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GRIFF THE INVISIBLE

"Whimsical Heroics"

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What You Need To Know:

GRIFF THE INVISIBLE is a whimsical, sweet comedy from Australia about a man named Griff who believes he has superhero abilities, including invisibility. Griff falls for an eccentric female scientist his brother is trying to date, but she has more interest in quirky Griff than the staid brother. Griff is the hapless of victim of incessant jokes and mean-spirited pranks by an office bully. Griff decides to fight back by pulling his own pranks. He also becomes more emboldened in his nightly patrols of his city’s streets, fighting off criminals and drawing police attention. Meanwhile, Griff’s brother, Tim, grows suspicious that Griff is involved in superhero behavior after he promises Tim not to be.

Overall, GRIFF THE INVISIBLE has a sweet, good-hearted tone that provides a moral take on the world through Griff’s desire to help strangers at physical risk to himself. He quotes the famous SPIDER-MAN dictum that, with great power comes the responsibility to help others. This philosophy drives Griff’s character, but it’s somewhat offset by his seeking humorous revenge on the office bully. Also, there’s too much crude language, plus some nominalistic tendencies, so strong caution is advised

Content:

(B, C, Pa, LLL, VV, S, N, A, MM) Light moral, redemptive worldview in an often sweet attempt at a superhero comedy about Griff, a misfit office worker by day who believes he has superpowers including invisibility when he dons a costume of his own creation at night, plus hero paraphrases the moral principle behind Spider-Man, that with great power comes a responsibility to use it for good, offset by a revenge motif, some crude language and pagan ruminations about alternate realities and potentially nominalistic powers; about 28 obscenities and profanities; strong violence and slapstick violence includes hero interrupts an assault by three men on a woman, hero fights three villains with martial arts, a violent fantasy in which hero beats an annoying co-worker and leaves his body hanging from the office ceiling, hero rigs office with trick devices that humorously humiliate co-worker such as upsetting his chair while he’s on it; chase scenes with running and jumping, some minor crashes and property damage; some sexual comments and insulting slang; upper male nudity; light social drinking; no smoking or drugs; and, hero lies to his brother throughout that he has stopped being a superhero, and hides his costume from his brother and others, including his girlfriend.

More Detail:

GRIFF THE INVISIBLE is a whimsical, often sweet comedy from Australia about a man named Griff who believes he has superhero abilities, including the ability to be invisible.

Griff meets and falls for an eccentric female scientist who his brother is trying to date, but she has more interest in quirky Griff than the staid brother. Griff is the hapless of victim of incessant jokes and mean-spirited pranks by a bully in his office. As he decides to fight back using pranks and devices he installs while believing he’s invisible, he also becomes more emboldened in his nightly patrols of his city’s streets, fighting off criminals while drawing the suspicious attentions of police who don’t trust him to be good.

Meanwhile, Griff’s brother, Tim, also grows suspicious that Griff is involved in superhero behavior after promising not to be. He also grows concerned that Griff is mentally unstable as a result.

[SPOILER ALERTS] Ultimately, Griff is captured by the police and is scared into stopping his heroics. In the end, however, the brother sees that Griff and the girl are generally harmless and that they need their fantasies of power (she wants the ability to walk through walls) to be truly happy. So, he secretly helps foster their fantasies as they ostensibly live happily ever after together.

Overall, GRIFF THE INVISIBLE is a sweet, good-hearted film that provides a moral take on the world through Griff’s desire to help even strangers at physical risk to himself. He quotes the famous SPIDER-MAN dictum that, with great power comes the responsibility to help others. It is this philosophy that drives his character.

This is somewhat offset, however, by Griff seeking humorous revenge on an office tormentor by speaking about the co-worker’s sexual practices, tripping him in the office with various devices, or making his seat collapse in front of everyone. Even so, the movie has a refreshing innocence to it compared to other, edgier average-Joe-turned-superhero movies like KICK A** and SUPER.

Ultimately, however, the movie’s pace is too slack and not enough happens to sustain serious viewer interest or laughter. Media-wise viewers should be bothered by the light PG-13 sexual slang and foul language. Also, the protagonist lies to his brother about having stopped trying to be a superhero. Finally, there’s a nominalistic quality about the powers the hero and his girlfriend might have. The movie sometimes leaves it open to the viewer about whether they have any powers.

On the other hand, the movie reveals [SPOILER ALERT] that the hero’s brother is sending them packages that make them believe they have even greater powers than they imagine. Ultimately, however, GRIFF THE INVISIBLE is too blah to make it stand out from the crowd of limited releases, much less the wide releases.