Beowulf
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Movie Reviews of Beowulf
Movie Review: beowulf imax 3d
Summary: 5 Stars
i seen this film in imax 3d and it was simply amazing great effects and acting , stunning cast . i highly recomend this movie .Movie Review: Beowulf
Summary: 5 Stars
DVD was very entertaining.
DVD arrived in a very timely fashion.
DVD arrived in excellent condition.
Movie Review: Amazing Story
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie was awesome to watch. I also enjoyed watching how they made this film as they had a tight budget.Movie Review: Great DVD!
Summary: 5 Stars
This DVD was exactly as advertised and in great shape! I'm enjoying it so much!Movie Review: Hungry like the Beowulf
Summary: 4 Stars
BEOWULF may be the most mis-advertised movie of the year. The ads made it look like a CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) adventure for young adults, some sort of 300 for kids. Actually, Robert Zemeckis' spin on the classic medieval adventure tale of heroism is a grotesque and frightening picture.
It's also the most intense PG-13 in recent memory; probably the fact that it appears to be an animated movie saved it from an R rating. It shouldn't have, though, because the more adventurous parents taking their kids to see the courageous Beowulf slay the dragon are going to feel like slaying themselves when they see the horrifying, shrieking Grendel (voiced by Crispin Glover), who rips apart most of the villagers in the astounding opening sequence, or when Grendel's mother, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Angelina Jolie, emerges naked from a pool, her naughty bits very, very thinly disguised by specklings of gold. This is not the bedtime story your parents told you when you were young. This is the nightmare that came after it.
Truthfully, adults may get more out of the film than children. It's as much a hopelessly grim morality tale as it is a twisted adventure. While the kids may be swept away to a land which even Tim Burton would rather avoid, the older members of the audience will be more focused upon the perverse, alienating sexuality which fuels the film. With this in mind, Jolie is perfectly cast: it's entirely believable that no man can resist her, since, after all, she is among the most gorgeous women who ever lived. That's why it's all the more terrifying when virtually every man in the movie gives in to her without hesitation - because one can't help but wonder if anyone could resist her. If there's a message behind BEOWULF, it's that we're all slaves to our own erotic fantasies. How's that for a new take on the story?
It's actually Jolie's naked body which steals the film, although the motion-capture animation was seeking this effect. The animation has its pros and cons. On the downside, the film would probably be taken a little more seriously if it was genuine live-action; but on the upside, the animation, which is only a few steps away from looking wholly real, adds a darker sense of fantasy to an already pitch-black picture. Many have begun proclaiming this motion capture technology as the future of the entertainment industry: after all, one can utilize shots impossible with live-action footage, or age an actor effortlessly and realistically. Zemeckis is on that boat: he made his first all-CGI picture in 2004, THE POLAR EXPRESS, and he has shown little desire to return to live-action photography. With this totally-CGI technology, literally anything is possible. That'll be an exciting thought for some, and a terrifying one for others.
Most of the characters look exactly like the actors that portray them, with the exception of Ray Winstone (playing Beowulf), who looks considerably less rough n' buff in reality. That doesn't mean he can't roar like a beast, which he does incessantly throughout the film. Backing him up: Robin Wright Penn as his queen, slender and angelic, and Anthony Hopkins as the king, who has a dark secret. It's amazing that the CGI imagery can even capture that wise, tired glint in his eye. Brendan Gleeson plays as his noble and loyal sidekick (last seen in HARRY POTTER as Mad-Eye Moody) and John Malkovich plays a priest, dryly, of course. Lastly, Alison Lohman plays Beowulf's guilty, dedicated human mistress.
The script, written by noted sci-fi/fantasy writer Neil Gaiman and Quentin Tarantino's old pal Roger Avary (with whom he co-wrote PULP FICTION), has been circulating since 1997, not because it isn't good but because it's not so good without a visual director to bring it to life. That the director is the man who brought us FORREST GUMP, BACK TO THE FUTURE, and CAST AWAY might seem strange - until one considers some of his other projects, like 1992's black comedy DEATH BECOMES HER, or his frequent involvement with the classic HBO horror series TALES FROM THE CRYPT and the feature-film adaptation of the series, 1996's BORDELLO OF BLOOD. Despite his knack for creating wonderfully uplifting and good-natured pictures, Zemeckis has always dabbled in darkness. In BEOWULF, he's through dabbling. He's not peering into the forest anymore; he's walking right into the middle of it and setting up camp in the shadows.
At times, though, the shadows are so dark, it's hard to see much else. When our hero is being seduced without a fight by the mother of all monsters, one thinks not of the scene and what it means so much as how utterly hopeless and bleak this film is. The original tale was an adventure story, and a relatively simple one at that: the monster Grendel terrorizes a village, Beowulf slays him, Beowulf slays the monster's mother, Beowulf becomes a king and years later must slay a dragon. Writers Avary and Gaiman turn it into a morality tale, and then director Zemeckis transforms it into a nightmare. Those thinking Beowulf is a serious SHREK, or even a tuned-down LORD OF THE RINGS or NARNIA-style adventure, are bound to be horrified: Beowulf has more in common with Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD trilogy than those films.
BEOWULF also shares a connection with the recent SIMPSONS MOVIE, as well as, of all things, MELROSE PLACE. During his thrilling confrontation with Grendel, Beowulf strips himself of all his clothing ("We shall fight as equals," he says, because after all, Grendel doesn't shop at the Gap), his genitalia concealed by an impressive variety of objects - much as Bart Simpson's own privates were in THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, and also much like Heather Locklear's pregnant stomach was through the sixth season of MELROSE PLACE.
That's about as light as the film gets, though. Robert Zemeckis takes the medieval legend and turns it into a Grimm fairytale. One can put the blame for the disturbing sexuality of the picture on the writers, the director, and to a lesser degree, Angelina Jolie (did she ask to give Aphrodite a run for her money?); the new twists in the story can be attributed to Neil Gaiman, and the bloody violence no doubt comes from Roger Avary (who last wrote the similarly-eerie SILENT HILL). If BEOWULF was advertised correctly, it probably wouldn't anywhere near as riveting as it actually is. But thanks to misleading ads, BEOWULF ranks as one of the most pleasantly surprising, violatingly disturbing, and refreshingly original films of the year.