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Beowulf & Grendel

EMAILPRINTTruly Indie

Beowulf & Grendel reviews
53
7.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Action  |  Adventure  |  Drama  |  Fantasy  |  Foreign

Written by: Andrew Rai Berzins
Anonymous (epic poem Beowulf)

Directed by: Sturla Gunnarsson

Release Date:
Theatrical: July 7, 2006
DVD: September 26, 2006

Running Time: 103 minutes, Color

Origin: Canada / Iceland / UK

Summary

RATING: R for violence, language and some sexuality

Starring Gerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgård, Sarah Polley, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, and Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir

Beowulf & Grendel is a medieval adventure, part legendary fable, part horror-story. Based on the seminal 9th century Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf, it tells the blood-soaked tale of a Norse warrior's battle against a great and murderous troll, Grendel, who has laid seige to the kingdom of Hrothgar, the much respected king of the Danes. (Equinoxe Films)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The film's near-fatal flaw is its dialogue, which had to be invented wholesale from the Old English text. It alternates between sounding stagy and anachronistically hip -- with more overuse of the F-word than any two Samuel L. Jackson movies. It's a big mistake.

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75

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Credit Icelandic director Sturla Gunnarsson for having an ambitious vision: He took a look at the eighth-century epic poem "Beowulf" and decided he could cut it down to size. And he has, for better and worse.

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75

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A muscular, ardently naturalistic retelling of the ninth-century Anglo-Saxon saga.

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70

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The epic poem Beowulf gets an imaginative, low-budget workout in this 2005 Icelandic feature by Sturla Gunnarsson.

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70

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Gunnarsson's film ultimately lacks the grandeur and wit necessary to make the legend fully come alive. Still, the film does offer certain kicks to those who like their action films infused with fantastical elements and benefits greatly from its highly effective lead performances.

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70

Village Voice Bill Gallo

It's good, bloody fun that stirs the intellect whenever it feels like it, and as a swashbuckler, the dead-game Butler outswings just about anyone in Troy or Kingdom of Heaven or Tristan & Isolde.

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63

TV Guide Ken Fox

We're more likely to snicker at this marauding monster than scream.

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58

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Removing many of the mythical elements of the tale is an intriguing idea that would undoubtedly have paid richer dividends if it didn't mean relying on a heavy who looks like a cross between a Neanderthal on steroids and stilts, and an unusually hirsute wrestler.

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50

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Beowulf & Grendel has its moments, as well as its debits. Among the later is the grating Canadian accent of Sarah Polley, who plays a witch named Selma.

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50

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

With all the mystery and meaning sucked from the story, the filmmakers do what filmmakers often do when faced with their own lack of imagination: they toss a little sex in with the violence.

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50

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

To be very generous toward the filmmakers' intentions, Beowulf & Grendel might be seen as a misguided attempt to lend some modern nuance to a traditional tale of good and emphatic evil. But why pussyfoot? The movie is a lumbering and ludicrous mess.

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50

Variety Todd McCarthy

Director Sturla Gunnarsson seems aware of the savagery intrinsic to the story, but is unable to mine it deeply, proving too genteel in the end to make a genuinely creepy or disturbing film.

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50

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Filmed in Iceland, Beowulf & Grendel is beautiful, grungy and a little too tasteful for its own good. You can practically feel the filmmakers yearning to have Beowulf and Grendel go all Rambo on each other.

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50

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The film is very near a comedy, and I'm not sure that's on purpose.

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50

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

While cinema may be a visual medium foremost it's also an aural one, and the cacaphony of dialects sounds not so much "universal" or interestingly multicultural as simply all over the map.

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25

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Imagine the worst "Deadwood" episode ever, and you'll get an idea of the general tone of Beowulf & Grendel, which is full of anachronistic cursing, tortured syntax, dark humor and lots of hairy, homely, filthy-looking people.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mark C. gave it a9:
The movie gave more to the story than the legend. It showed the human part of grendel and his tragic story and how beowulf is struggling with his problems. But the sex scenes were wierd.

E.T. Brown gave it an8:
(spoiler alert) Sturla Gunnarson's <> is a serious film that poses a thoughtful interpretation of the classic poem. Here is Grendel humanized, Beowulf complexified, Hrothgar illuminated. My original fear was that this would be the latest disappointment in a long line of historical-literary subject films (like the debacle that was Troy, even with the beefcake fo Brad Pitt and Eric Bana, or the assorted Authurian films) . I was happily surprised by the depth of the script. To pull off a psychological and social account of the action, the writers introduced many non-authentic characters and plot lines, but these were reasonable within the larger story. The filmmakers handled the earthy character of like in AD 900 with unforeced realism, neither playing for horror nor for laughs. Camp was kept to a minimum. This movie has been rightly criticized for some of the dialogue and acting. However, it remains a must-see for anyone who is really interested in the original and its interpretations. It is also refreshing to see a movie that fails, where it fails, in a thoroughly un-Hollywood way.

Luv gave it a5:
It is supposed to be an action-filled epic. Unfortunately, the movie was not that able to successfully capture it. It was a half-baked movie. On the other hand, the setting of the movie was great. The choice of actors were seemingly appropriate. It's just sad that I found the movie too long to watch. To put it bluntly, it was dragging me to sleep.

Tony R. gave it a4:
Slow moving, poor use of plot tools, poorly cast (with the exception of Grendel). The film's only saving grace is occasionally interesting cinematography. If you're looking for a slice of Viking life, you're better off withThe 13th Warrioir.

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