Attack the Block (2011)

“Attack the Block” is a short (88 minutes) B-grade flick shot with digital cameras, sporting no stars, and smelling of a 1970s–era sci-fi action piece that aired way late on crap cable channels when I was a child. I mean that as a compliment. It is what it is, silly, mildly scary fun. The Attackers are aliens that resemble wild wolves with glowing teeth. The Block is a massive cylinder monolith of low-income housing flats in South London. The heroes are young punks known as Hoodies, derived from their sweatshirt attire. The opening scene has the thugs (led by John Boyega as the aptly named Moses) robbing a young nurse (Jodie Whittaker) on the street. The crime is interrupted by a fetus-looking alien smashing into a car, and it’s off nonstop to the end credits. Joe Cornich is the writer and director, and like Quentin Tarantino before him, he uses every cliché of the genre he works in to new affect, including the myriad ways characters flee one another, only to end up together. It’s no “Reservoir Dogs,” but it is a great way to end an all-night movie marathon. Boyega is a star-to-be. B+