Tower Block Reviews
www.themoviewaffler.com
Super Reviewer
September 25, 2012
The film kicks off with a teenage boy beaten to death by two thugs in the hallway of the top floor. Smith tries to help but receives a beating for her troubles and when the police ask for witnesses she, along with the other residents, deny any knowledge to keep themselves safe. We then cut to three months later and the residents wake to find a sniper has them pinned down from an adjacent building. From here the limits of credibility are stretched. Somehow the sniper has found the time, in just a few hours, to rig the building with booby traps and, of course, knock out cell-phone coverage.
The tenants come up with various plans to escape their predicament but never think of the more obvious ideas like writing a message on a bedsheet and hanging it from a window. They consistently talk about how nobody will ever find them as though they were on a remote island in the Pacific rather than in the middle of the largest city in Europe.
Along the way we get several twists and turns resulting in an awkwardly handled final reveal of the sniper's identity. Like most British films, the movie's strongest point is it's performances. O'Connell is particularly enjoyable as a chav version of Precinct 13's Napoleon Wilson. The central idea had potential but it seems co-directors Nunn and Thompson lack the ingenuity to pull it off. If Carpenter's film is a smooth ride in an elevator, this is a tough slog up the stairs. Take the lift.
The biggest influence on the current crop of low budget film-makers, particularly those from Britain and France, seems to be John Carpenter. This should be a positive but what few of them realize is that it takes more than a synth score and a few bad-ass characters to emulate the thrills of his movies. "Tower Block" is a riff on "Assault on Precinct 13" but where Carpenter's film had a police station about to be shut down which found itself under siege from an L.A gang, here it's a London tower block which is on the verge of being demolished. The last remaining residents, conveniently for the plot, are those residing on the top floor.
The film kicks off with a teenage boy beaten to death by two thugs in the hallway of the top floor. Smith tries to help but receives a beating for her troubles and when the police ask for witnesses she, along with the other residents, deny any knowledge to keep themselves safe. We then cut to three months later and the residents wake to find a sniper has them pinned down from an adjacent building. From here the limits of credibility are stretched. Somehow the sniper has found the time, in just a few hours, to rig the building with booby traps and, of course, knock out cell-phone coverage.
The tenants come up with various plans to escape their predicament but never think of the more obvious ideas like writing a message on a bedsheet and hanging it from a window. They consistently talk about how nobody will ever find them as though they were on a remote island in the Pacific rather than in the middle of the largest city in Europe.
Along the way we get several twists and turns resulting in an awkwardly handled final reveal of the sniper's identity. Like most British films, the movie's strongest point is it's performances. O'Connell is particularly enjoyable as a chav version of Precinct 13's Napoleon Wilson. The central idea had potential but it seems co-directors Nunn and Thompson lack the ingenuity to pull it off. If Carpenter's film is a smooth ride in an elevator, this is a tough slog up the stairs. Take the lift.
October 4, 2012
Great film, Really enjoy it. Keep you underpressure from the beginning to the really end.
March 8, 2013
Heading up the cast is Sheridan Smith, playing her character with attitude and charm, who must help her fellow residents out of a tower block in which a sniper is keeping them imprisoned. Written by James Moran (one of the best horror writers working in the UK today), Tower Block is a thriller that plays like a horror, and this gives the film a grungy, claustrophobic quality. The direction by James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson is fine, but not particularly inspired - though there are some great shots (I liked all the residents falling out of their apartments in terror at the same time).
There is no claim for this to be high art - it is a movie to watch with your mates on a Friday night after a few beers - and as such it does its job brilliantly. Moran's script is on the nose, and even some of the deaths come as a shock (a rare achievement in horror cinema these days, where every death can seem well signalled (though there is an instance of this here too)). It is a film that collapses under its inherent flaws if you consider it - but you're not meant to do that, this is a thrill ride, a rollercoaster, so enjoy it as such and you'll have a good B-Movie time.
This is one of those films that, if you ignore the inherent problems in its premise (in this they want us to imagine a tower block that on one side is entirely brick wall, with no windows) actually manages to be entertaining.
Heading up the cast is Sheridan Smith, playing her character with attitude and charm, who must help her fellow residents out of a tower block in which a sniper is keeping them imprisoned. Written by James Moran (one of the best horror writers working in the UK today), Tower Block is a thriller that plays like a horror, and this gives the film a grungy, claustrophobic quality. The direction by James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson is fine, but not particularly inspired - though there are some great shots (I liked all the residents falling out of their apartments in terror at the same time).
There is no claim for this to be high art - it is a movie to watch with your mates on a Friday night after a few beers - and as such it does its job brilliantly. Moran's script is on the nose, and even some of the deaths come as a shock (a rare achievement in horror cinema these days, where every death can seem well signalled (though there is an instance of this here too)). It is a film that collapses under its inherent flaws if you consider it - but you're not meant to do that, this is a thrill ride, a rollercoaster, so enjoy it as such and you'll have a good B-Movie time.
February 8, 2013
LO MEJOR: La premisa y el Francotirador.
LO PEOR: Que los directores se tarden 25 minutos de metraje en explicarnos cosas que son obvias.
PD: interesante película estrenada en Sitges 2012
Tiros,tiros y mas tiros....
LO MEJOR: La premisa y el Francotirador.
LO PEOR: Que los directores se tarden 25 minutos de metraje en explicarnos cosas que son obvias.
PD: interesante película estrenada en Sitges 2012
Mark
October 4, 2012
Tower Block is a good thriller! Its got an original premise, good cast and a lot of action! Must see!
Dan O.
September 27, 2012
Overall 'Tower Block' is an average thriller but it's still enjoyable due to it's interesting and original premise and the fairly good acting. So despite the issues and I'd still give it a go as I'd doubt you will be disappointed.
'Tower Block' is a good thriller. Its got an original premise, a good cast but the whole motive for the sniper is a bit much, I wont spoil it but it just wasn't believable. The film also had a few continuity issues, not extremely major but very obvious. The film will also probably only appeal to a British audience due to it's setting, characters and dialogue.
Overall 'Tower Block' is an average thriller but it's still enjoyable due to it's interesting and original premise and the fairly good acting. So despite the issues and I'd still give it a go as I'd doubt you will be disappointed.
September 15, 2012
Gritty, close in, Brit Noir, tension to the end. Sheridan Smith brilliant as the girl next door turned Sarah Conner nailed.
www.themoviewaffler.com
Super Reviewer
September 25, 2012
The film kicks off with a teenage boy beaten to death by two thugs in the hallway of the top floor. Smith tries to help but receives a beating for her troubles and when the police ask for witnesses she, along with the other residents, deny any knowledge to keep themselves safe. We then cut to three months later and the residents wake to find a sniper has them pinned down from an adjacent building. From here the limits of credibility are stretched. Somehow the sniper has found the time, in just a few hours, to rig the building with booby traps and, of course, knock out cell-phone coverage.
The tenants come up with various plans to escape their predicament but never think of the more obvious ideas like writing a message on a bedsheet and hanging it from a window. They consistently talk about how nobody will ever find them as though they were on a remote island in the Pacific rather than in the middle of the largest city in Europe.
Along the way we get several twists and turns resulting in an awkwardly handled final reveal of the sniper's identity. Like most British films, the movie's strongest point is it's performances. O'Connell is particularly enjoyable as a chav version of Precinct 13's Napoleon Wilson. The central idea had potential but it seems co-directors Nunn and Thompson lack the ingenuity to pull it off. If Carpenter's film is a smooth ride in an elevator, this is a tough slog up the stairs. Take the lift.
The biggest influence on the current crop of low budget film-makers, particularly those from Britain and France, seems to be John Carpenter. This should be a positive but what few of them realize is that it takes more than a synth score and a few bad-ass characters to emulate the thrills of his movies. "Tower Block" is a riff on "Assault on Precinct 13" but where Carpenter's film had a police station about to be shut down which found itself under siege from an L.A gang, here it's a London tower block which is on the verge of being demolished. The last remaining residents, conveniently for the plot, are those residing on the top floor.
The film kicks off with a teenage boy beaten to death by two thugs in the hallway of the top floor. Smith tries to help but receives a beating for her troubles and when the police ask for witnesses she, along with the other residents, deny any knowledge to keep themselves safe. We then cut to three months later and the residents wake to find a sniper has them pinned down from an adjacent building. From here the limits of credibility are stretched. Somehow the sniper has found the time, in just a few hours, to rig the building with booby traps and, of course, knock out cell-phone coverage.
The tenants come up with various plans to escape their predicament but never think of the more obvious ideas like writing a message on a bedsheet and hanging it from a window. They consistently talk about how nobody will ever find them as though they were on a remote island in the Pacific rather than in the middle of the largest city in Europe.
Along the way we get several twists and turns resulting in an awkwardly handled final reveal of the sniper's identity. Like most British films, the movie's strongest point is it's performances. O'Connell is particularly enjoyable as a chav version of Precinct 13's Napoleon Wilson. The central idea had potential but it seems co-directors Nunn and Thompson lack the ingenuity to pull it off. If Carpenter's film is a smooth ride in an elevator, this is a tough slog up the stairs. Take the lift.
September 21, 2012
Suffers from poor writing and try's to put you in a real setting but everything surrounding it is to absurd to give you that illusion.
