Geek of Oz

Last Friday Billy and I were lucky enough to attend EB Expo as media, and man did we have a blast. Everywhere you looked there were sweet, sweet video games just waiting to be played. In order to communicate the awesome that was the EB Expo to you in a way that's more understandable than me drooling in the corner whilst repeating the word 'games' over and over, Billy and I thought we'd have a chat over the highly personal medium that is Facebook chat and edit it into something that resembles a write-up on the convention. Enjoy! - Christof Christof: So what was your first impression of the expo? Billy: It was actually pretty schmick! The lights, displays and sounds that greeted us made me go a little "Whoa!" in a Keanu kind of way. Christof: I know, right! The level of showmanship that went into the expo was  truly  impressive. Billy:  T he ease in which the crowd and entrance was organized was great. Everything seemed to flow so s...

No offense intended but if someone were to recommend a sci-fi series which is filled with Muppets, set inside a living ship, produced in, and starring actors from Australia I'd call them crazy. Luckily, Farscape is the kind of series which shines in spite of expectations.  Flung through a cosmic wormhole, American astronaut John Crichton finds himself fighting for his life in the middle of an alien prison break, inside a Leviathan a living space ship on the far side of the galaxy. Hunted by the relentless Crais, a commander of the galactic enforcers known as Peacekeepers, Crichton joins forces with the alien convicts hulking warrior Ka D’Argo; blue-skinned Priestess Z’haan; diminutive Dominar Rigel XVI; the giant symbiote Pilot and the irreversibly contaminated Peacekeeper Aeryn Sun. Each desperately seeks a way home, but first, they have to find a way to trust one another. Daring escapes and selfless acts of courage forge a measure of loyalty, friendship and even love....

Just when you thought that the Japanese Film Festival couldn't possibly get any bigger or better, The Japan Foundation Sydney have announced another wave of titles which are sure to delight. Whether you're a cinema purist, an indie-film lover, anime or manga fan, there's something included in this new wave that you're sure to love. Following on from Adelaide, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth and Auckland, the Japanese Film Festival (JFF) 2014 continues its international tour with stops at Sydney’s Event Cinemas, George Street, and for the first time in Festival history, Event Cinemas, Parramatta from 13 – 23 November. In Melbourne, it will stop at Hoyts Melbourne Central and ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre for the Moving Image from 27 November – 7 December. Over 50 titles will feature in the program with early bird tickets going on sale from 1 October in Sydney, and 15 October in Melbourne. Tickets are available for purchase via www.japanesefilmfestival.net or from the p...

Thanks to a superbly executed marketing campaign, Gareth Edwards’s Godzilla was one of my most anticipated blockbusters this year. The film’s initial trailer showcased the standout set piece of the film: the soldiers skydiving into what looked like a desolated city with that unmistakable droning score from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was simply breathtaking. This is possibly where it all started going wrong: the trailer set a tone which was sadly at odds with the final product. However, I was a fan of this film upon first watch and feel like I’ve been defending it ever since. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s got its fair share of issues, but with Godzilla hitting stores and VOD services this week, it was a good chance to revisit the film to see how those issues played out on a second viewing. Ryan summed up Godzilla quite eloquently in his review upon its theatrical release, and I don’t cavil with much of what he said. Just recently, I caught Gareth Edwards’s Monsters (201...

Whenever I go to conventions I always try my best to support local artists and pick up some independent comics. Admittedly, this is a task that gets harder and harder every year, with more talented artists and writers selling their wares what I can afford to pick up is, sadly, just a drop in the ocean. That said, what I do pick up I try my best to review and promote, so for your reading pleasure please find below some brief reviews of the some of the indie comics I've checked out this year. A Brigand's tale Written and drawn by Daniel Tribe If you're looking for a fun and action packed all ages romp, A Brigand's Tale might just be the book for you (or that younger comic reader in your life). Featuring a cast of lovable weapon-wielding anthropomorphic animals, A Brigand's Tale brings all the fun of long-form series like Spider-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and packages it in a self-enclosed 24 page story. What the comic lacks in colour,...

Anime is an amazing medium due in no small part to the extremely varied subject matter which gets tackled from series to series. Many paint-by-numbers titles are perfectly enjoyable while those which throw caution to the wind with story lines which are a little more left of center have a tendency to surprise, thrill and leave an indelible mark on anime fandom. The Severing Crime Edge (断裁分離のクライムエッジ), based upon the manga series of the same name Tatsuhiko Hikagi, certainly delivers a novel story, but flounders a little in its execution. Obsessive hair-lopper, Kiri Haimura, inexplicably finds himself drawn to Iwai Mushanokoji, a young lady whose hair has never been cut... until now. With his mysterious pair of cursed scissors, he embarks on a mission to protect Iwai who is identified as the "Hair Queen" from a constant barrage of attackers who all possess crazy-arse, serial-killer soul-filled implements of their own. Yeah. That's kinda the story in a nutshell ...

Guillaume Vincent's directorial debut Land of the Bears is an impressive documentary set in the pristine wilderness of the Kamchatka, Russia. An almost magical land; unaltered by mankind and ruled by 20,000 brown bears. The region endures winters which last up to eight months, which the bears hibernate through. But once summer rolls around, man these bears spring to life and descend upon a nearby network of rivers to gorge on thousands of salmon which swarm to the region to lay their eggs and ultimately perish. Perhaps a touch circle-of-life esque, but easily forgiven since the visuals are so jaw dropping gorgeous. The film follows the escapades of five brown bears of various ages as they emerge from their slumber and seek out their salmon buffet. We meet a three year male who's experiencing his first summer without his mother, a 600kg twelve year old male and a mother with her two adorable cubs. Through a series of montages we observe the different approaches to maki...