Product: Beowulf (1999)
Rating: 3.0
An old legend gets a new face
Released in 1999 and starring the great Christopher Lambert, this is the first modern attempt at an English-speaking feature length adaptation of the epic Beowulf poem. In some ways this film reminds more of how Hideyuki Kikuchi (creator of Vampire Hunter: D) would approach this story. A lone horseman rides in to save a town (or in this case, a castle) and much like VH:D, the story is supposed to be set "in the distant future" yet it looks more like a warped depiction of medieval times with no real allusions to any future technology, (also no guns, no vehicles, no electricity.) This setting was surprising and welcome, and Lambert seemed to be right at home in this world as well. The script seems okay, yet the delivery of performances from everyone else is just plain terrible. Honestly, I think that the film would be better viewed silently with subtitles as the only thing worse than the acting is the dated EBM-Industrial soundtrack. The costumes are top-notch, the CGI (at the end) is horrendous even for the time it was released.The DVD has a "behind the scenes" featurette which is unfortunately about 2 minutes of candid shots and production scenes without narration with more crappy music. The only other feature is the trailer for the film.With some studio "hits" but mostly misses and 1,300 years later, no film has done this great story the justice it deserves!