Product: Beowulf (1999)
Rating: 4.0
A fun, welldone movie!!
Okay boys and girls this is the deal, this is pretty much a b movie; so like any b movies if you want to enjoy them you have to go into it w/ a clean slate and take everything w/ a grain of salt, if you do, its a good show, a fun show. Now I must refute one reviewer who fancies the rest of us as vulgar and stupid if we actually enjoyed the flick. He goes on and on comparing it to the original poem, well this isn't the poem; this show, like any remake, is done very loosely on it. Being a b movie if they made an exact duplicate of the poem its doubtful it'd be so enjoyable. To that end one other reviewer didn't like the blend of the dark ages, being confused why such things as bifocals and other modern implements appear, there's a reason. If the reviewer had read the back of the movie box it says its sent in the future. Hey if somehow tech was erased and we plunged into another dark age, they'd probably would integrate these things in their societies.Okay as a b movie its cool. Chris Lambert does his usual kick butt job, portraying a character that looks, and fights something very similar to Dante from the ps2 game devil may cry. The fights and costumes are wonderful, very clever stuff; the outpost castle is crumbling and shaped so wonderfully weird that you have to like it (unless you're after a show that has a line by line translation from the poem). Lambert is great, pretty much unkillable, kind of a dark past, but he's not a total brooder, the girl he meets does change him, or at least changes his mind. Lambert has what seems like a billion weapons on him and as he fights he twists and pulls and on existing weapons, and other weapons appear. He's like a walking swiss army knife, unscrew the shaft on this, twist that, hey another a mace and chain.The monster grendel is pretty well done, that is for a b movie. The reason that I liked is that the makers of the show were smart. I mean how many times have you seen a show where the big bad monster came into the light and he looked like a latex wreak? Exaclty. A b movie doesn't have the budget to make a totally cool monster so how do you fix it? Grendal stays in the dark and shadows, the darkness effectively hiding him somewhat, then to make it better, the film makers added purplish waves that surround him like an aura that kind of hides any blemishes, that's why I felt it was well done, because theres no way that thing would be scary if it was completly shown.