FILM Attack The Block
Mr Popper’s Penguins
Attack The Block
Mr Popper’s Penguins
Super 8
WHO?
Nick Frost, Jodie Whittaker, Luke Treadaway, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Joe Cornish (writerdirector)
Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino, Madeline Carroll, Angela Lansbury, Ophelia Lovibond, Mark Waters (director)
Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Noah Emmerich, AJ Michalka, Steven Spielberg (producer), JJ Abrams (writer-director)
TAGLINE
‘Inner city vs. outer space’
Er, ‘Jim Carrey’
‘It arrives’
ONCE UPON A TIME...
Bonfire Night on a South London estate saw much nastier things than spent fireworks fall to Earth, but the hoodie-clad street kids were tooled up to defend their concrete jungle.
Icy businessman Tom Popper (Carrey) inherited a highly unusual package from frozen Antarctica, and soon found his heart thawing as rapidly as its contents.
A group of film-making friends in a small, late-1970s Ohio town witnessed a train derailed by a car, but the ‘accident’ quickly spiralled into a spate of eerie occurrences.
IDEAL IF YOU’RE IN THE MOOD TO...
Watch one half of clownish comedy duo Adam & Joe craft his first feature almost entirely out of knowing references to others.
See rubber-faced Carrey and his trademark tomfoolery in a scenestealing contest with a gaggle of flightless seabirds.
Unravel what at first smells like another run-of-the-mill shady conspiracy, but soon starts to feel distinctly less Earthly.
WATCH THIS IF YOU LIKE...
The same movies as Joe Cornish. Alternatively, any other modern Brit-flick with Edgar Wright (exec producer) onboard – Shaun Of The Dead being an obvious contender.
Adaptations of 1938 children’s books. For those with marginally less esoteric tastes, think fishout-of-water animal crackers like Babe: Pig In The City, or earlier cautionary Carrey tale Liar Liar.
Statue Of Liberty-trashing 2008 snarler Cloverfield – produced, of course, by JJ Abrams. But if that was a one-trick pony, this looks likely to have a second up its sleeve.
TOP TRIVIA
When Cornish quizzed SXSW festival audiences over US plans to subtitle the film’s heavy London slang, nobody reported noticing an accent problem.
Ben Stiller was originally slated to play Popper, with Noah Baumbach (The Squid And The Whale) directing. Both dropped out – make of that what you will.
Despite early rumours to the contrary, Abrams insists Super 8 has no link to Cloverfield. Those powerfully magnetic teaser trailers hold more clues, we suspect...
WHAT’S ON TEN WORD OR LESS REVIEW
Impressively toothy aliens, but a little more bite needed overall.
Carrey’s in a flap, but will he leave us cold?
Monstrous fun as Abrams rewrites the rules of attraction.
RATE OR SLATE?
★★★✩✩
PREVIEW
PREVIEW
48 WHAT’S ON JUNE 2011