Beowulf & Grendel

Beowulf & Grendel (2005)

Directed by: Sturla Gunnarsson
Written by: Andrew Rai Berzins, based on the poem Beowulf
Starring: Gerard Butler, Ingvar E. Sigurdsson, Stellan Skarsgård, Sarah Polley, Ronan Vibert, Rory McCann, Tony Curran, Martin Delaney, Eddie Marsan, Gunnar Hansson, Steinunn Ólína Thorsteinsdóttir, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Elva Ósk Ólafsdóttir

Rightio. One of about five Beowulf movies made in the last ten years, this one being the Canada/UK/Iceland co-production. Yay.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Beowulf/Grendel myth, it's about this bloke (Beowulf) who kills a troll (Grendel). In this version, Grendel is almost a sympathetic character (rather than just this bad ass fuckin troll). Meanwhile, this Irish priest is converting everybody in the village, and Beowulf is lusting after this witch.

Anyway, I had a really hard time watching this movie - first of all, it was confusing as all hell. I wasn't exactly sure what was happening at all times. Shit was going on, but it seemed like it was out of order somehow, or like they omitted something important. And Sarah Polley was really frigging annoying. I don't have a problem with Sarah Polley. I mean, hey, she's Canadian (I gather she played Anne of Green Gables, though I know her only as the chick from Dawn of the Dead. I liked that movie), but her accent was so frigging irritating. She was generally annoying.

As opposed to Gerard Butler, who was actually using his real Scottish accent instead of whatever the hell he was doing in 300. So he sounds eerily like Sean Connery, and he was supposed to be... Danish? But who cares, he's hot.

The Icelandic scenery was absolutely gorgeous, though the way it was shot was a little bit Lord of the Ringsy, but what the hell isn't these days? I kinda want to go to Iceland... Montreal first, though. It's a hell of a lot closer and I don't need a passport. Yay!

Anyway, I kinda dug the guy what played Grendel, he was pretty good. And hey, Stellan Skarsgård had cool hair. Everybody should have hair that colour (I'm too lazy to go get a picture of Stellan, take a picture of myself and load them both on here (it's too fucking much work), but people who know me personally will get it)

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