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Mongol

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Mongol (2008)

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Reviews Counted:98

Fresh:85

Rotten:13

Average Rating:7.1/10

Consensus: The sweeping Mongol mixes romance, family drama, and enough flesh-ripping battle scenes to make sense of Ghenghis Khan's legendary stature.

Australian Rating: TBC

Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins

Genre: Dramas

Australian Theatrical Release:
Jun 19, 2008 Wide

US Box Office: $5,621,596

Synopsis: Award-winning Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov (Prisoner of the Mountains) illuminates the life and legend of Genghis Khan in his stunning historical epic, Mongol. Based on leading scholarly... Award-winning Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov (Prisoner of the Mountains) illuminates the life and legend of Genghis Khan in his stunning historical epic, Mongol. Based on leading scholarly accounts and written by Bodrov and Arif Aliyev, Mongol delves into the dramatic and harrowing early years of the ruler who was born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows Temudgin from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, but as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader. Mongol shows us the making of an extraordinary man, and the foundation on which so much of his greatness rested: his relationship with his wife, Borte, his lifelong love and most trusted advisor.

Filmed in the very lands that gave birth to Genghis Khan, Mongol transports us back to a distant and exotic period in world history; to a nomad's landscape of endless space, climatic extremes and ever-present danger. In a performance of powerful stillness and subtlety, celebrated young Japanese actor Asano Tadanobu (Zatoichi, Last Life in the Universe) captures the inner fire that enabled a hunted boy to become a legendary conqueror. Asano's achievement is matched by those of his co-stars, including the radiant newcomer Khulan Chuluun as Temudgin's courageous, spirited wife Borte, and the Chinese actor Honglei Sun (The Road Home) as the Mongol chieftain Jamukha, Temudgin's dearest friend and deadliest enemy. Masterfully blending action and emotion against some of the most arresting terrain on earth, Bodrov delivers an exciting and awe-inspiring tale of survival and triumph, and a love story for the ages. --© Picturehouse
[More]

Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Honglei Sun, Khulan Chuluun, Odnyam Odsuren

Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Honglei Sun, Khulan Chuluun, Odnyam Odsuren, Aliy A, Ba Sen, Amadu Mamadakov, Ba Yin, He Qi, Sun Ben Hou, Ji Ri Mu Tu

Director: Sergei Bodrov

Director: Sergei Bodrov
Screenwriter: Arif Aliyev, Sergei Bodrov
Producer: Sergey Selyanov, Sergei Bodrov, Anton Melnik
Composer: Tuomas Kantelinen
Studio: Picturehouse

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Reviews for Mongol

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Genghis Khan's lost decade fuels a handsome fantasy.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
07/10/08
Sandra Hall
Sandra Hall
Sydney Morning Herald
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Temudgin is so single-minded that Asano has trouble suggesting much about his inner life.

Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | comment Comment
06/20/08
Jake Wilson
Jake Wilson
The Age (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Even the most intense human drama is somehow reduced by the landscape.

Full Review Source: The Australian | comment Comment
06/20/08
Evan Williams
Evan Williams
The Australian
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The visuals and performances make it worth it, but this is a wilfully oblique bit of warrior hagiography.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine Australasia | comment Comment
06/20/08
Michael Adams
Michael Adams
Empire Magazine Australasia
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Russian director Sergei Bodrov has made a magnificent epic which evokes some of the greats of the past, including Lawrence of Arabia.

Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | comment Comment
06/13/08
David Stratton
David Stratton
At the Movies (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

You might wonder how Bodrov could fail to make every minute of Genghis Khan's extraordinary life near edge-of-the-seat involving, but there are some dull stretches before the pace picks up again.

Full Review Source: Courier Mail (Australia) | comment Comment
06/13/08
Des Partridge
Des Partridge
Courier Mail (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

'Vast landscapes, savage battles, sparring blood brothers and a poignant love story form the essence of Sergei Bodrov's spectacular epic, among whose achievements are its extraordinary sense of place and time.

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
06/12/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A movie in which acting still prevails is Mongol. People often say, 'They don't make movies like they used to.' Maybe the Russians make movies like Hollywood used to. Mongol, photographed beautifully in Kazakhstan and the Chinese province of

Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly | comment Comment
02/01/09
Tony Macklin
Tony Macklin
Fayetteville Free Weekly

This would have been one of the greatest all time epics, but there were some major gaps in the story.

Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | comment Comment
10/17/08
Austin Kennedy
Austin Kennedy
Sin Magazine

...probably not the movie most audiences expected.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
10/10/08
John J. Puccio
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

Visually stunning, historically interesting, and very entertaining.

Full Review Source: Aisle Seat | comment Comment
10/08/08
Mike McGranaghan
Mike McGranaghan
Aisle Seat

It's a lumbering, emotionally cold, slow-going old-fashioned escapist sweeping biopic on the early years of Genghis Khan.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
07/19/08
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

When we think of the fearsome Genghis Khan, we don't picture him as ever having been a little boy. But he must have been, and that is where this grand throwback to the sweeping historical epics of yesteryear takes up the Great Khan's story.

Full Review Source: Film.com | comment Comment
07/11/08
Jonathan F. Richards
Jonathan F. Richards
Film.com

... Bodrov's engaging vision of Genghis Khan in several moments almost feels like the silent movie epics by the Russian cinematic pioneer Sergei Eisenstein.

Full Review Source: Atlantic City Weekly | comment Comment
07/10/08
Lori Hoffman
Lori Hoffman
Atlantic City Weekly

Hell has no wrath like a Khan scorned.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
07/09/08
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

A saga of blood feuds, betrayals, vendettas, and a lot of fighting The film is entertaining but more macho than intelligent.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
07/07/08
Mark R. Leeper
Mark R. Leeper
rec.arts.movies.reviews

It must have been a pretty weak year for subtitled fare if the Oscar voters sought to praise this inert, inept epic.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment 2 Comments
07/05/08
Phil Hall
Phil Hall
Film Threat

Mongol has just enough characterization to sustain its own reason for being -- cinematic fullness.

Full Review Source: New Republic | comment Comment
06/29/08
Stanley Kauffmann
Stanley Kauffmann
New Republic

A thoroughly rousing hunk of celluloid, a war saga that blends the sturdiest conventions of old-fashioned heroic storytelling with a few pixilated battle enhancements — check out the soaring blood globs — of the kind that spattered across 300.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
06/27/08
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle

The battle sequences are tremendous, and the performances are captivating, making for the sort of rousing, giant-scale entertainment that a figure as towering as Genghis Khan deserves.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
06/27/08
Rene Rodriguez
Rene Rodriguez
Miami Herald
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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Latest News for Mongol

January 08, 2009: Broadcast Film Critics Name Critics' Choice Winners
The 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards were given on January 8, 2009, to honor the finest achievements in 2008 filmmaking. A list of nominees follows below, with winners in bold: More...

October 22, 2008: More impressed with its own olden days ready-to-rumble, flesh-ripping Far Eastern beatdowns, than fleshing out with any depth just who these characters were and how they struggled to exist back then. History as a scenic but dramatically sparse travelogue. Opens in new window
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March 30, 2008: Trailer & Poster review Opens in new window
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