Mutual distrust turns to uneasy alliance as an alien invasion forces a group of British teens to work together with a nurse who they mugged in this action thriller starring John Boyega as the leader of the teen gang. Boyega is just as effective here as in 'The Force Awakens', giving his hardened character a vulnerable, human side bubbling beneath the surface. The actors who play his young friends are well cast too. Jodie Whitaker is less effective as the nurse and Nick Frost is criminally underused, but in general, there is a lot to like about how the characters interact here. There are even some scattered comic moments to be had in how everyone from the teenagers' girlfriends to the local teen drug lord scoffs at their claims of being under alien attack. The gradual bonding between Whitaker and the teens, who she initially describes a "monsters", in the face of *real* monsters is where the film succeeds best though - so much so that the action sequences end up being a low point of the movie. Without any eyes and glowing sharp jaws, the creatures are quite unsettling to look at, but all the attack scenes become a little repetitive with the film sagging towards the middle. The movie certainly ends on a very high note, however, with a third act that potently pushes the film's single biggest message about teen thugs always being misunderstood and never properly recognised.

Joe Cornish is no 'Homeboy' who grew up on the rough streets of London. He actually went to a prestigious and expensive fee paying school which probably explains why he so badly misfired the multi racial street kids in this film as they are basically portrayed as vile scum who you wish the aliens would dispatch in a rather nasty way.

Moses (John Boyega) and his south London posse rob trainee nurse Samantha (Jodie Whittaker) near her tower block on bonfire night.

Only for some dog like aliens to land and cause havoc. Moses kills one and then they are pursued by others over the night.

Then there is also gang leader Hi-Hatz who seems to have a vendetta against Moses despite being attacked by the alien himself.

Samantha joins Moses and his gang when one of his crew gets injured.

The movie is destined to be a cult classic. It helps that two of the leads went on to star in famous science fiction franchises.

The scenes where they brutally rob Samantha who lives in the same tower block is difficult viewing, I am surprised the director did not have her gang raped. Maybe if the meteorite had not struck giving her a chance to get away she could had a worse fate.

Cornish has written and directed Attack the Block. It is more of a love letter to the low budget sci-fi films made by Joe Dante and John Carpenter in the 1970s and 80s.

Nick Frost pays a supporting role and provide some star power as well as comic relief.

The films suffers the fate like many other movies set in working class London tower blocks of showing a stereotypical image of feral teenagers.

Notice the brainy one who puts some of the story about the aliens together is a white dope head. Contrast this with the black Hi-Hatz who inexplicably goes around chasing Moses for no good reason.

Cornish does try to give some depth to the characters but there is more than a hint of a middle class white guy trying to write for characters from a rough council estate with horrible street dialect/slang.

The film is scary but not a full blown horror, it is also not that funny. Not helped by dislikeable characters that do little to bring the viewer round to like them although the then unknown cast play their parts well.

The creatures themselves are the highlight of the film with their design and movements. Its the technical aspects where Cornish succeeds in this low budget film.

You know, I was fully prepared to hate ATTACK THE BLOCK when I started watching it. The usual caveats applied: more low budget alien invasion nonsense, a wannabe script that tries to get 'down' with the kids, a movie that asks us to sympathise with a gang of violent muggers, profane but ultimately vapid dialogue. Half an hour in, I forgot about those things and realised that I was having a great time.

The thing that works about this film is its simplicity. The storyline paints a broad picture of a conflict between some simple-but-frightening alien creatures and a gang of South London hoodies. It doesn't try to be anything more than an action-packed, fast-paced little thriller, which is why it works so well. Yes, we have to identify with some potentially unpalatable characters, but in the end ask yourself this: who better to defend themselves against flesh-eating aliens than tooled-up and streetwise urban horrors? The script is nicely self-referential and quite subtle in terms of the characterisations. The protagonists are gradually humanised, but in a way that isn't shoved down your throat; in one very clever and precise moment, a character ends up donning a pair of thick NHS glasses and your whole perception of him changes in an instant. There's even a look at the social situations that lead to kids arming themselves and committing violence against themselves and others, but again it's portrayed subtly and with humour in an intelligent way.

Director Joe Cornish is a film fan and geek first and foremost – I remember watching him on the ADAM AND JOE SHOW back in the day and he's perfectly poised to helm things here. His film is warm, witty and affectionate of its genre, and the man-in-a-suit aliens work far better than the latest CGI monstrosity from across the pond. The cast is surprisingly good too, especially John Boyega playing something of an iconic character, and the action bits are superbly handled. One of the things that impressed me most is Cornish's ability to stage large-scale set-pieces on a small budget: there's a riff on DIE HARD at the end and you never realise for a moment that you don't actually see much in the way of it actually happen. ATTACK THE BLOCK is so good that I went back and watched it again; it's one of the most entertaining films of 2011 that I've watched.