User reviews

It doesn't make any sense at all (in many ways, especially don't start with continuity and/or logic), but it can still be fairly enjoyable if you let it. You have your generic characters (good and bad guys thrown into the mix), that assemble and have to find a way to work together. Character motivation is simple as is the premise. Motivation for the ultimate bad guy in this might be paper thin, but if that's all you're worried about, you might as well stop watching.

While not really big in the story department, this does have a way of holding the tension pretty high. The cast is surely to "blame" for that at parts, too. Still don't expect too much and this might even exceed your expectations.

The screenplay is with intrigues and mind-twisting, but it is hard to judge its probability... Anyway, the action begins with the first minutes of the film and tensions are maintained throughout until the end. The reason for shooting was, however, revealed too soon, but the person behind remained mysterious until the final scene. Performances were great (Sheridan Smith as Becky, Jack O'Connell as Kurtis) or good (the rest), but politically correct attempts to cover the cross-cut of the society (different races-genders-ages) have become annoying as they are used in all similar films.

Nevertheless, a good and compact film to those fond of thrillers in a limited time and space.

Derivative and largely formulaic thriller, but nevertheless one that remains suspenseful and compelling throughout the entire running time thanks to the raw & gritty atmosphere and a handful of extremely brutal shock-moments. Reminiscent to the other recent British flick "Attack the Block" in terms of tone & social setting, "Tower Block" takes place in a pauperized and crime-infested big city suburb where people abandoned all hope for prosperity long time ago already and desperately avoid every type of contact with fellow human beings. The film entirely takes place in a large apartment complex that is scheduled for destruction and only the residents of the top floor still live there. One Saturday morning, they are rudely awakened by a relentless psycho killer with a sniper rifle. He – or she – fires at everything that moves and placed booby-traps across the building. There's a obvious link with an unsolved murder committed in the block a few months earlier and now the asocial tenants are forced to rely on each other for survival. The biggest trumps for a film such as "Tower Block" are surprise and unpredictability. All the residents are equally insignificant, meaning that literally anyone of them could be next. And they could be next at any random and possible moment, too. Writers/directors duo James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson aptly play with these trumps, as the characters definitely don't die in the order you'd expect. Sniper murders can perhaps get a bit monotonous after a while, but there's enough diversity in killing methods and circumstances. Obviously there's quite a large number of holes and irrationality in the plot and the climax (as in: revelation of the sniper's identity) is weak and disappointing. The acting performances vary between adequate and amateurish, with good roles for tough blond gal Sheridan Smith and "Alien³" veteran Ralph Brown. In case you want to seek out more "serial sniper-killer" movies after this, I warmly recommended the almighty "Dirty Harry" but also the more obscure "Two-Minute Warning", "Targets" and "The Deadly Tower"

'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.

How does the sniper shoot at people emerging from both sides of the hallway? As in they live at opposite sides of the tower block.... (I didn't how to post in Goofs...)

Despite having some potential, 'Tower Block' makes for a cringe watch.

The writing, in my opinion at least, is the problem here. There's a decent cast list and a respectable enough premise, but things fall apart when the characters act and talk - the dialogue is iffy, while some of the character decisions are very odd.

Sheridan Smith (Becky) and Jack O'Connell (Kurtis) are two capable leads and give solid performances, though their roles are average - especially Kurtis, who is so over-the-top at times it's painful to see.

As noted, the plot is alright - the way it's written isn't. The ending is rather poor, especially with the 'twist' (?). I wanted to enjoy this, and in a few minor moments I did, but all the negative parts unfortunately weigh it down tremendously.

If you want a story regarding this type of building, then I'd recommend 2011's 'Attack the Block'. This one, though not atrocious, isn't all that good sadly.

This is a fantastic movie and even more so given it's a low budget indie entirely filmed in one small location! I have great admiration for a team that can put together something with the quality of this movie particularly with those obstacles.

The direction is top notch, building suspense throughout, delivering unpredictable shocks & events and developing some lovely relationships between the people trapped in the building. The cinematography and music score are spot on lending a hand to the overall gritty industrial mood of the environment and sense of impending doom & hopelessness. But it's not at all a depressing movie. It's actually quite uplifting. I loved the characters and their believable and interesting interactions. There was some top notch acting from several people and the character of one in particular was so well acted & developed I wanted to see more of him!! Several other characters were also very likable and engaging while others were infuriating but you still didn't want them to get hurt. It's a fine movie indeed that makes you care so much for the people they've invented that you feel sad when the movie ends and they've gone.

Yeah the plot had some holes here and there but they are not that significant in the context of how incredibly well this movie is put together. Most of the time it hung together well, people behaved as anyone would in the situation and it was mostly unpredictable. Special marks for having a strong female character, for not pulling punches about who "bites the bullet" and who doesn't and for the interesting side story of the alcoholic lad. And of course for the thoroughly fascinating stand-over guy. (I'll be looking for more movies with that young actor in them!!)

The "reveal" and final scene could possibly have been handled better, but I've seen a lot worse and I was happy enough with it. In any case, the journey to get there was so engrossing and enjoyable it really didn't matter.

The only truly (wholly) negative reviews I've read about this movie have focused on very trivial details (nit picking) &/or a couple of plot holes to proclaim this pretty much the worst movie in the history of the Universe. This seems a little petty & extreme to say the least. It's most certainly NOT the worst movie, nor is it the best but it's definitely one of the better ones, regardless of any flaws it may have. I say, you show me a movie totally without flaws and I'll find at least one anyway! :)

I thoroughly enjoyed every moment and recommend it unreservedly for people who enjoy good drama, thriller, suspense, action movies etc and for those who like to see how a movie can be brilliant without the need for a huge budget and fancy effects.

OK, it wasn't great and it wasn't bad, it was what you make of it. Leave all your "buts" at the door and just accept the silliness of what's ahead. If you want a short, shoot em up, barracking for the Disadvantaged people movie, then maybe see this movie. I applauded film makers having a go, coming up with new story lines, new concepts, however we have had this concept of "escaping the unknown" plenty of times, but not so many times have we seen it in this environment, especially in U.K films.. Give it a go and like I said, leave your "buts" at the door.... because you never know what's lurking behind it..

Not a bad film, good cast of British actors. But remember this, future superstar in the making... Jack O'Connell. This young man is going to make it big. He was outstanding in the TV series ' The Runaway' and also in the Film the Liability.

The first time i saw Tom Hardy i knew he was a rough diamond,he just kept learning and polishing his act. I truly believe that this kid has the chops to make it to the top.

I also hope Sheridan Smith gets a big break, she is a hugely talented young lady. Watch the film you will be entertained. Watch out for Jack O'Connell, tell your friends, the kid is mesmerising.

Tower Block is a lesson in how to make fine films in single locations with tiny budgets that are character driven, effects-light and based on sharply written simple premises, which are blackly funny but still suspenseful. That Tower Block marks the feature directorial debuts for James Nunn & Ronnie Thompson, is astounding. What a way to start! 1950's Britain saw the birth of high-rise blocks as a solution to the post-war population boom. For a while they were popular for their views and originality. Then we grew up, realized how bad they were for morale, how quickly they became havens for crime and we started demolishing them.

Fast forward to preset day London. The residents on the top floor of one such tower block have stubbornly remained in their flats until the council can rehouse them, despite threats from the developer who has acquired the land and to being victims of extortion by number one grunt of the block, Kurtis. When a resident is beaten to death in a vicious attack, all but one of the other tenants bolt their doors and hope the trouble will go away. But Becky's heroics count for nothing and her bruises cause her to withdraw, too. Then, one morning several months later, a sniper starts executing them.

The stylized title sequence sets the tone of the film with muted colours, camera angles that make heads tilt and an intensity that puts the viewer on edge from the outset. We know there'll be a shot fired sooner or later, but it's still a jolt when the initial shot happens. It certainly makes an impact… We're given only the briefest introductions to the characters before the dying commences in style. It's ruthless when it happens and the 90-minute running time ensures the pace is tightened for maximum impact. But, though the journey is swift, Tower Block is far from being only about action and brutality. Each character who survives the initial onslaught is given (some) time to breathe and relationships are hastily forged where previously there has been barely a glance shared on the top floor.

The closest Tower Block comes to a star is Sheridan Smith, an actress who made her name in TV (Eyes Down, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps) and has earned plaudits and gongs on the stage in Legally Blonde and Hedda Gabler. In Tower Block, Smith states her intention to conquer the big screen, too, with a strong performance as a determined woman forced to lead a clutch of neighbours fighting for survival despite dwindling options and rising tempers.

Excellent as she is, Smith shares ownership of the limelight with Jack O'Connell (Eden Lake, Harry Brown) as Kurtis. Though Kurtis is utterly detestable from the moment we meet him, O'Connell subtly unravels him to reveal insecurities and fears that have been shrouded in a flapping cloak of aggression for years. Deep within this morally corrupt monster lies a code of conduct and a pragmatism that one can't help, well, if not liking then at least enjoying. And screenwriter James Moran has gifted him some of the funnies quips of the film.

The supporting cast forms a who's who of council estate characters and there's a certain amount of pleasure to be gained from guessing who's destined to become the next splatter of pulp across the wall. And when it inevitably arrives, each demise brings its own cocktail of wince and smile.

Moran, who is given a moment of glory with the presence of his Cockneys Versus Zombies poster, writes from within each character with the same tone he set in 2006's Severance. There are no pointless monologues of exposition, just beautiful, jagged and bitterly funny snatches of conversation that reflect each character's evolution from their reticence to reveal too much, to the spewing of emotion when their mortality is callously close. If this is anything to go by, next year's Silent Night of the Living Dead could be stunning.

Though last night's audience was woefully small, it was a preview screening and the buzz with which the viewers left was palpable and Tower Block is likely to be a film that steadily builds an audience via word of mouth. And so it should. It's an exciting, gritty, funny film and, in the current batch of 'films in towers', though it falls short of the virtually flawless The Raid, I suspect it ranks higher than Dredd and positively towers above Man on Ledge and Tower Heist.

Tower Block misses perfection for some silly mistakes it is impossible to point out here without giving away plot lines other than to say the final act of violence was three inches the wrong side of cheesy and when a certain character improvises with 'armour', only in the worst moments of Hollywood would it be adequate. But these are but silly errors of judgment in an otherwise riveting film that'll have you thinking twice before you thrown open the curtains.

For more reviews from The Squiss subscribe to my blog at www.thesquiss.co.uk

Like the Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/RpitOG

Serenity House, a rundown London council tower block scheduled for redevelopment, is inhabited by a few remaining tenants who are unwilling to move out. When a teenager is beaten to death in the building, and no-one will come forward as a witness for fear of reprisal, a vengeful sniper armed with a high-powered rifle and laser sights blocks off all exits in the high-rise and proceeds to blow the heads off the tight-lipped residents.

The killer in Tower Block is a truly incredible individual: not only can he take aim and shoot the dick off a gnat at 100 yards, in the dark, in under a second, but he's also adept at rigging complex booby traps in a public space without raising any suspicion, knows how to block cell phone signals and internet connections, and even has a designer's eye, rustling up a natty graffiti-style logo to announce his campaign of terror. That said, he's still no match for feisty blonde Becky (Sheridan Smith), who is able to thwart the shooter's best laid plans with a little help from her surviving neighbours, including local thug Kurtis (Jack O'Connell) and friendly, fearless fellow Neville (Ralph Brown).

With a lot more care and attention in the script department, this might have been a taut little thriller—there's definitely the germ of a good idea in there somewhere— but too many far-fetched elements, massive plot holes and unlikeable characters (I struggle with wastrels, criminals and chavs as heroes—see also Attack The Block) prevent it from being a success, despite the best efforts of a game cast (Jack O'Connell's OTT performance is a blast) and competent direction from James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson. With lots of shootings and some reasonable action, it's never boring, I suppose, but it could have been so much better.

Oh, and to the IMDb reviewer who described Sheridan Smith as 'a monster of a woman': get your eyes tested!!! She's a hottie!

I went to see this film without knowing much about it or seeing the trailer. I had read the plot on IMDb just before going into the cinema and didn't know who was in it.

The film starts quite slowly with after the pre-opening sequence. The majority of the characters are introduced and we learn quite a bit about them. I was glad to see Sheridan Smith and Russell Tovey, there acting was good to say they had an average script. I also enjoyed 'that kid from Harry Brown' (Jack O'Connel)'s performance.

The storyline is unique and interesting and once it gets going you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat and guessing who'll be killed.

Jack o'connell manages to turn a firstly hated character into a lovable rouge and is on occasions very humorous.

Overall the film is interesting and chilling with no major disappointment except a few plot points that were not explained; however, it still entertained me to the end.

When I saw the trailer for Tower Block it looked rough and brutal. Sadly it never became brutal but still it's an excellent flick. Everyone knows those tower blocks were you never wants to resident. This is one of them. When there is screaming in the streets below you turn on your television or close your doors, got nothing to do with you. Exactly what is going on here.

We see someone running from some hoodies toward Tower Block 31. After being killed no-one wants to be involved although Becky (Sheridan Smith) witnessed the beating and has been hit also by the hoodies. The police isn't wanted in such areas. Life goes on until the tower block is under the eye of a sniper and is killing everyone.

It's the first attempt of UK co-directors James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson and they succeeded in their mission. Not only you wanted to know what is going on and who's the sniper it's also the acting of Sheridan and Jack O'Connell (Kurtis) that takes this flick to a higher level. It has an overall brutal look but you hear bullets fly and hit but it's almost never shown. The first hit is the goriest one and you just can't see it coming.

Enjoyable flick were scum needs each other to survive and where they also become friends to survive.

Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Acting was quite good - but... Risking lives to escape didn't make sense and only one plan of escape made sense to try. That's enough because that's the whole movie. Bloody Brits

This derelict Tower Block set for demolition shows a great mix of families that still remain - for whatever reason. However, the irony is, all of these remaining families, just so happen to be the top floor residents, who were stuck there with a serial killer on the loose - a killer who has targeted the families.

The ending of the movie set my mind thinking about 'unsolved crime'. The language of the movie is both normal English and 'street' English.

The first thing you should know about Tower Block is that it doesn't have much of a budget. And it shows. However, for all its financial shortcomings, it does its best to lift itself above the rest.

The residents of the top floor of a high rise tower block - soon to be demolished - are targeted by a sniper who won't let them leave (alive, anyway). What follows is an hour and a half of a siege movie where they desperately try and find ways out. When I read the blurb about the film, I wondered how they could stretch that out for the full ninety minutes. I was pleasantly surprised when they did.

It's no classic, but enough of the characters are fun, stupid, or evil enough to take pleasure in watching and the typical 'stupid decisions' they normally make in these sorts of films are kept to a minimum.

My advice: suspend your disbelief and just give it a go if you like the sound of it. You could do worse (I found the only major plot point I found hard to stomach was how one sniper could effectively shoot everyone in 0.1 seconds as soon as he saw them at any window - seriously, he must be the best marksman in the world!).

It started off so well, I was well in to it and then it went down hill pronto! Stupid decisions and just so unrealistic..the ending was horrendous it had the potential to be good it started well and finished so poorly!

The "tower block" drama has become a sci-fi/horror subgenre in itself. Known as high-rise apartment buildings in the West, they are especially ubiquitous in Europe where they provided cheap postwar housing in countries which didn't have the large tracts of land or economic and political hubris that "allowed" us to build highways and expansive suburbs on this side of the pond. In America, they were primarily constructed in cities as public housing for low income residents displaced by interstate highway construction and leveling of aging dilapidated neighborhoods in the name of "urban renewal." Many of these large projects were built in Eastern Europe by the Soviet regime and have begun to fall apart and be abandoned, mirroring the actions of their government overseers. But everywhere, including Western Bloc countries like the UK, they've fallen into disrepair and are rife with rampant crime and crippling poverty. This is fertile ground for writers of mystery, sci-fi, and horror -- hence the proliferation of films set in these often enigmatic structures.

"Tower Block," the first feature for UK co-directors James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson, focuses on the last remaining residents of the ironically-named Serenity House, a rundown building which is slated for demolition and has been abandoned save for its top floor. Eviction is on the horizon, no authorities are present to ensure anyone's safety, and a boy is brutally attacked with impunity. What happens next will challenge everyone's sanity and sense of moral judgment.

Nunn is an industry veteran, serving as First Assistant Director on two dozen titles prior to this directorial debut. Writer James Moran scripted "Severance," which I saw at my first Toronto Film Festival in 2006 after an auspicious Cannes debut. It was one of the biggest hits on the 2006-07 festival circuit. He also penned "Cockneys vs. Zombies" which played here at Fantastic Fest immediately following my "Tower Block" screening.

Every actor gets kudos for the movie's emotional punch, making it hard to single anyone out. But, as Kurtis, Jack O'Connell provides much of the heart and soul of the film, as well as its dry wit and comic relief. He was clearly the audience favorite here. Sheridan Smith, Jill Baker, Ralph Brown, Loui Batley, Russell Tovey, Steven Cree...all are affecting and outstanding.

Cinematographer Ben Moulden's appropriate reliance on hand-held camera with extreme closeups is crucial in capturing the dangerous confines in which the protagonists attempt to survive. Rapidfire action sequences are ratcheted up by the astute, sharp editing of Kate Coggins.

Lighting serves the narrative perfectly. The typical look of these buildings is cold, with a color palette that pushes the blue and pulls life out of the towers' public spaces, and "Tower Block" doesn't disappoint. Hallway lighting is dim and subdued with shadowy cold spots that often frame the actors in silhouette, almost giving the film a black and white appearance. Apartment interiors are warm with an amber glow, safe spaces where the innocent can find solace, at least for awhile.

Certain genres demand a soundtrack that helps build tension and enhance the desperation of the characters. Owen Morris' original score accomplishes this admirably. Sound design is spectacular and creates a character unto itself. Rarely have sound effects been used so effectively as a plot device in ways the viewer will discover.

This is a classic trapped group in peril piece, set in the narrow, claustrophobic hallways that define the titular tower block. As a familiar subgenre film, we have a general idea where the narrative will take us, so the key to the story lies in the ability of its ensemble cast to arouse audience empathy. Whether old or young, male or female, rough or sweet, mean or compassionate, including parents and children, victors and victims, and those who inevitably transform via dramatically satisfying arcs, there are sympathetic characters for every viewer. We can all relate to one or more of the residents, making palpable their fear and confusion. We become invested in who survives or not, and one thing I can guarantee: you will not be able to predict the outcome. In the end, that's why "Tower Block" exceeds expectations.

What makes the high-rise building fodder for freaky films? Perhaps it's simply the sight of these structures, haunting hulks of concrete and steel that beg the question, "What goes on behind those hundreds of windows?" "Tower Block's" answer? Don't go in. You may never get out.

Acting bad. Sets worse. Plot completely stupid. I was told my review was too short? What more can I say?