...a knowing, underrated, revisionist take on a legend that comes up fresh, funny and far better than it’s reputation suggests...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 29, 2024

There are some memorable scenes. After Grendel sees his father killed he takes a souvenir to remember his dad - his head! - and the rocky scenery is beautiful, perfectly complimenting the brutal story.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 31, 2021

The thrilling beauty of this reading of Beowulf is that it makes [the characters] feel modern... These people live in the real world, not in a fable and not in a history book.

| Oct 14, 2006

ridiculous

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 7, 2006

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 29, 2006

Gunnarsson has made a film that would make the real Beowulf and Grendel, if they ever really existed, quite proud.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 24, 2006

A fascinating trip to the dark ages and a good story well told

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 12, 2006

Trying to give us the true story behind the epic, the movie only reminds us of why humans write epics in the first place.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 12, 2006

If you're game for a strange and beautiful-looking new version of the (very) old legend, you can safely give this one a rental.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 9, 2006

Beowulf's reality-driven approach suffers for lack of scope and questionable poetic license.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 28, 2006

[You can] feel the filmmakers yearning to have Beowulf and Grendel go all Rambo on each other. Instead, they keep pulling back for more Old English angst, as if they're torn between commerce and winning the approval of their high school English teacher.

| Jul 27, 2006

...realistic, [but] Polley...is woefully miscast.

Full Review | Jul 27, 2006

Aside from some nice Icelandic scenery, Beowulf & Grendel is a ludicrous botch.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 22, 2006

A semi-mythic period piece, Beowulf & Grendel offers sublime scenery that's breathtaking and bone-chilling.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 14, 2006

This gristle-intensive R-rated version of Beowulf travels a predictable revisionist route.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 13, 2006

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

| Original Score: B | Jul 12, 2006

Andrew Rai Berzins' script spruces up long stretches of Old English with unexpected bursts of cussing and gleeful vulgarity that feel as misguided as everything else in the film.

| Original Score: C+ | Jul 12, 2006

Sturla Gunnarsson's film ultimately lacks the grandeur and wit necessary to make the legend fully come alive.

Full Review | Jul 11, 2006

We've got a surprisingly multilayered drama

Full Review | Original Score: 3.2/5 | Jul 8, 2006

Sturla Gunnarsson's adaptation... despite some pretty awful special-effects makeup [is] a pretty good -- and good-looking -- version of the tale.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 7, 2006