Griff the Invisible
DIRECTOR: Leon Ford
STARRING: Ryan Kwanten, Maeve Dermody, Marshall Napier, Heather Mitchell, Toby Schmitz, Patrick Brammall, Anthony Phelan
Indomina Releasing
RELEASE DATE: August 19, 2011 (limited)

Most of us recognize Ryan Kwanten as Jason Stackhouse from the hit guilty pleasure–fest that is HBO’s True Blood. Some fans may know his voice from Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole or smaller, more obscure fare like the forgettable Flicka and Dead Silence, or even more obscure TV titles like Summerland, or Home and Away and Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord in his native Australia. But again, most of us point to Mr. Stackhouse.

But Kwanten has also dabbled in the realms of indie films over the past couple of years, and his work there is not to be ignored. After seeing the 2010 western thriller, Red Hill, I was more than excited to take a peek at his other 2010 effort, Griff the Invisible, which is just now seeing a limited theatrical run.

Check out Episode 30 of the Flix of Doom podcast, the official movie podcast of Geeks of Doom, with hosts Justin Vactor, Will Melton, and Michael Merlob.

In this episode we discuss:

Super
Fright Night
A mini Robert Rodriguez rant
Another Earth

Listen now!

E-mail us at flixofdoom [at] gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter – @FlixOfDoom
Subscribe to the Podcast: RSS | iTunes | Zune

Our August Doom Of The Month will be Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly! If you want to read along with us, head on over to Instocktrades.com or DCBService.com to pick up the hardcover edition of Local for a super price! Read up and be sure to check out our special review episode!

Check out Episode 86 of Comics of Doom, the official comics podcast of Geeks of Doom. Click HERE to open the podcast player in a new window.

Podcast player is here below, along with an Episode Guide.

Listen now!

E-mail us at comicsofdoom [at] gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter – @ComicsOfDoom
Subscribe to the Podcast: RSS | iTunes | Zune

If you’ve expected a movie to be terrible for the longest time, and then you watch it and it turns out not to be complete garbage, does that necessarily make it good? I have no idea. I do know it’s never a good idea to start a review off with a question.

I will admit to not thinking much of the Fright Night remake (except for the casting) as it seemed to be yet another remake in an litter box full of them and the best one could hope for is that it’s better than _________ [insert your own shitty remake here as you could probably name a dozen off the top of your head].

But 2 hours later as you exit the theater singing along to the end credits (“99 problems and a bitch ain’t one…”) you realize that you had a pretty decent time, and that last week’s The Help would have been a lot more entertaining and a lot less preachy had vampires been involved.

Besides, it’s always nice to see a real vampire movie for a change instead of the brooding Beiber-vag’s that contaminate the megaplexes nowadays.

It’s time for SPOILERS…

Conan The Barbarian
Directed by Marcus Nispel
Starring: Jason Momoa, Leo Howard, Rachel Nichols, Stephen Lang, Rose McGowan, Ron Perlman
Release Date: August 19, 2011

Director Marcus Nispel has most undoubtedly taken on quite the challenge in the new Conan The Barbarian film. Consider to begin with, the original Robert E. Howard stories, followed by the additional work by subsequent authors over the years. Moreover, there’s the legend of Conan depicted in comics, perhaps most memorably in The Savage Sword Of Conan. But the biggest challenge facing Nispel is probably the unforgettable film version portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by John Milius. The 1980’s Conan pervaded mainstream pop culture and left quite an impact, and the original film is still considered by some fans with reverence.

Having said all that, Nispel along with the writers of the latest Conan The Barbarian have released a film that will most likely please the fans of the Conan books and comics, but may disappoint those whose only experience with the Cimmerian warrior has been through Schwarzenegger’s depiction. The new movie, for all intents and purposes, is an origin tale and begins with narration from (believe it or not) Morgan Freeman. Conan is born on the battlefield, in a gruesome birth sequence that would easily be the fastest Caesarian procedure by sword captured on film. He is raised under the watchful eye of his father, Corin (Ron Perlman), learning the ways of the warrior and the tradition of the Cimmerian Barbarians.