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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Salesrank: 3624
Released: September 26, 2006 |
| Our Price: $4.99 |
| Used Price: $3.00 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The Hero The Monster The MythBeowulf & Grendel is a medieval adventure part fantasy part legendary fable part horror story. It tells the blood soaked tale of a warrior's blade against a murderous troll Grendel who has laid siege to the kingdom of Hrothgar king of the Danes. Out of allegiance to Hrothgar Beowulf leads a troop of warriors across the sea to rid a village of the marauding monster. The monster Grendel is a creature of immense flesh and raging blood driven by a vengeance from being wronged.Beowulf's willingness to kill on behalf of Hrothgar waves when it becomes clear that the King is more responsible for the troll's rampages than was first apparent. Beowulf & Grendel is a tale where vengeance loyalty and mercy powerfully entwine. A story of blood and beer and sweat Beowful & Grendel strips away the mask of the hero myth leaving a raw and tangled tale.System Requirements:Running Time: 103 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R UPC: 013137212093 Manufacturer No: DV72120
Description of Beowulf & Grendel:
The otherworldly landscape of Iceland lends an appropriate touch of dark fantasy to this modern retelling of Beowulf, the oldest epic poem in the English language. Gerard Butler (The Phantom of the Opera) brings the right balance of physicality and world-weariness as the Swedish hero Beowulf, who travels to Denmark to fight the monstrous troll Grendel (Icelandic superstar Ignvar Sigurdsson), which has been plaguing the house of King Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgård, buried under a mound of prosthetic hair). However, what transpires is not a battle between good and evil, but a convoluted mystery of sorts, with Beowulf playing the detective who discovers that his foe is more human than monster, and Hrothgar less wronged innocent than catalyst for his own downfall. Director Sturla Gunnarsson succeeds in pulling this legendary story from the dust of academics by contemporizing the dialogue (Andrew Rai Berzins has an excellent ear for hard-bitten palaver), and his visuals are nothing less than striking, but the film attempts to be both monster movie and melancholy drama, while never quite satisfying the requirements of either genre. Regardless, the quality cast (which includes Sarah Polley from Dawn of the Dead as a sharp-tongued witch with a connection to Grendel) and some well-handled action sequences should hold viewers’ attention even when the unnecessarily complex plot does not. --Paul Gaita
Beowulf & Grendel Reviews:
Well done adaptation of classic to film 
2008-08-24 - Oral poems like Beowulf are extremely difficult to convert to dramatic media (plays, film, etc) because the plot is not arranged how we tend to expect (think boxes in boxes instead of the Freytag's Pyramid). Additionally, oral poems tend to feature flat but mythic characters (the strong Beowulf or the clever Odysseus) rather than rounded human characters we can relate to. For this reason and no other, most Beowulf movies stink.
Not so with this one. The movie adopts a standard superhero-type formula which is to make Grendel the sympathetic character gone bad, and use this to create an altogether human story full of moral questions relating to the value of mercy, justice, and other profound questions. The story is thus immensely satisfying on a deep level.
Additionally, the cinematography is well done and the Icelandic landscape beautifully shot.
There are, of course, some areas which could have been improved. I was not entirely satisfied with the acting and portrayal of the "Selma" character (not found in the original epic). However, the other characters are well portrayed and the rest of the acting is good.
Sci-Fi Movie with an actual Budget for Effects 
2008-08-14 - I see why this had mixed reviews and didn't make it to the American screens, the views of iceland were amazing however.
The storyline plods along though and it makes you end up asking who cares about why Grendel is attacking these people and even less about the "big secret" at the end. Which is obvious if you don't fall asleep mid-way through.
I was asking myself why the Polly actress, couldn't do some type of decent accent while in the movie.
I am assuming she was a friend of the director and it was a free trip to a cool locale like Iceland! (love her in dawn of the dead, fyi!!)
Beowulf & Grendel
2008-06-23 - I have seen both Beowulf productions recently released. Granted I am biased toward Gerard Butler, but I liked this production much better than the animated version. The character of Beowulf in this movie was more humble, more thoughtful, more humane. The characters were stronger and more varied.
Beowolf and Grendel
2008-06-18 - Wife bought movie - fan of Gerard Butler - enjoyed movie - Gerard Butler made the movie.
Good movie
2008-06-11 - This movie follows the tale of the Geatland hero Beowulf and his fight against the troll Grendel. This movie was shot very well and the screen writer not only used the epic poem but the history of the era to make this movie. If you're looking for a movie that has a good story search no further; if you are looking for a movie without a complex plot but with pretty pictures go watch The Lord of the Rings or the 2007 animated version of Beowulf...
