In the midst of the summer of gorging ourselves at Hollywood's blockbuster buffet comes a little movie that knows exactly what it wants to be and how to do it. The concept of ATB is so simple it's amazing no one tried it before. Aggressive aliens make first contact in the inner-city, specifically a South London housing project.

The alien encounters start early when a meteor impact interrupts a group of young thugs robbing a nurse. As a nearby car explodes in a shower of sparks one of the ne'er-do-wells yells "Yo, somebody bomb us bro!" It's not a bomb, but rather something small with sharp teeth and claws. After the evil E.T. slashes the gang leader Mos (short for Moses) the boys bring the pain stomping the interstellar visitor to death.

But while the boys are in the local dealer's apartment arguing over which paper to sell the corpse to (tabloids pay better but the Guardian's a proper paper) little do they know another more aggressive type of creature is on the way. Something big, with coal-black fur and teeth that shine like glow sticks. As the beasts move from floor to floor faster than Super Mario, the crew make their stand in the block tower, joining forces with the nurse they mugged just hours ago.

While Super 8 came off as an overheated mash note to Spielberg, ATB revives the fun of Eighties adventure movies, using great characters and even a sprinkling of subtext. In any other movie where something big with teeth arrives, the Scooby gang would head for the hills. Here the kids arm up with fireworks, samurai swords and baseball bats to show the aliens how Brixton boys roll. In a great moment to showing us the boys hiding behind the bravado, ATB allows us a glimpse of their home life, as the crew are dogged by pestering parents when they drop by to tool up for battle.

There's been some talk about the use of subtitles for the North American release of ATB, but I think the fears of losing the audience are overstated. ATB played well enough at Sundance and while I might have missed a few snatches of dialogue, much of the pleasure comes from savouring the local flavours.

Director/Writer Joe Cornish actually went out and interviewed local teens when he was writing the screenplay and the result is script that crackles with a streetwise sound all its own. When the crew kills the first creature one of the boys asks, "What is that cuz? " The matter-of-fact reply, "That aint no is, that's a was."

Or, later they're defending the apartment, Assault-on-Precinct-13 style, Jerome tries to put the word out on his phone complaining it's "too much madness for one text".

Attack the Block is a deceptively simple looking film. But there's a lot packed in there -- the boy's pride for their hood, the resentment and even race issues. Even the head thug Mos has his own arc, slowly coming to terms with the consequences of his actions, like any good tragic hero should. Yes the film occasionally overreaches (Mos's speech about the aliens being a plot to kill more black kids feels out of character for a man of few words) but a few fumbles can be forgiven for this sci-fi fight packed with swagger to spare.

RATING: Four Day Glow Grins out of Five.

Portraying alien-fighting thugs are (l to r) Franz Drame, Alex Esmail, John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, Leeon Jones in Screen Gems's Attack the Block. (Sony Pictures /Matt Nettheim)