You’d have thought that a film about aliens invading a South London council estate on Fireworks Night would offer all sorts of opportunities for absurdist comedy and/or wicked satire. Attack the Block, though, simply stages a straightforward confrontation between its hoodie heroes and its things from outer space, with some crude humour thrown in. The result is disappointing; a horror-comedy that lacks both bite and wit, so anodyne at times that it feels as if it’s been plucked from the schedules of CBeebies (although it’s undeniably swearier and bloodier, and has a nice little role for Nick Frost as the neighbourhood weed dealer).

Apart from not being very funny and not being very scary, the film is hobbled by two other major problems that it never quite recovers from.