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Beowulf [Blu-ray] [2007]
from Warner Home Video
starring Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson
directed by Robert Zemeckis

Features:

• Widescreen

Editorial Review:

Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Brendan Gleeson, Robin Wright-Penn

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 physicalised 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

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

• Visually stunning
  Quite superb in action and detail,the day when actors are not needed on screen is surely drawing closer judging by Beowolf.It is certainly gorey for a 12 rating,but the film gets better as it moves on.I am judging the film on itself rather than anything else.I do not go for total CGI generally but this was great,well worth buying.

• Very gory for a 12 rating!
  A lot of reviews already cover the impressive computer generated images, high HD quality and likes and dislikes re the voices so I wont go over that again.
  What did surprise me was the graphic and copious amount of mutilations and gore in this film, considering it is a 12!
  Pretty sure that if this was not computer generated it would have got a 15 or maybe 18 rating.
  Considering that the line between CGI and live is getting narrower (and this film takes a big step across that line) I... more info

• Movie: 3.25/5 Picture Quality: 4/5 Sound Quality: 4/5 Extras: 3.5/5
  Beowulf: Director's Cut (2007) - Warner - Blu-ray
  *************************************
  Disc Type: BD-50
  Video Codec: VC-1
  Average Video Bit Rate: 14.85 Mbps
  Running Time: 1:54:42
  Movie Size: 19,898,591,232 bytes
  Disc Size: 31,281,197,732 bytes
  Dolby TrueHD 5.1 16-bit (975 Kbps ~ 3 Mbps) DIALNORM
  DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps
  In-Movie-Experience: No
  Beowulf: 2 Disc Director's Cut (2007) - Paramount (U.S) HD DVD more info

• Too late for truth?
  One of the most enduring legends of all time and Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman feel that they need to engage in a bizarre re-write. This new sex orientated version has some very weird plot diversions, most notably a more than obvious Oedipal overtone that has no reference to the original. One can only assume that this was instigated in order to make it more 'interesting' for the modern mainstream audience.
  In short a ham fisted re-write that has now been odiously attached to the memory of Beowulf.

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