Sci-Fi Nerd: Commentary, reflection, and accolades from a fan’s point of view on all things sci-fi and fantasy
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When horny monsters from outer space arrive, the neighborhood kids are on the case.
It’s a guilty pleasure, but I enjoyed this movie a great deal. In fact, its one of my favorite monster/alien invasion movies ever. It has a great sense of humor. It’s a hilarious social satire that takes an amusing look at a poor, working class, urban inner-city London neighborhood. Along with being a very tongue-in-cheek approach to a classic scenario – namely, what do you do when you are suddenly confronted with extremely toothy, vicious creatures when they invade your neighborhood? The kids in the movie seem to be the only ones aware of this threat, and deal with the situation from a kid’s point of view, leading to some very amusing scenes.
The cast of the film, all relatively young newcomers at the time, play it near flawlessly. There’s Moses (John Boyega of The Force Awakens) who emerges as the leader of this rag-tag gang of kids, along with “Pest” (Alex Esmail), Dennis (Franz Drameh), Brewis (Luke Treadaway), and Jerome (Leon Jones) the smartest member of the gang. There are other characters worthy of note. A student nurse that unluckily gets caught up in the situation named Samantha Adams (Jodie Whittaker), and Ron (Nick Frost) the local drug dealer. The film takes on the tone of one of the old Our Gang comedy films of the 30s and 40s. The story steamrolls along with hardly a break to its climax as these junior detectives use their brains, and available resources to figure out what the situation requires. Their approach remains, for the most part, amusing, grounded and never crosses the line too far into unbelievability.
A very enjoyable film, and a worthy nominee for your sci-fi Halloween viewing.
