Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4668 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-03-17
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: Widescreen
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.co.uk
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

Synopsis
Using the same CGI technique as his film The Polar Express, Robert Zemeckis directs this adaptation of Beowulf and Grendel's legendary story. Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, and Ray Winstone voice the epic heroes and villains with a script from Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary.

Customer Reviews

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 decided not to let my 12 year old watch this, it's not like he's missing a particularly great film!

Movie: 3.25/5 Picture Quality: 4/5 Sound Quality: 4/5 Extras: 3.5/5
Beowulf: Director's Cut (2007) - Warner - Blu-ray
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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
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Disc Type: HD-30
Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Average Video Bit Rate: 21.84 Mbps
Running Time: 1:54:35
Movie Size: 22,921,168,896 bytes
Disc Size: 23,272,262,096 bytes
DDPlus 5.1 1536Kbps
In-Movie-Experience: Yes