Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 52: Attack The Block 2011 (2 STARS)

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.

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 41: Hanna (2011) (2 STARS).

Hanna (Ronan) is a teenage girl. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a soldier; these come from being raised by her father (Bana), an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Ms. Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

The reviews for this movie have been on the whole quite good so when I got the chance to see it I did and found the good reviews to be a pack of lies or I really don't understand movies but I do know what I like and this wasn't it.

It's a story of revenge and a girl with certain ruthless skills emergence into a world she knows nothing of other than what she has read or been told, the movie focuses a lot on scenery, colours, music and interaction with people she meets and broaden her childlike knowledge of the world, humanity and technology (and doesn't fight, destroy or kill). The camera work gets on your tits a bit with 360 degree revolving and upside down shots, stylised stuttered fighting at times, dodgy characters and acting, the music steps up a beat every time something is about to happen (provided by The Chemical Brothers who I usually like). Don't get me wrong it has some good moments and it's a movie about revenge (which is always a winner with me) and genetics but it's a bit too up it's own arse for me and quite terrible performances from Bana and Blanchett but Ronan plays Hanna quite well.

Not enough action, too much interaction and the movie left me cold and just not bothered.