- 1 Blueray Disk Only.
- In Jewel Case
- Preowned
- Great Condition
From the producers of
Shaun of the Dead,
Attack the Block is a fast, funny, frightening action adventure movie that pits a teen street gang against an invasion of savage alien monsters. It turns a London housing project into a sci-fi battleground, the low-income apartment complex into a fortress under siege. And it turns a crazy mix of tough street kids into a team of kick ass heroes. It’s inner city versus outer space and it’s going to explode. A high-concept, micro-pocketed mash note to John Carpenter and Walter Hill, this Cockney vs. Aliens saga generates an enormous amount of likability out of some very limited means. Executive produced by the folks behind
Shaun of the Dead, writer-director Joe Cornish's feature debut mixes gore and gags in a ratio that should drive genre fans bon! kers. Unlike many recent Comic-Con-friendly movies, however,
Attack the Block admirably concentrates on actually telling a story first, with the in-jokes and pop-culture references treated as tinsel. Kicking off with a literal bang, Cornish's script follows a group of British teenage punks on the downward slide to outright thugdom. Once a horde of neon-toothed aliens starts falling from the sky, however, the kids find themselves appointed the unlikely protectors of their grotty South London housing complex. Cue the bottle rockets, dirt bikes, and ninja weapons. There's not much to the story beyond that, really, but any narrative sparseness is leavened by some healthy doses of low-budget ingenuity, chief among them the design of the negative-image aliens themselves, which suggest ticked-off wild boars after a serious Rogaine overdose. On the character front, the film also scores, quickly sketching out its team of likable (but not cuddly) bad seeds with distinct person! alities. (That said, American viewers should be prepared to ha! ve at le ast a quarter of the slang fly over their heads.) Clocking in at a just-right 88 minutes,
Attack the Block may ultimately never rise above the level of clever homage, but there's copious evidence that the filmmaker already has a firm understanding of what makes B movies tick. While his first film doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel, check out all the neat stuff in the spokes.
--Andrew WrightFrom the producers of
Shaun of the Dead,
Attack the Block is a fast, funny, frightening action adventure movie that pits a teen street gang against an invasion of savage alien monsters. It turns a London housing project into a sci-fi battleground, the low-income apartment complex into a fortress under siege. And it turns a crazy mix of tough street kids into a team of kick ass heroes. It’s inner city versus outer space and it’s going to explode. A high-concept, micro-pocketed mash note to John Carpenter and Walter Hill, this Cockney vs. Aliens saga generate! s an enormous amount of likability out of some very limited means. Executive produced by the folks behind
Shaun of the Dead, writer-director Joe Cornish's feature debut mixes gore and gags in a ratio that should drive genre fans bonkers. Unlike many recent Comic-Con-friendly movies, however,
Attack the Block admirably concentrates on actually telling a story first, with the in-jokes and pop-culture references treated as tinsel. Kicking off with a literal bang, Cornish's script follows a group of British teenage punks on the downward slide to outright thugdom. Once a horde of neon-toothed aliens starts falling from the sky, however, the kids find themselves appointed the unlikely protectors of their grotty South London housing complex. Cue the bottle rockets, dirt bikes, and ninja weapons. There's not much to the story beyond that, really, but any narrative sparseness is leavened by some healthy doses of low-budget ingenuity, chief among them the design of the ! negative-image aliens themselves, which suggest ticked-off wil! d boars after a serious Rogaine overdose. On the character front, the film also scores, quickly sketching out its team of likable (but not cuddly) bad seeds with distinct personalities. (That said, American viewers should be prepared to have at least a quarter of the slang fly over their heads.) Clocking in at a just-right 88 minutes,
Attack the Block may ultimately never rise above the level of clever homage, but there's copious evidence that the filmmaker already has a firm understanding of what makes B movies tick. While his first film doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel, check out all the neat stuff in the spokes.
--Andrew WrightJJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg join forces in this extraordinary tale of youth, mystery, and adventure.
Super 8 tells the story of six friends who witness a train wreck while making a Super 8 movie, only to learn that something unimaginable escaped during the crash. They soon discover that the only thing more mysterious than what! it is, is what it wants. Experience the film that critics rave is, “filled with unstoppable imagination and visual effects to spare. It will put a spell on you.†â€" Peter Travers, Rolling StoneFew filmmakers have ever had a run at the tables like Steven Spielberg, whose output from 1971's
Sugarland Express to, say, 1982's
E.T. displayed an amazingly unforced melding of huge set pieces and small human gestures. Even at their most chaotic, they somehow felt organic.
Super 8, writer-director J.J. Abrams's authorized tribute to classic Spielbergisms, hits all of the marks (Lived-in suburbia backdrop, check. Awestruck gazes upwards, check. Parental discord, check. Lens flares, amazingly huge check), but its adherence to the formula squelches much of its own potential. Appealing as it is to see a summer movie that retro-prioritizes character development over jittery quick-cut explosions, the viewer is always aware at how furiously it's working to seem! effortless. Set in 1979, Abrams's script follows a group of m! ovie-cra zy kids attempting to make a zombie flick, only to have their plans cut short by a close encounter with a train derailment. As the military pours over the wreckage and neighbors start disappearing, the gang realizes that their footage contains a cameo appearance by an extremely grumpy guest star. For a film whose promotional campaign hinged so strongly on creating an air of mystery,
Super 8 is a fairly straightforward melding of
E.T. and
Jurassic Park, albeit one featuring an oddly schizophrenic monster (he eats people… until he doesn't). Abrams makes his young cast shine (particularly when developing a hint of romance between leads Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning), while also providing a nice character arc for Kyle Chandler, as a widowed deputy who can see his relationship with his son slipping away. Aside from a few primo early jolts, however, the creature-feature aspects feel increasingly shoehorned in alongside the more assured coming-of-age element! s. Abrams's film has more than enough bright spots to warrant a viewing, but its insistence on worshipfully following the master's playbook is a bit of a bummer. Imitation isn't always flattering.
--Andrew WrightTUCKER & DALE VS. EVILBLU-RAY (BLU-RAY DISC)Studio: Oscilloscope Pictures Release Date: 10/25/2011 Run time: 80 minutes Rating: RTucker and Dale are two best friends on vacation at their dilapidated mountain house, who are mistaken for murderous backwoods hillbillies by a group of obnoxious, preppy college kids. When one of the students gets separated from her friends, the boys try to lend a hand, but as the misunderstanding grows, so does the body count.Slapdash
Scary Movie cycle aside, the slasher genre has proven fairly resistant to effective satire, mainly because the movies themselves already go so far over the top. (After Jason goes to space, where else can you possibly go?) Arriving amidst some monster film festival buzz,
Tucker & Dale vs.! Evil scores big laughs by slyly inverting the formula, ca! sting th e standard backwoods maniacs as bewildered everymen surrounded by accident-prone teens. While it may basically be a one-joke movie, it sustains that joke for a remarkably long time. Kicking off with an effective
Blair Witch jab, the story follows Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine), two good-natured good ol' boys with aims of fixing up their rickety cabin in the woods into a vacation home. Before they've emptied their first six-pack, they find themselves besieged by a group of stereotypical college kids who start dying in increasingly bizarre ways around them. As the bodies stack like cordwood, the duo's obliviousness only grows. First-time director-cowriter Eli Craig clearly knows his subject material well, trotting out the skinny-dipping coeds and conveniently placed sharp implements with relish, particularly with a wood chipper that really should have received a supporting actor credit. Clever as the concept is, though, it wouldn't stretch nearly as far wit! hout the performances, most notably Labine as a Bigfootish idiot savant and
30 Rock's Katrina Bowden as a Final Girl fully aware of the situation's absurdity. Although the invention may sputter at times,
Tucker & Dale provides enough amiable chuckles and ridiculous gore to satisfy even the snootiest genre fan. For the sequel, can we get them near a rocket?
--Andrew WrightCaptain America leads the fight for freedom in the action-packed blockbuster starring Chris Evans as the ultimate weapon against evil! When a terrifying force threatens everyone across the globe, the world’s greatest soldier wages war on the evil HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaving,
The Matrix). Critics and audiences alike salute
Captain America: The First Avenger as “pure excitement, pure action, and pure fun!†â€" Bryan Erdy CBS-TVThe Marvel Comics superhero Captain America was born of World War II, so if you're going to do th! e origin story in a movie you'd better set it in the 1940s. Bu! t how, t hen, to reconcile that hero with the 21st-century mega-blockbuster
The Avengers, a 2012 summit meeting of the Marvel giants, where Captain America joins Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk and other super pals? Stick around, and we'll get to that. In 1943, a sawed-off (but gung-ho) military reject named Steve Rogers is enlisted in a super-secret experiment masterminded by adorable scientist Stanley Tucci and skeptical military bigwig Tommy Lee Jones. Rogers emerges, taller and sporting greatly expanded pectoral muscles, along with a keen ability to bounce back from injury. In both sections Rogers is played by Chris Evans, whose sly humor makes him a good choice for the otherwise stalwart Cap. (
Benjamin Button-esque effects create the shrinky Rogers, with Evans's head attached.) The film comes up with a viable explanation for the red-white-and-blue suit 'n' shield--Rogers is initially trotted out as a war bonds fundraiser, in costume--and a rousing first combat mis! sion for our hero, who finally gets fed up with being a poster boy. Director Joe Johnston (
The Wolfman) makes a lot of pretty pictures along the way, although the war action goes generic for a while and the climax feels a little rushed. Kudos to Hugo Weaving, who makes his Nazi villain a grand adversary (with, if the ear doesn't lie, an imitation of Werner Herzog's accent). If most of the movie is enjoyable, the final 15 minutes or so reveals a curious weakness in the overall design: because Captain America needs to pop up in
The Avengers, the resolution of the 1943 story line must include a bridge to the 21st century, which makes for some tortured (and unsatisfying) plot developments. Nevertheless: that shield is really cool.
--Robert Horton
