Tower Block (2012) Sheridan Smith, Ralph Brown, Russell Tovey, Jack O'Connell Movie Review

Tower Block (2012)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Sheridan Smith, Russell Tovey and Jack O'Connell in Tower Block (2012)

Attack Another Block

Months after a young man was brutally beaten to death in the halls of a London tower block the remaining residents are fighting to hold on to their homes in the face of the trend for demolishing these concrete tower blocks. When they are not dealing with those wanting to take their homes these residences are dealing with a local hoodlum who demands protection money or they will have their apartments wrecked. But now these neighbouring strangers find themselves stuck in the hall way away from windows as a mysterious sniper is knocking them off one by one. With tensions rising they begin to question why they are being killed and thoughts return to the young man who was murdered which none of them admitted to knowing anything about when the police investigated.

"Tower Block" ticks a heck of a lot of boxes starting with a good cast delivering good performances. You have Sheridan Smith bringing likeability but also grit in what is the lead role but you then have Jack O'Connell bringing vile and arrogance to the role of Kurtiz whilst Russell Tovey brings vulnerability as a troubled man dealing with alcohol addiction and depression. I could go on because "Tower Block" has an extraordinary amount of British talent all of which deliver impressive performances.

Sheridan Smith and Ralph Brown in Tower Block (2012)

What also impresses is the direction and cinematography as the atmosphere created of being stuck in this hallway. The whole situation, the claustrophobia, the hopelessness, the danger, the confusion is then mixed with some stellar sudden shocks and I do mean sudden shocks. From that first shock when blood flies you find yourselves gripped in a perverse way as you wonder how nasty things will get.

The trouble though with "Tower Block" is two fold as whilst we have plenty of characters it really only focuses on four, those played by Sheridan Smith, Ralph Brown, Russell Tovey and Jack O'Connell and so all those others milling around often end up just background noise that you can guess are likely to end up dead. On top of that there isn't the sense of urgency you would expect from this situation which makes you actually wonder where the movie is going to go.

What this all boils down to is that whilst "Tower Block" ticks a heck of a lot of boxes it gets a couple wrong and sadly that makes it a movie which almost feels like it is meandering along, not sure where it is going itself but having some fun along the way with the characters and death scenes.


LATEST REVIEWS