Beowulf & Grendel 2005

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: This gristle-intensive R-rated version of Beowulf travels a predictable revisionist route. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: This movie won't be to everyone's taste, but it will certainly bedevil some dreams. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Imagine the worst Deadwood episode ever, and you'll get an idea of the general tone of Beowulf & Grendel. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: 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. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Trying to give us the true story behind the epic, the movie only reminds us of why humans write epics in the first place. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: A muscular, ardently naturalistic retelling of the ninth-century Anglo-Saxon saga. Read more

Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: [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. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Sturla Gunnarsson... took a look at the eighth-century epic poem Beowulf and decided he could cut it down to size. And he has, for better and worse. Read more

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: A semi-mythic period piece, Beowulf & Grendel offers sublime scenery that's breathtaking and bone-chilling. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A lumbering and ludicrous mess. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: For the most part a successfully strange and strangely moving adventure. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Icelandic-shot version of the legendary revenge saga is visually arresting and plausibly retrofitted for modern consumption, but lacks the savage bite that might have given the sixth century-set tale real impact. Read more

Bill Gallo, Village Voice: Thus does Beowulf collide with postmodern punk sensibility. Read more