| Beowulf & Grendel | 
 enlarge | Director: Sturla Gunnarsson
Actors: Hringur Ingvarsson, Spencer Wilding, Stellan Skarsgard, Ingvar Eggert Sigursson, Gunnar Eyjolfsson
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $2.03
You Save: $12.95 (86%)
New (48) Used (51) Collectible (1) from $2.03
Avg. Customer Rating:  191 reviews
Sales Rank: 11676
Format: Color, Dolby, Import, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 103
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: ANBD72120D
UPC: 013137212093
EAN: 0013137212093
ASIN: B000GIXEIG
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
Release Date: September 26, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
This tells the bloody tale of warrior beowulfs battle with grendel a murderous troll. The battle-scarred hero beowulf leads a troop of warriors to help king hrothgar whose kingdom is destroyed by grendel. However beowulfs attempts to fight the troll are thwarted when grendel refuses to engage in battle. Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 09/26/2006 Starring: Gerard Butler Ingvar Sigurdsson Run time: 103 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com
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 Skarsgard, 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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 186 more reviews...
 Terrible movie November 13, 2008
I don't know where to start. For one, just very bad acting on everybody's part. Second, its dull and boring. Third, its not worth the money to buy this on blu-ray.
Worst version on DVD October 8, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
OMG this is so horrible. Its actually playing right now and I cant even finish watching it. Its a bunch of grown men running around in a field some place dressed in tacky Halloween costumes with piss poor acting! It looks like someone broke out their handy cam and said "lets play Beowulf guys... I wanna be Grendal!" MSRP $20!! I paid $4.99 and still feel screwed.
 Wow September 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Even women would like this movie even with it's raw setting. Gerard Butler is wonderful in this movie.
 Well done adaptation of classic to film August 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 August 14, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
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!!)
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