Attack The Block

I have been giving myself (and the poor long suffering Amy) a break from the AFI 100 list, and have been focusing on more recent releases.

Attack The Block for the uninitiated, is the feature film directorial debut of British comedian, writer and BBC radio DJ Joe Cornish.

Jodie Whittaker plays Sam, a nurse, who is attacked by a local gang of youths on her way home to the tower block where she lives. Just when things are looking bleak, all hell breaks loose when something that looks like a shooting star crashes into a car parked right next to where the mugging is taking place.

It's difficult to say much more about the plot without straying into spoiler territory. What I can say is that the cast are great,  Nick Frost makes a welcome cameo appearance as a dodgy drug dealer, and considering that some of other cast members are quite young they aren't found lacking in the acting stakes. The dialogue sounds realistic without ever straying in to a parody of street slang.

Although this wasn't a mega budget film, the effects are good. If I had to categorise this film I would put it in to the same league as Joe Dante's Gremlins, by no means an out and out horror movie, but enough thrills and spills along the way to keep you thoroughly entertained.

Joe Cornish has been very busy of late, co-writing the script for Ant Man with Edgar Wright, and also co-writing with Doctor Who supremo Steven Moffat, the script for Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg's forthcoming big budget motion capture movie The Adventures Of Tin Tin: Secret Of The Unicorn.

The movie is available to buy or rent on Blu-Ray and DVD, and I couldn't recommend more highly.

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy: Extended Edition Blu Ray

I'm guessing if you're reading this there is a pretty good chance that you already know the story of The Lord Of The Rings, so I will dispense with the synopsis and get on with looking at what you get in this extended edition set.

This fifteen disc set is presented in rather nice gold embossed packaging and comprises of six Blu Ray discs and nine DVDs. Each of the three films is split over two Blu Ray discs in order to allow for the best picture quality. The other nine DVDs contain over twenty six hours of special features.

The transfer quality of the films, particularly The Fellowship Of The Ring, have been criticised by many for lacking sharpness and weird colour correction when the theatrical versions were released on Blu Ray disc some time ago.

I found the picture quality of all the films to be of a high standard, although some, perhaps more critical than I, have mentioned a "green tint" in some sections of the first film, I have to say I couldn't detect this (perhaps I need to get my eyes tested!).

The audio is presented in DTS Master HD 6.1, and it sounds fantastic, the surround channels are used to good effect, and dialogue is handled well, never getting lost in the mix.

For anyone new to this classic series of films, the extras are as complete a document of the making of the trilogy as you could ask for. The highlight for most fans is Costa Botes' making of documentary, the film maker was given unprecedented access during the making of these iconic movies. With such a sumptuous array of special features to choose from you could not fail to be impressed.

Roll on "An Unexpected Journey" and "There And Back Again"!