One to avoid!
ReplyDelete"I have to give a crap for somebody in the movie" -- yep, I definitely agree with that one. It can make or break a movie for me too.
ReplyDeleteOne of my mates lives on a run down council estate with gang culture very much a daily experience. He saw this film a few weeks ago and said pretty much the same thing as you. After the first scene in the film he was firmly rooting for the aliens.
ReplyDeleteSeems like is typical middle class bollocks to me, with the Director/Writer trying to present street gangs as having some sort of ragged nobility. What a load of crap. It was thugs like these that were setting shops on fire a few weeks ago... Go, team Alien!
Allen: Worldwide I believe?
ReplyDeleteI've heard about this but wondered how it was. Thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteNick Frost is in it? That'll get some people to watch it. I'll agree that from this review it does sound like redemption gone bad.
ReplyDeleteSounded like a fun story. But after your review I'm prolly not gonna watch it. Good work tho!
ReplyDeleteonly 2? i've read good reviews of this from across the atlantic.
ReplyDeletehe he I did expect subtitles for the street slang in this one :)
ReplyDeleteMost of the reviews I've read about the film were negative.
only two stars? I think I will be passing this one up with no problem.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you lurker, I too found the muggers turning into heros very annoying.
ReplyDeleteI bet the film release wasn't helped following on from all the London rioting. That's the first thing that struck me with loads of hoodies running around abusing the law. I wanted my teacher friend to see it, as I know it would make him boil over!
Funny enough though we are both big fans of the Director...
it sounds pretty decent
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review, I enjoy reading what you write and by and large we seem to have similar perspectives on things, which I think is good.
ReplyDeleteSuggestion, can you put some tags for the reviews so that I can find and search them on this blog?
I still can't wait to see this movie though.
ReplyDeleteAnother one you'll have to loan me Ginge!
ReplyDeleteNever heard of this, but sounds like the writer & director missed a golden opportunity: I'd love to see aliens kicking the crap out of gang bangers. Sounds like if they'd just let the aliens win it could have been a very cathartic experience.
ReplyDeletemeh ill give it a watch.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Solar Babies and Warriors combined!
ReplyDeleteI doubt this will get a US release....and you don't make it sound Netflix worthy either. I guess I'll just forget about it as soon as I finish this message. ha
ReplyDelete2 stars? man, must not have been very good. anything about aliens is hard to pull off anyway. Aliens. too many movies about them recently.
ReplyDeleteNo, this is worldwide. It was rated pretty high in the torrent community. I mean, uh, so I read.
ReplyDeleteI liked it (obviously more than T.A.L.!) but his advice "and some of the dialogue will need subtitles to anybody unfamiliar with the slang and street talk" is well needed for us Yanks. I was lost without subtitles and the internet for searching up the various phrases.
We watched it....and yes the Hoodies turned out to be the heroes.
ReplyDeleteWasn't a bad watch, as we've seen plenty worse.
Agree with you about the slang....and we are English!
I think it started out pretty good, but went downhill faster still!
(Got no choice but to watch it as there are no video shops or cinemas near us...sigh!)
Probably one to miss then, Thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDelete2 stars?!? Come on, it sounds like a must watch. Ok, ok, maybe not, but still sounds like a lot of fun. 3 stars at worse.
ReplyDeletewhat is it ? i never hear about this movie :/
ReplyDeletetherefore, thanks for share it.
looks interesting
I see that the producers of shaun of the dead. without any doubt. I have to see this movie. must truly be the best
Thanks for review. I am so not looking forward to watch this movie.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of some movie I watched sometime back Apocalypse 2010 or something, whole movie had total of 10 people and NASA office was more like a basement dump and the NASA control room?- Junk basement. And low budget 13,000,000? What is wrong with this people.
They can record a video and pay people that amount to watch it.
There have been other redemption stories done with better motif's than this. And after the riots, leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth.
ReplyDelete