A good idea let down by poor casting.

Rating: 1/10 (5 January 2008)

A potentially great film of an epic story with outstanding 3D effects totally spoiled by the ridiculous casting of Ray Winston as Beowulf. May be credible for the US market, but certainly in the UK Ray Winston is a "cockney geezer" who should stick to playing London gangsters - certainly not the material that Nordic heroes in Anglo-Saxon poems are made of!
Visually the film is very impressive - I was very glad to have taken the 3D option and enjoyed the night flights on owl back and other visual jim-crackery. The strong supporting cast of characters were all well voiced by a variety of celeb talent. The prominent wrestling scene with Grendel was ridiculous however, with far too many sight gags hiding Beowulfs CGI genitalia - given the mature content and extreme violence of much of the rest of the film this modesty seems somewhat pointless.
If ever this film is remade maybe Tony Soprano would be a good choice for the lead - badda-bing, badda-bong.