RECENT PRESS
Beautiful Scene, Confusing Beasts
BEOWULF & GRENDEL (two stars) Communication breakdown. Rated R (violence, profanity, sexuality). At the Quad, West 13th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. LONG the bane of high school seniors, the epic eighth-century poem "Beowulf" is being turned into a...
SEA SICK
Another repetition of pirates and producers looking for big booty Spoiler Alert: The end of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is a cliffhanger. That means after watching Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom still fighting pirates and ghosts, still...
NEW MOVIES. Opening Next Week
URBANSCAPES Photographer Camilo Vergara documents the changing topography of urban America and its unique neighborhoods through refections of its residents and artists. Wednesday at Two Boots Pioneer Theater. [b] BEOWULF & GRENDEL This saucy Icelandic update of...
The Blood of a Poem
Icelandic director gives Beowulf the Monty Python treatment Beowulf & Grendel Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson Union Station, opens July 7, Quad Today's moviegoers may have all the respect in the world for Anglo-Saxon poetry, Norse legend, and the tenets of early...
Politically Aware ‘Beowulfs’ Miss an Ancient Delight: Terror
"Beowulf," as college lit majors used to have to learn, is the first significant work written in English, or in what passes for English: a 3,000-line epic poem composed — in alliterative, unrhymed verse — probably during the first half of the eighth century. It's also...
Beowulf meets girl; girl meets troll. Eeew.
Beowulf & Grendel: Drama. Starring Gerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgard, Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson and Sarah Polley. Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson. (Not rated. 102 minutes. At the Opera Plaza.) It's a danger that looms for every young actress. Choose the wrong role,...
Poignant beast makes ‘Beowulf’ memorable
'BEOWULF," you may recall, is a ninth-century epic poem traditionally foisted on students by sadistic teachers. Most people graduate with no memory of its content beyond the presence of swords, a monster and pages of impenetrable language. "Beowulf & Grendel" may...
‘Beowulf’ turns page to screen: Adaptation has some dialogue issues, but visuals successfully capture tale
THE EPIC POEM "Beowulf" is -- as every high school senior should know -- the oldest extant work of any significance in our (or any other modern European) language, and the point from which we normally date the beginning of English literature. In some 3,182 lines of...
Fun With Flesh Wounds
The epic poem Beowulf gets the Monty Python treatment Beowulf told with a postmodern punk sensibility. If nothing else, give the makers of Beowulf & Grendel high marks for boldness, and for a certain playful irreverence. It's a good bet that today's moviegoers...
Review: Beowulf and Grendel
I'm a sucker for obscure 8th Century (or so) Old English poetry, so when I saw that Beowulf and Grendel had been made, my inner lit geek trembled with equal parts trepidation and excitement. Danes and Geats fighting an evil troll, descended from Cain, the first...
Potty-Mouthed Dialogue Mars Scenically Stunning `Beowulf & Grendel’
The eighth-century epic poem "Beowulf" is - as every high school senior should know - the oldest extant work of any significance in our (or any other modern European) language, and the point from which we normally date the beginning of English literature. In some...
Hollywood Reviews and Movie Trivia
The Beowulf story has endured numerous retellings in the modern era, through both complex interpretations for adults and illustrated books for children. Until independent director Sturla Gunnarsson took on a project to direct a film adaptation in Iceland, no serious...
“Beowulf & Grendel”: Long poem (zzzz) becomes horror film (eeek)
In "Beowulf & Grendel," warriors from Sweden go to Denmark to aid a kingdom being savaged by a powerful troll. "Who does he think he is, some [bleeping] troll Caesar, laying claim to everything his eyes fix upon?" Nowhere in the 3,182 lines of the...
‘Beowulf & Grendel’ is best when it shuts up
Coming along like a Viking picture abducted by Monty Python, "Beowulf & Grendel" is so crazy it sometimes works. Other times, this movie seems to have taken a wrong turn in its remote Icelandic location and gotten hopelessly lost. It's based on the epic ancient...
Beowulf & Grendel, Look Both Ways, and Nacho Libre
This limp, big-screen adaptation of everyone's favorite Anglo-Saxon epic, which screened at the Seattle International Film Festival last week and is (oddly) beginning its U.S. theatrical run in Seattle, opens with an abrupt and suspenseless chase. A loinclothed...
Seattle Film Festival- Days 16-18: A Day in the Life
With another hectic weekend under my belt, I'm feeling pretty good right now about closing out the final seven days of the Festival in strong fashion. I saw nine more movies, attended two more SIFF forums, and recorded two great interviews (one with the filmmakers of...
Hot Button: Seattle Film Festival Notes
The 32nd Seattle International Film Festival started May 25 and continues through next weekend. My 2nd annual Seattle International Film Festival started on Thursday and ends on Sunday. But I'm off to a speedy start. Since arriving here at about 12:45p today, I have...
Seattle International Film Festival: Danes take a walk on the noir side
The 32nd Seattle International Film Festival continues its eight-film tribute to contemporary Danish Cinema tonight with "Manslaughter," a noirish tale about a professor drawn into an affair with a much younger former student (6:45 p.m., Pacific Place Cinemas). Also...
June movies at Heritage
Heritage Theatre, 86 Main St. N. returns to its roots as a movie theatre Monday nights in June. Tickets cost $5 and can be purchased both in advance and from the box office by calling 905-874-2800. Films run at 8 p.m. June movie schedule: June 5: The 2006 Academy...
Movie is dear to our hearts
TWO movie fans from America are to visit Inverclyde because their favourite film was shot here. The girls, from California and Texas, are huge fans of the film Dear Frankie and its heartthrob star Gerard Butler and wanted to soak up the atmosphere of the movie by...