Beowulf & Grendel

As a bewitching seeress named Selma (her sisters must be called Babs and Muffy), the usually excellent Sarah Polley bellyflops badly, with flat line-readings that prompt only snickers.....Skarsgaard, a talented actor who realizes he's signed up for a losing game, gives us a method Hrothgar, funny, odd, and occasionally moving..... ... Full Review

BEOWULF & GRENDEL : Syrupy and annoying. Icelandic director Sturla Gunnarsson treats the Old English epic about a foreign warrior enlisted by a broken Dane king to rid the land of a scourge with both respect and irreverence. ... Full Review

you've got a surprisingly watchable flick on your hands --....The cast is pretty strong, the look of the film is surprisingly effective, and the story moves along at a fairly appreciable clip .......Toss into the equation a saucy young witch, a babbling priest, and some truly stunning Icelandic cinematography....faithfully" tells the Beowulf tale, you should probably look elsewhere.... ... Full Review

Driven by what could only be called mad Icelandic energy, Gunnarsson's Beowulf & Grendel is by turns stark, ludicrous and fascinating, with the odd dumb joke and anachronistic wisecracks leavening the earnestness. B & G is a ludicrous movie with mad Icelandic energy, severed body parts, lots of mead, grimy imagery and real frost on the characters' breath (bring a sweater). ... Full Review

Sturla would graciously answer all of my questions with very detailed answers as he patiently went through the process of signing several dozen "Beowulf and Grendel" posters to be given to the fans at the screening. But I think that the final question that was asked Sturla by an audience member stands as the most brilliant sum-up of their reaction to "Beowulf and Grendel". ... Full Review

It's a shame that Beowulf & Grendel is so ridiculous. Beowulf & Grendel fails because the real battle in the film isn't between the two title titans, it's between free-thinkers and the closed minded. ... Full Review

Two elements of "Beowulf & Grendel" make a mixed-up and unbalanced picture nearly worthwhile. Screenwriter Andrew Rai Berzins is super-intent on placing our sympathies with the misunderstood loner. ... Full Review

Driven by what could only be called mad Icelandic energy, Gunnarsson's Beowulf & Grendel is by turns stark, ludicrous and fascinating, with the odd dumb joke and anachronistic wisecracks leavening the earnestness. The story picks up years later, as an adult Grendel (Ingvar Sigurdsson), who keeps his dad's head as a totem, screams his guttural vengeance cry across the bleak landscape. ... Full Review

The cast is pretty strong, the look of the film is surprisingly effective, and the story moves along at a fairly appreciable clip ... But it's pretty clear that this particular version of Beowulf & Grendel was crafted with a half-decent budget and a lot of good intentions. ... Full Review

Nevertheless, Sturla Gunnarssons adaptation Beowulf & Grendel gives us those very lines (and others just as good or bad, depending on your viewpoint) and the result is of the most ridiculous films of any stripe to come along in a long time. Aside from some nice Icelandic scenery, Beowulf & Grendel is a ludicrous botch recommended only for the heartiest of bad-film fanaticssuch people will probably bust a gut while watching it. ... Full Review