From the pseudo-sublime, then, to the ridiculous. Attack the Block is a British (for which read low-budget) film from director Joe Cornish about a gang of urban street kids who, one Bonfire Night, find themselves having to defend their South London block of flats from a host of outer-space creatures, newly arrived via a shower of asteroids. The makers of this teen horror-comedy were not thinking Standpoint reader when they made their pitch to the marketing men, but really, after the jejunity of The Way, this caper at least had some energy and internal logic, albeit foul-mouthed and bloodstained, which came as a relief to a critic jaded by a surfeit of Basque scenery. Monetary restraints obviously resulted in some nifty cinematic footwork when it came to portraying the aliens, which in their crudeness takes one back to Ghost Busters days, but the group of young actors playing the initially thoroughly nasty gang (especially John Boyega as the ringleader Moses) are brightly talented and throw themselves into it heart and soul. The comedy is laddish, the street patois a bit wearying after a while, and it would be nice if we didn't have to rely on the arrival of extraterrestrial life-forms to bring out the heroic qualities in knife-wielding young criminals. But it has panache, and — no mean achievement for a film about muggers and flesh-eating aliens —you find yourself caring about what happens.