Beowulf (1999)

In a besieged land, Beowulf must battle against the hideous creature Grendel and his vengeance seeking mother.

Director:

Graham Baker

Writers:

Anonymous (epic poem "Beowulf"), Mark Leahy (screenplay)

Stars:

Christopher Lambert, Rhona Mitra, Oliver Cotton

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christopher Lambert	...	Beowulf
Rhona Mitra	...	Kyra
Oliver Cotton	...	Hrothgar
Götz Otto	...	Roland
Charles Robinson	...	Weaponsmaster (as Charlie Robinson)
Brent Jefferson Lowe	...	Will (as Brent J. Lowe)
Roger Sloman	...	Karl
Layla Roberts	...	Grendel's Mother
Robert Willox	...	Chief Officer
Patricia Velasquez	...	Pendra
Marcel Cobzariu	...	Lookout (as Marcelo Cobzariu)
Vlad Jipa	...	Sentry
Diana Dumbrava	...	Hrothgar's Wife
Andrei Rusu	...	1st Soldier
Vitalie Bantas	...	1st Guard

Storyline

This post-apocalyptic future story is based on the 8th century Saxon epic poem about the knight who battled a monster in a medieval castle. In this story, Beowulf is a wanderer who learns about a man-eating creature called Grendel which comes in the night to devour warriors trapped at the Outpost. The Outpost is ruled by Hrothgar. He has a daughter, whose husband may have been murdered by the Outpost's master of arms.

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Plot Keywords:

battle | knight | monster | warrior | sword and sorcery | 

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Taglines:

Unleash your dark side.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and sexuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

Producers promised a budget of 25 million dollars, whereas they made the film for 3.5 million dollars, according to star Christopher Lambert.

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Goofs

(at around 1h 6 mins) When Beowulf cuts off the arm of Grendel, we see a left arm hit the ground (look at where the thumb is) but it is Grendel's right arm that is missing.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Will: Hey, why I always gotta get the broken ones?
Weaponsmaster: Try the trigger.

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Connections

Version of Beowulf (2007)

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Soundtracks

Dammerung
Performed by Frontside
Written by Chris Arkley-Smith and Scott Simon
Published by Mushroom Music
Frontside appears courtesy of Abducted Records
Under license from The Mushroom Group of Companies
p1997 MDS

User Reviews

A great movie... for a laugh.

We screened this movie in a club as an example of how classic literature can become twisted into some of the most awful movies of all time. Just the fact that the back of the box proudly proclaimed the plot to be set in the "techno-futile" future should have been enough of a hint. I think that word describes the movie itself, because no matter how much technology they tried to use to save this movie, the effort was completely futile. Not to mention that our club advisor told us that it allegedly couldn't get a distributor for two years.

This cinematic failure is littered with cheesy, cliche dialogue that's worse than angsty teen poetry. Beowulf's character changes halfway through in a way that is in no way credible, and whenever he's in an action scene, he's constantly flipping like a hyper gymnast. There is even, as they say, a "token black guy" whose attempts at humor are completely out of place. And, of course, the daughter of the leader of the outpost Grendel is terrorizing is a total vixen. A vixen whose breasts are exposed throughout the entire movie. A vixen who wants to fight the creature, yet she never puts on armor. And her weapon of choice is a little carving knife. And despite their dire situation, she still dresses up for dinner, in a dress with a see-through skirt that exposes her short-shorts underwear. There are a couple scenes that could pass as soft core pornography, and in the second scene they even reuse footage from the first. I thought the portrayal of Grendel was bad enough, but then came the end of the film, which featured a display of CGI that might be decent for the 80s, but is totally ridiculous for a late 90s venture. I could go on, but you all should watch this film for the fully laughable effect yourselves.

The other club members and I did manage to have fun watching this by taking a cue from MST 3K and mocking it the whole way through. I'm still reeling from an extra's weapon: a perpetually spinning pizza cutter on a pole.

Details

Country:

UK USA Romania

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 April 1999 (Singapore)

Also Known As:

Beowulf

Filming Locations:

Romania

Box Office

Budget:

$3,500,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$102,744

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Kushner-Locke Company, Capitol Films, Threshold Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1