Atomic Brain Invasion

I like Richard Griffin's movies. But this is not a good one. The only thing that made the movie watchable was a very strong indie cast. I think the writing was good. But I have a feeling the actors were left out to dry by the director.

Michael Reed , Sarah Nicklin, & Brandon Aponte really stand out for actors. The effects were pretty solid for a low budget movie. The monsters were really pretty cool.

Griffin's best is Exhumed of Nun of That. His worst may be this one or The creature from the Hillbilly Lagoon. It's a shame because I really wanted to like this movie.

I grew up on movies like The Goonies and Explorers. These movies shaped me, drove a childhood of pure imagination and remain some of the favorite memories of my life. With ATOMIC BRAIN INVASION, Richard Griffin created a film that took me right back. Atomic was a master achievement in writing, directing, acting, and production design. Amazing effects and design give the film a distinct flavor of 1950's Sci-Fi Drive-In style, and the authenticity is stunning. Ted Marr's production is spot on, and detail oriented. The cast is brilliant and funny, hitting all the right notes in their delivery of fun, pure character driven performance. Kudos to all. My kids will grow up with this film.

With a title like "Atomic Brain Invasion," I knew not to go into this with high expectations. A spoof of 1950s sci-fi, it follows a group of 30 year olds playing high school students fighting an invasion of aliens in their small community.

I will be honest, it took me an hour to finally get into it, but once the fight at the diner started I started laughing out loud and enjoying the dumb thing.

I really do appreciate these types of low budget films and want them to be fun. The problem I had with the first two acts is that they just weren't funny or particularly original. Way too much exposition and too little silliness. They definitely didn't have the Larry Blamire touch, although the period cars were beautiful to look at. But when the aliens start attacking, the creativity and spoofing really kicks in.

In a diner are the kids and Elvis. Elvis. They are under siege by aliens with brains and eyes for heads atop human bodies, and it is ridiculous and hysterical. The aliens can't get in because they can't conceive of the concept of a locked door. So they have a group meeting in gibberish with very funny subtitles. This is where the jokes started hitting and I started laughing.

Unfortunately they do make the mistake of slamming on the brakes for too much unnecessary dialogue a few minutes later that threw it off course for a bit, and I kept yelling, "Get on with it!" But it finally got back on track and the rest of the film was still entertaining with a satisfying character update at the end.

This isn't a perfect film by any means, but they do well with their budget and the actors did fine. If you have patience, there is a reward.

I saw Atomic Brain Invasion at its premier and loved it. This is old fashioned sci-fi at it's best, with a modern twist. The story line had laughs and chills for all ages. It's reminiscent of Jim Hensen's work in the way the same lines work for different age groups for different reasons. Griffin is masterful at building suspense and directing his cast for the maximum effect. And the cast really caught the flavor of the 50's and the genre. Almost as much fun as the movie was the audience response. I've never been to a movie before where everyone stayed through the credits. This movie is just a wonderful romp of a film. Definitely go see it!