Conan the Barbarian Nominated for Best Makeup Saturn Award

Some of us hated it, some of us loved it, most of us thought it was "okay". But at least the folks in the make-up department (Shaun Smith and Scott Wheeler) on Conan the Barbarian are celebrating, because they've been nominated for a Saturn Award for best Make-up. And considering how they managed to make what I believe to be the impossible possible (me not being attracted to Rose McGowan), they deserve it!

Congrats, guys!

Thanks to "Smith" for the link!

CONAN the Barbarian 2011 - Mikey's review.

Ok...I have come back from seeing the film for the second time and now it's time I share my thoughts and feelings on the film. So here goes....IT WAS A SWEEPING EPIC! It was everything I expected and a little bit more. The minor critiques I have will go without saying because anybody whose read CONAN knows the certain things that are wrong that I picked up on and we really don't need to go bashing the film for it's shortcomings. Rather yet let us focus on it's strengths and it's positives.

The opening scene on the battle field where Conan is born and held to the sky is nothing less than an omen...( In the film ) CONAN is a warrior bred and born. He slays ( at 14 years old ) several pictish warriors with their bones and filed teeth and proves he is a worthy and formidable warrior even at his young age. I did not think any of these early depictions of his younger days were in any way shape or form ridiculous or something to laugh at. ( I understand CONAN stories and such ) The people who missed the point? Well..." To HELL with you! "
The entire film was like an issue of SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN with life breathed into it.
every gut bursting sword swipe and the brutal and deliberate way he dispatched his enemies after he tracked them down....( The pee coming from the noseless fat guy as he drove his finger deep into the guys face ) THAT'S CONAN BITCH!
Jason was a perfect fit for the role...his expressions and intensity really showed how he captured the character. His physique left nothing to be desired...the guy is a big dude OK! So stop comparing him to the esteemed Mr. Shwarzenegger. He's got his own deal goin'.
The character of Khalar Zym...as ruthless a son of a bitch you'd ever want in a villain and he played off Jason perfectly. Rose Mcgowan as Marique....whoah...creepy. She was still sexy in a tear your balls off and shove them down your throat kind of I'd do her anyway kind of way.
I can't say enough about the intense battle with the sand men. The non stop action and blood flying and flowing freely was just what you'd expect from having read the early "Howard" yarns and even more recent "Moore" pastiches. I expect no less....My poor wife who despises gore was cringing and hiding her face behind my shoulder during every battle for fear of getting blood spatter on her! ( 3D )
I would indeed like to see another CONAN film...LIONSGATE should really think about getting ARNOLD in there to boost box office sales. Perhaps as the villain in the next film or an aging Cimmerian warrior who CONAN goes to for assistance. But that is what people want, Big stars.
COME ON MAN! Morgan Freeman narrating! WTF ccould be better than that save for Orson Wells or John Houston or William Conrad or James Earl Jones! IT's MORGAN F'N FREEMAN DUDE! No one can absolutely say why this film did as badly at the box office as it has. It's like people avoided it and the 10 mil that it did make was from people like us who care enough to write or follow blogs dedicated to our hero of HEROES!
All I know is them there fools do not know what they missed out on. When I like a movie I see it several times before it's pulled and goes to home video. I saw Alien resurection 4 times and The first Brendan Fraser MUMMY film 3 times and each LORD OF THE RINGS FILM 3 TIMES....CONAN I will go see again at least 2 more times. ( Then when I get the DVD another 4 times )
If I had to rate this film on a scale of 1 to 10 Battle axes...I give it an easy 8 battle axes! Easy I say!
I certainly hope there will be another one as they say they have planned. With the right promotional campaign and a big name or two...there is no reason it would not do better.
Now...I'm drinking some beers and I'm just about done. I gotta go get me a couple more bottles. ( By the way...I will show everyone the stuff I won from FANBOY comics in the next day or so ).

ALL HAIL CROM , ALL HAIL CONAN !

REVIEW: Even If You Like ’Em Big and Stupid, Conan the Barbarian Disappoints

Movies have become so technically sophisticated, so hyper-real, that there’s almost no such thing as a cheap pulp entertainment anymore: So many movies set out to wow us, which isn’t the same as giving us pleasure. Yet even within those dispiriting parameters, you couldn’t come up with a more mediocre wow than Marcus Nispel’s Conan the Barbarian, which is perhaps less a remake of John Milius’ 1982 crowdpleaser than an attempt to honor the spirit of Robert E. Howard’s original novels, though it’s hard to tell exactly what effect Nispel is going for. I wanted to giggle when Ron Perlman, as Conan’s dad-to-be, performed an emergency mid-battle C-section on his dying wife. But the Conan birth scene, so epic in its epicness, is played totally straight. When Perlman holds that tastefully blood-streaked CGI newborn aloft to the mighty heavens, he seems to be angling for a few gifts of frankincense or myrrh, or at least a gift certificate from Land of Nod.

Things don’t get much better when young Conan, a denizen of Howard’s invented Hyborian Age (a time when humans apparently traipsed around in raggedy furs or starched white linen, without much in between), reaches adolescence. Despite the lad’s seeming awkwardness, he slays a whole gang of ruthless savages while tenderly cradling a quail’s egg in his mouth. Today you are a man, little Conan! Before long, the sullen, scrappy kid has sprouted and expanded into an expressionless piece of brawn played by Jason Momoa (of Game of Thrones). When a soupçon of emotion is called for, he can usually muster a minimalist smirk or grunt, and at one point pulls out all the stops to give a “Who’s your daddy?” wink to a recently freed topless slave girl.

But this Conan, lost in a haze of murky beige 3-D, is barely a presence in his own movie. The plot is one of those complicated-but-simple mechanisms involving a broken mask that, once reassembled, grants its owner power over the whole world, and boy howdy, does warlord Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang) want power over the whole world. The mask needs to be activated by a drop of special blood, which can only be extracted from a comely maiden with full lips and taunting eyes, in this case Rachel Nichols’ Tamara. Tamara is a monk — monkette? — and the last of a long line of something-or-others. Luckily, Khalar Zym’s daughter, Marique (Rose MacGowan), is a very special kind of witch; she also has a bad case of alopecia, but you can’t win ‘em all. Marique is adept at sniffing out the pure blood needed to reactivate the supermask. She also looks fantastic in her over-the-knee platform boots, and of everyone in Conan the Barbarian, she offered the biggest serving of the violent-silly-sexy nonsense I had been hoping to see.

Did I mention that Khalar Zym, in addition to wanting to rule the world, also killed Conan’s whole family? And for that reason, Conan is doomed to stalk the earth skulking and scowling, though he’d probably do it anyway. Still, it’s wrong to lay too much of the blame for Conan’s blandness at Momoa’s big, square feet. The picture’s violence is overt but also boring as heck: When a bad guy gets stabbed in the foot, blood spurts and gushes everywhere — yet how, exactly, is a foot injury supposed to be thrilling? Later, there’s a ho-hum impalement. Nispel — who has built a career out of making movies that spring from the loins of other movies, like the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as the 2009 Friday the 13th — doesn’t know what to do with the violence here other than just show it. Nothing is framed, either dramatically or visually. The movie’s look is artificially grainy, and most of the scenes are encrusted with CGI — you’d have to chip it away with a chisel to get to anything human or interesting or even remotely fantastical.

Because Conan is supposed to be, above all else, a fantasy, an escape, a spectacle with some bloody fun attached to it. Nispel takes it all so literally, and his lack of vision leaves the actors adrift. When Momoa’s Conan utters what amounts to a slogan for easy living, Hyborian-style — “I live, I love, I slay and I am content” — there ought to be some sly euphoria behind it, an acknowledgment that this totally ridiculous line of dialogue is also stupendously awesome.

But Momoa doesn’t have a light enough touch to make the line work. Watching Conan the Barbarian, I kept thinking fondly of The Scorpion King — which featured Dwayne Johnson when it was still OK to call him the Rock — a movie that was, at the time of its release, roundly mocked for being “bad.” But The Scorpion King was really just deeply in touch with an old-fashioned sense of Saturday-matinee junk. It didn’t take itself too seriously, and neither did Johnson; you could just roll around in the movie’s kitsch, instead of letting it roll all over you. The stakes are much higher with Conan the Barbarian. The effects strive to be seemingly realistic, which only makes them less imaginative. And the action is muddy and ill-defined: The movie’s big battle is pretty much a blur of swords and horses’ flanks. Conan the Barbarian works hard to be sophisticated entertainment, without ever stepping back to laugh at itself. It doesn’t live, love or slay. It’s merely content.

(Reposted from Movie Line)

'Conan the Barbarian:' What Fans Say

One calls it "the film equivalent of having someone punch you in the face for two straight hours while someone screams in your ear," while another touts it as "awesome."

Fans seem to mixed about Conan the Barbarian, which The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt reviewed as, "Non-stop blood-and-guts action aimed at game boys and emotionally stunted lovers of adolescent fantasy." The violent remake, which features a death every one minute according to AOL Moviefone's extremely detailed break-down of how the actors die, hits theaters Friday.

Here's what a mix of fans and critics are saying on Twitter so far:

scottEweinberg Scott Weinberg
You know how some movies are called "critic-proof"? Movies like CONAN are "praise-proof." They just get bashed.

AlejoEC Alex Christensen
There were a handful of cool 3-D shots in #FrightNight, more in "Conan the Barbarian," but overall "Conan"'s 3-D was more poorly utilized.

HorrorFixation Nix Macabra
saw it last night, forgot to check in. It was good movie, not as good as the old one.

DylanRaynes Dylan
Conan The Barbarian is the film equivalent of having someone punch you in the face for two straight hours while someone screams in your ear

DylanRaynes Dylan
The Conan barbarian movie sucks :Take a bad movie in two dimensions, film it in three, and what do you get? Three entire dimensions of lousy

headgeek666 Harry Knowles
Saw the new CONAN... didn't hate it. But it has a long ways to go.

18 Aug Favorite Retweet Reply
scottEweinberg Scott Weinberg
About half the negative reviews on CONAN THE BARBARIAN will be from people who are just ashamed to admit they liked it. ;o)

richardroeper Richard Roeper
How did Conan the Barbarian find the time to get an L.A. tan, health club pecs, hair product, body wax and perpetual one-day stubble?

HitFixDaniel Daniel Fienberg
How much $ do the folks behind "Conan the Barbarian" owe HBO for making Jason Momoa into a non-laughable leading man?

batcamp Bob Camp
So glad I did not get the part to play "Conan the Barbarian." The women in the movie are stronger than I am.
LaHockey11 Lara Hansen

Happy Conan the Barbarian Day! It feels like I've been waiting for this day for years! Wait. I have. Can't wait to see a 14ft Jason Momoa!!

leftydammit Lefty McRighty
"Conan The Barbarian: 101 minutes of unrelenting gore" - how is this a problem?

KwanToh Kwan Toh
Just watched Conan the Barbarian movie, absolute crap, main actors R 2 immaculate for the era, only the baddies looks Da part.

lordzion Lord Zion
REVIEW: Even If You Like ’Em Big and Stupid, Conan the Barbarian Disappoints http://me.lt/9x0UV <-Simple. Don't f--k with a classic!

eLaineracheLLe racheLLe aLcovindas
Just got homee :) just watched Conan the Barbarian 8D it was awesome :D kahit lagi akong napapapikit. :))))

(Reprinted from original article via The Hollywood Reporter)

'Conan The Barbarian' Cheat Sheet: Everything You Need To Know (...accoridng to MTV News, anyway)

"Conan the Barbarian" star Jason Momoa hasn't actually seen the previous versions of his sword-swinging adventure — or, as he once put it to MTV News, "the Arnold stuff" — but we have clear-enough memories to know Schwarzenegger's franchise became straight-up silly after the 1982 original and was in desperate need of contemporary reinvention.
Robert E. Howard's barbaric creation deserved better than a faceoff with Wilt Chamberlain in "Conan the Destroyer." Conan finally got it, with Momoa's new film hitting theaters on Friday (August 19). But there was a long and rocky path toward that theatrical release, with filmmakers joining then quickly departing the project and various Hollywood players being unable to kick things into production. Come with us on a journey called the MTV News cheat sheet, as we discover everything there is to know about the past, present and future of "Conan the Barbarian."

Forging Steel
The Wachowski Brothers tried. Robert Rodriguez tried. Brett Ratner tried. No director could seem to get "Conan" off the ground, despite years of effort. Actors rumored for the title role included Dolph Lundgren, "American Gladiator" star Mike O'Hearn, Austrian actor Roland Kickinger and "Twilight" vampire Kellan Lutz.

Rumors of directors and actors came and went, but in the end two men remained standing: "Friday the 13th" director Marcus Nispel, who signed up in June 2009, and Momoa, who officially nabbed the Conan role in January 2010. Lionsgate readied a March production start in Bulgaria. With just weeks until cameras began rolling, word broke that the script was getting a rewrite from "Halloween: Resurrection" scribe Sean Hood.

Swinging the Sword

"I think we're right in the spirit of Howard," Stephen Lang, who plays the film's central villain, told MTV News during a phone call from the set last spring. "One of the things about his prose that's so distinct is that it takes itself very seriously. There's nothing tongue-in-cheek about it at all. And there's nothing send-up about the world we're creating, though hopefully the movie is made with a lot of wit."

The spring also brought looks at Momoa in character: one of him standing tall and looking buff, another of him in bloodied-up action mode. "It kind of is an origin story," Momoa told MTV News. "It's rebuilding and rebooting the franchise. It starts with his birth, what happened to his family, what happened to his father — obviously his father is killed — and him going into the pirating and the thieving and wandering and being the degenerate that he is and then usurping a throne and finding out who killed his father. It's a revenge story, with a little bit of love in there."

Lang also revealed that the film would stay faithful to the source material's supernatural roots. "If you read Robert Howard — of course the 'Conan' stories and novellas — magic, supernatural plays a huge, huge part in them: fakirs and magicians and wizards all over the place," Lang told MTV News last summer. "So magic is part of that world. The magic in this film, there's a lot of it and there's a lot of action-magic as well, a lot of magical fighting."

Drawing Blood

The first "Conan" trailer — a teaser that invoked an '80s nostalgia — popped up online in March of this year. It'd be another two months until a full trailer hit the Web; when it did, the footage showed off a whole lot of swords, bloody action and magical monsters. We finally got a chance to see Lang in action after all those shots of Momoa as the sword-wielding hero.

"I wanted him to be like a knife," Lang told us of his character. "I wanted him, in profile, to almost disappear if possible. I actually have some photos that I am forbidden to show right now. I know there are these photos of Jason out there, this gorgeous stud of a Conan leaping around shirtless. Truth of the matter is, I kick his ass for almost two hours."

An integral piece of Momoa's Conan character development was not to be influenced by Schwarzenegger's iconic performance. "I've never played a role that was played by someone else," he told us. "As an actor, to build the character, I wanted to use my imagination and be creative and use my own interpretation. ... I want to see mine and then I'm going to watch that one — back to back!"

Check out everything we've got on "Conan the Barbarian."

(This entire article reprinted from MTV News, please visit the link so they don't get all pissed and make us take it down.) 

Conan on Conan!

" Born on the battlefield "

Now this....is BADASS!

Jason Momoa to Write His Own Conan the Barbarian Sequel!

According to articles from /Film, The Mary Sue and Crave Online, Our latest Cimmerian, Jason Momoa is writing his very own sequel to the upcoming Conan the Barbarian. Talk about devotion to a character!

Here's the interview from Crave Online:

CRAVE Online: Are you signed on to do another [Conan]?

Jason Momoa: I am, as long as people go out and watch [the first one], you know what I mean?

CRAVE Online: Yeah. Is there a story you'd like to do for the next movie?

Jason Momoa: I wrote it.

CRAVE Online: Did you really?

Jason Momoa: Yeah, so we're waiting to see if they'll accept it.

CRAVE Online: Is it original or did you adapt it from something?

Jason Momoa: It will mostly be... It's character-adapted, because I really want to get into more of the mythical creatures, you know?

CRAVE Online: Oh yeah.

Jason Momoa: We wanted to go there [in the first one], but having Clash of the Titans, and coming out against that, we wanted to put the budget into some other things. We just couldn't hit... We couldn't get to that level with [...] the visual effects and stuff. [...] I don't want to give anything away, but we already have our Conan, really it's about the villain, what that villain is going to extract from Conan, and where as an actor I want to go with Conan. You know, no one's going to know what I want to do better than me.

CRAVE Online: Touche!

Jason Momoa: Exactly. [...] We want to incorporate three different things, because obviously you don't just want to do the [existing] story, because the fans already know it. You want to keep them on their toes. So, I think we have a good lock on it. Also, I feel it's beautiful... How many actors get to go in there and go, "I'm part of the writing process?" and care that much about the character, because he is a fan himself? It's great. You know some people go like, "It's great, I'm going to be in my trailer." I want to @#$%ing make a great Conan movie.

Pics from the Conan Booth at SDCC!

Just got back from San Diego Comic Con and I swung by the Conan booth and took some pics. Actually, it was pretty underwhelming compared to the other movie booths, so I didn't stick around for long. But I thought you guys would dig this anyway.

They had a big display where you could watch the trailer (which we can do on YouTube in our own homes)...

And this... ummm... big poster...

They did have a bunch of "barbarian" booth babes, but these chicks looked more like cheerleaders than wenches.

All in all, I think Lionsgate just phoned this in and didn't really try at all. Such a shame.

I then went over to the MAsters of the Universe section and hung out with Battleground Teela! Now we're talking... ;)

Yet Another Conan 3D Trailer! Now with 60% More Ron Pearlman!

NEW ~ CONAN the Barbarian 3D Movie poster!

This poster calls to mind the Harryhausen posters from Sinbad. My favorite of which was “Sinbad and the Eye of the tiger” when I was a little squirt I used to watch those movies and always thought to myself that they should do a Conan film or series of films just like this….shortly thereafter “ Conan the barbarian ” came out it was not exactly like I’d hoped but it was still Conan so I loved it. Even if they had some camp moments like camel punching and soup sleeping going on in there. I liked it anyway.



There were a few ways they could have made the film a bit better in my opinion. In the paperback movie adaptation when Conan finds the sword the skeletal giant gets up and he runs it through with the sword. There should have been a scene where we actually see him fighting off the wolves rather than just seeing their pelts on his back to keep him warm.
The giant snake was pretty fantastic but it was over too quickly…they could have created some suspense and have Conan almost crushed until he wriggles his knife free to spike the beasts mouth shut before he lops off the things head…( Great scene by the way ) We could also have used a scene where we actually see them nailing him to the tree and he fights on as the subdue and spike him.
The orgy fight sequence also could have used a little sprucing up. When he was going at it with Thorgrim they could have lost their weapons for a few minutes and had a brief battle of strength before they picked up their weapons again.
The giant guy stirring up the human stew could have had more of a role too. A brief bout with him using the ladle like a deadly mace would have been effective. I would have preferred a bit of swordplay between Doom and Conan as well. He tried to mesmerize him but it did not work and that should have turned into a climactic battle which ended with the head rolling down the steps.
I know I know…everyone’s a critic and everyone has their own idea as to how the movie could have been better…just sharing. The film did better at the box office than they originally expected so…it was a success. Good for CONAN!

New Conan Images hit the battlefield!

The last time we checked in with our favorite Cimmerian via the recently-released red-band trailer (which was too bloody and naked to post here on our family-friendly Splash Page), he was up to a few of our favorite Conan-brand tricks: sword-swinging, yelling barbarically, not wearing a shirt. (That last one is the only reason I watched said trailer, if I'm being honest. And I don't mind a bit that my appreciation for Conan is both superficial and stereotypical.)

Moving along... today we have some more of Conan to love via a set of new production stills, most of which involve Conan (Jason Momoa) gripping his trusty sword and flashing an appropriately barbaric grimace. See below for more of the glorious, semi-gory stills.

As was mentioned previously, there's a lot of sword. But also great glimpses of the other featured players in the film: Rachel Nichols, Stephen Lang and Rose McGowan, and Ron Perlman, who plays Conan's dad, Corin.


These new photos definitely give a good tease, particularly because of how excellent the production and costume design looks to be. One can never tell how it will look onscreen, but the photos are gorgeous, even if everyone in them is covered in dirt, grease, blood and/or crazy makeup and prosthetics.
We still have a little over a month before we get to see director Marcus Nispel's reinvention of Robert E. Howard's sword-swinging warrior in all of its R-rated, barbaric blood-and-guts glory, but I'm enthused about what I've seen so far.

"I lifted these images and the text from the MTV site splash page. In fact if you put the title of this post right into your search engine...it'll take you right to it." -Mikeyboy

Jason vs Arnold....why bother to compare?

What's to compare? Arnold was in THE GUINESS BOOK of world records as the worlds most perfectly developed man. A title only Charles Atlas and Steve Reeves can even partially come close to. But That being the case I feel it's unfair to try to compare Jason to Arnold.

Folks this is a movie , a film about our favorite broadsword wielding barbarian warrior it's not a body building competition. I myself will choose to leave my critique at the door after I've seen the movie. I watch these trailers and I like them. I like them with the Heavy Metal and without , I like them despite not having an Arnold running around as the infamous Cimmerian. I like them depsite the fact that there are people out there who don't. Know why? Because it's CONAN! You love CONAN you like CONAN whatever! They are putting together a movie for the people who love the character.

I know that Everyone has an image of CONAN in mind and Jason does not fit that said image. Many people like Arnold as CONAN because of his awesome physique and that's it. But in my humble opinion. Arnold treated CONAN as a joke. C'mon man..CONAN was not a buffoon.
He was not some guy who falls asleep in his gruel. He did not get drunk and walk into the chest of his enemy. He would not have said " Lot on your Knife ". That stuff was all campy nonsense in the spirit of the BATMAN tv show with Adam West. I prefer to remain diplomatic with the anticipation of this movie. I can't safely pass judgment and create a critique on a movie that has not come out. I had my apprehensions and reservations toward the movie when I first saw Jason...with his beard and his dreds. He was too thin and lanky. But then I saw some stills of him dressed up for the part and new hope blossomed in my heart.
In the spirit of giving a positive message for the fans of CROM and CONAN...please try to make an honest attempt to keep your mind open and look for the good in things surrounding this movie. Look at the glass as if it's Half full. There are too many critics in this world ready to bash and smash. But I am not going to sit here and compare physiques. Then take a look at Jason and judge the movie based on the fact he's not built like Arnold ( who happens to be a creep and an adulterer and I lost all respect for the guy ) NOBODY..can have a physique like that. That's a lot of training and a lot of juice. But the fact remains...I personally can't wait for this movie. The trailers...look good to me. I expect only good things.

NEW Conan 3D Trailer - Now with Less Heavy Metal!

Rose McGowan Conan 3D Poster

Spotted this somewhere on the interwebs, forget where, reposting here. Boo-YA!

I'm actually pretty happy with her look, and it gives me hope for the greater intention of the new movie, because usually when Rose McGowan gets cast in something, it's as the sexy-hottie-babe type of role. Seeing her as this freaky witch-chick with the massive forehead makes me suspect that this movie is genuinely concerned with interesting characterization, and that alone can make a movie great. Of course, we'll see.

New Conan TV Spot

Talk all the smack you guys want, I'm totally excited about seeing this move!




Okay, start your complaints...

Rob over at Topless Robot has a few thoughts on it as well...

New Conan 3D Movie Poster!

The Latest Conan 3D Preview Pic...

Via