Written and directed by Joe Cornish, 2011's Attack The Block begins in a rough part of London when a teenage thug named Moses (John Boyega) and his crew mug a nurse named Sam (Jodie Whittaker) who is on her way back to her apartment. Though Moses and his fellow gang members get her purse, in the middle of the altercation something comes hurtling out of the sky and lands on a nearby Volvo. Moses, curious to see what just happened, heads over to check it out and winds up being bitten by some sort of grey, lumpy looking alien. The alien makes a break for it and the boys give chase, eventually cornering it, at which point Moses kills it. Unsure what to do with their trophy the guys take it to a couple of pot dealers who also live in the same building they do, Ron (Nick Frost) and Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter). See, Ron's got a pretty secure 'weed room' for his grow facility and they figure that'll be the best to stash this thing until they can figure out what to do with it.

Meanwhile, Sam has understandably reported the incident to the police, who pop her in a van and drive around town to look for the culprits. The kids are anxious to get back out on the street, especially Moses who has just been given a load of pot to sell by Hi-Hatz, and this time around they're accompanied by two little kids who call themselves Probs and Mayhem. The cops find the kids and chase them down and when Moses falls of his bike, they cuff him and toss him in the back of their vehicle. Around that time, some big black beasties with glow in the dark teeth show up - it seems that they're following Moses but why? When the beasties make short work of the cops, Moses and his crew have to team up with Sam to save themselves from the monsters, but complicating matters is Hi-Hatz, who thinks Moses is turning tail on him and moving in on his turf.

The first thing that you're going to notice when you put this one on is the slang that most of the young characters use in the movie, referring to one another as 'bruv' and 'blood' throughout and what not - it's distracting at first, even off putting . Once you get used to it, however, you start to get accustomed to it and just take it as the way that these characters talk to each other. This is part of the world they live in and part of the culture of the part of England where the film is set. As the film is primarily based around a group of teenagers it's definitely not at all out of the realm of possibility that should something like this happen they would speak the way they do here. Regardless, the characters are what make the movie here, Moses primarily. It's not particularly surprising to learn that he goes through a transformation here, from thug to hero - though how he goes through it and the events that thrust him into this spot are interesting and entertaining. The rest of the cast do well, with Nick Frost adding some welcome comedic value to pretty much every scene he's in, but John Boyega really is the star of the show here and he handles the material well.

The movie also benefits from some pretty interesting effects work and creature design. Earning its R-rating with some pretty intense sporadic violence and a moderate amount of gore, the monsters in the movie are pretty vicious and even actually frightening at times. They decision to make them creatures of almost pure blackness while still giving them an organic style of movement is interesting. At one point they're described as something to the effect of giant wolf dogs, and that's fairly accurate in so far as they do move in that way, but there's a viciousness brought to light by the glow in the dark teeth - sometimes all you can see of them - that makes them stand out in a good way.

Ultimately the movie winds up an interesting mix of Monster Squad style 'kids against evil' storytelling with a modern day twist, taking that premise and putting it in the projects and updating it for today's audience. For the most part it works really well, the end result is an entertaining and fun monster movie with just enough heart to matter.

The 2.40.1 anamorphic widescreen presentation is a good one, showing nice color reproduction (well, as nice as it can be given that much of the film takes place in the dark and inside some rather drab looking apartments) and good black levels. Some shimmer is apparent here and there but there's no print damage, dirt or debris and skin tones look good. There weren't any obvious problems with compression artifacts or edge enhancement to note and overall the image is detailed and quite solid.