The Thousands

English writer-director Joe Cornish (of cult comedy duo Adam and Joe) splashes with a feature film debut that’s just plain fun. It’s the anti-Harry Brown – rather than painting housing-estate kids as alien monsters, Attack the Block has them fighting alien monsters. But audaciously, it kicks off with the heroes mugging the heroine, Sam (Jodie Whittaker), at knifepoint.

Led by Moses (John Boyega), the gang then kills a strange dog-like creature and brings it to the block’s weed den, staffed by the amiable Ron (Nick Frost) but owned by drug lord-slash-rapper Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter). When huge, black, furry, glow-toothed aliens arrive for revenge, Sam and bourgie stoner Brewis (Luke Treadaway) find themselves joining Moses’s gang to defend their turf.

Attack the Block feels delightfully effortless. Thuggish hoodies become endearing kids (“This is too much madness to explain in one text!”) and the class commentary is gently subversive (“You swear too much,” the kids chide Sam). The action scenes crib from the Alien movies, creating tense cat-and-mouse chases through corridors, stairwells, lifts and car parks. With its constant forward momentum, pulsating Basement Jaxx soundtrack and judicious gore, Attack the Block is a London riot everyone should endorse.