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The Bargain Nexus - Beowulf (Unrated Director's Cut)
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List Price: $29.99
Our Price: $3.99
Your Save: $ 26.00 ( 87% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Paramount
Starring: Robin Wright Penn, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Bilezikjian, Brice Martin
Directed By: Robert Zemeckis
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
EAN: 0097361323145
Format: Color
Label: Paramount
Manufacturer: Paramount
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Paramount
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2008-02-26
Running Time: 114
Studio: Paramount
Theatrical Release Date: 2007-11-16
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Let's Watch a Video Game!!!
Comment: Watching this movie is akin to the experience of watching someone play a video game though maybe not as stimulating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's Entertainment, folks!
Comment: Wow, such strong feelings on this movie! First off, the animation: I think it's well-done, and whether or not it was a good directorial choice is something on which I have no opinion. It is what it is, and as far as I'm concerned, it worked well.
There are many complaints about such elements as nudity, rude jokes, Beowulf's boastfulness and "silly" chest-pounding dialogue. Some people are clearly lacking imagination as they seem unable to see beyond their 21st-century Christianized perspective. Nudity was no big deal to our heathen ancestors. Bawdiness was a large part of their humor, just as it is much of ours today. There are many bawdy jokes and riddles surviving in Old English. Human nature doesn't change that much. These elements of the movie are all perfectly accurate. This was a time and place where a king might retain a professional "fartist" in his mead-hall, who entertained the men with his skillful control of flatulence!!! Be glad the movie kept things as low-key and tame as it did!!!
Boasting was also a cultural practice that was taken very seriously, and public boasts about future accomplishments could be considered binding before the gods; failure to achieve them was shameful and required some kind of debt-payment (known as "scyld"). Beowulf's boastfulness should be seen within cultural context; it is actually highly ritualized, not simply the product of his own ego.
Someone complained of Angelina Jolie's accent that it wasn't "pre-Anglo-Saxon Old English". First, there is no such thing as "pre-Anglo-Saxon Old English"; Old English developed from the combined tongues of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians when they invaded the British Isles. Second, as far as I know, none of us living today was around to hear what an "Old English accent" actually sounded like, if there even was such a unified thing (unlikely, given the variety of accents spoken throughout England today). Third, the poem is set in Denmark, not England. And fourth, the character is not a member of any human society, she is a sea-troll. Who knows what a sea-troll's accent sounds like?
As for the storyline - the story of Beowulf was told orally long before it was written down and concretized in one form, so the license with the story seems quite appropriate to me, and a good way of updating the themes to resonate more with the complexities of our time.
And, humor and drama CAN coexist, people. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Above all, the tale is meant to entertain.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beowulf CGI supreme
Comment: This is the best Computer Animation I have seen to date, not only is it a great story it is well done and the CGI is without a doubt the best yet put on screen.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Classic tale, classic animation
Comment: Beowulf is certainly a landmark in animation movies. The animators have succeeded in a near perfect resemblance to not only the way the leading actors look but talk and act also. Now that was something. Another landmark aspect was the use of motion capture which is not new and a similar technique was used in The Polar Express but Beowulf takes it one step further. Some of the incredible action scenes are almost impossible to create without computer animation. The colors used in Beowulf were good too. Apart from the technology here is an animation movie for adults. This is certainly not a 3D movie for kids as there is violence, blood and gore in good measure. There is some nudity too. Somewhere after the half of the movie the plot gives away after Beowulf's meets with the monster's mother, Angelina Jolie who is animated to sheer brilliance, and you get a feeling that the story is almost over and by the time more action is seen our hero has turned an old man.
The soft acoustic songs the queen sings are lovely and I wish I could get longer versions of the same.
Four stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: DVD
Comment: Good movie and good price, I only buy used DVDs now and save up to 50% of the cost. Will shop again and would recommend to anyone.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Spectacular animated action scenes turn the ancient epic poem Beowulf into a modern fantasy movie, while motion-capture technology transforms plump actor Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) into a burly Nordic warrior. When a Danish kingdom is threatened by the monster Grendel (voiced and physicalized by Crispin Glover, River's Edge), Beowulf--lured by the promise of heroic glory--comes to rescue them. He succeeds, but falls prey to the seductive power of Grendel's mother, played by Angelina Jolie... and as Jolie's pneumatically animated form rises from an underground lagoon with demon-claw high heels, it becomes clear that we're leaving the original epic far, far behind. Regrettably, the motion-capture process has made only modest improvements since The Polar Express; while the characters' eyes no longer look so flat and zombie-like, their faces remain inexpressive and movements are still wooden. As a result, the most effective sequences feature wildly animated battles and the most vivid character is Grendel, whose grotesqueness ends up making him far more sympathetic than any of the mannequin-like human beings. The meant-to-be-titillating images of a naked Jolie resemble an inflatable doll more than a living, breathing woman (or succubus, as the case may be). But the fights--particularly Grendel's initial assault on the celebration hut--pop with lushly animated gore and violence. Also featuring the CGI-muffled talents of Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs), Robin Wright Penn (The Princess Bride), and John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons). --Bret Fetzer
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