Beowulf is a Science fiction horror, action/adventure film staring Christopher Lambert that is based on the 9th century Anglo-Saxon story of the same name. The time and setting of the movie is left a complete mystery. Lambert's character Beowulf is a human that possess great fighting skills and tools who travels to an outpost castle to save the people living inside from a supernatural creature named Grendel.
All grandiloquent speech aside, Christopher Lambert's performance in Beowulf was a shining bastion of over acting. With nothing left to loose this past his prime actor put everything he had, and then some into this film. I was enthralled, I laughed, I cried, I laughed so hard I cried; the film was atrocious. The entire film was an attempt by the director to delve the viewer into a world of claustrophobia like that of Alien with a costume scheme of Mad Max beyond Thunder-Dome and the cheesy fight scene style of the Mortal Kombat movies. The claustrophobia and fear was inexistent but they definitely succeeded in creating cheesy action sequences like those of Mortal Kombat. The costumes, weapons and props that the characters were equipped with defied all convention. In one scene the king steps into view wearing a helmet that completely covered his face with no holes to see out of, and says "I can't see anything" and removes the ridiculous helmet. A reoccurring theme of the movie is weapons like that of the story. But the weapons in the movie are all asinine. Soldiers are armed with pole arm pizza cutters and giant bread knives. Beowulf, Lambert's character is a self proclaimed weapons expert who as well as his hedge clipper sword, he carries a knife that shoots disks and an automatic crossbow. One of the most astounding props in the movie is a guillotine style killing machine that resembles a giant shaving razor. I was at a loss of words when I saw this monstrous machine on the screen and that loss of words is still with me. The actors and actresses in Beowulf are truly something to behold. I am almost One Hundred Percent sure that the female casting call for the movie was held at the Playboy mansion. The females staring in Beowulf all had busting at the seams fake chests, and caked on make up, not to mention glitter lip gloss. The male actors must have been extras that were stolen from the set of the popular TV series Hercules: the legendary journey and Xenia: warrior princess. The Story Beowulf and Beowulf the movie are polar opposites. The writer and the Director went out of there way to create a science fiction horror movie with little relation to the story. Elements that stayed the same included the characters names, after that I found nothing in common other then that Beowulf was a hero fighting a creature named Grendel. All in all they took an idea, a budget and a production, and apparently their integrity and threw the whole kit out the window. I really can not understand how they decided to take such a classic and turn it into pure pulp, mock noir, trash. I am sure that there is a reason that the Director's only other success was Alien Nation, a si/fi buddy cop film that had poor reviews in 1988. Here is Mr. Baker ten years later in 1999 back with another campy, flagrantly terrible film. I can only hope that in 2009 Mr. Graham Baker dos not assault the public at large once again with a hopelessly useless film.
All grandiloquent speech aside, Christopher Lambert's performance in Beowulf was a shining bastion of over acting. With nothing left to loose this past his prime actor put everything he had, and then some into this film. I was enthralled, I laughed, I cried, I laughed so hard I cried; the film was atrocious. The entire film was an attempt by the director to delve the viewer into a world of claustrophobia like that of Alien with a costume scheme of Mad Max beyond Thunder-Dome and the cheesy fight scene style of the Mortal Kombat movies. The claustrophobia and fear was inexistent but they definitely succeeded in creating cheesy action sequences like those of Mortal Kombat. The costumes, weapons and props that the characters were equipped with defied all convention. In one scene the king steps into view wearing a helmet that completely covered his face with no holes to see out of, and says "I can't see anything" and removes the ridiculous helmet. A reoccurring theme of the movie is weapons like that of the story. But the weapons in the movie are all asinine. Soldiers are armed with pole arm pizza cutters and giant bread knives. Beowulf, Lambert's character is a self proclaimed weapons expert who as well as his hedge clipper sword, he carries a knife that shoots disks and an automatic crossbow. One of the most astounding props in the movie is a guillotine style killing machine that resembles a giant shaving razor. I was at a loss of words when I saw this monstrous machine on the screen and that loss of words is still with me. The actors and actresses in Beowulf are truly something to behold. I am almost One Hundred Percent sure that the female casting call for the movie was held at the Playboy mansion. The females staring in Beowulf all had busting at the seams fake chests, and caked on make up, not to mention glitter lip gloss. The male actors must have been extras that were stolen from the set of the popular TV series Hercules: the legendary journey and Xenia: warrior princess. The Story Beowulf and Beowulf the movie are polar opposites. The writer and the Director went out of there way to create a science fiction horror movie with little relation to the story. Elements that stayed the same included the characters names, after that I found nothing in common other then that Beowulf was a hero fighting a creature named Grendel. All in all they took an idea, a budget and a production, and apparently their integrity and threw the whole kit out the window. I really can not understand how they decided to take such a classic and turn it into pure pulp, mock noir, trash. I am sure that there is a reason that the Director's only other success was Alien Nation, a si/fi buddy cop film that had poor reviews in 1988. Here is Mr. Baker ten years later in 1999 back with another campy, flagrantly terrible film. I can only hope that in 2009 Mr. Graham Baker dos not assault the public at large once again with a hopelessly useless film.