Russian director Sergei Bodrov has made a magnificent epic which evokes some of the greats of the past, including Lawrence of Arabia.
Comment
06/13/08
Mongol (2008)
87
%
Tomatometer
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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 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... [More]
Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Honglei Sun, Khulan Chuluun, Odnyam Odsuren
Director: Sergei Bodrov
Reviews for Mongol
Top CriticYou 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.
06/13/08
Top CriticEven the most intense human drama is somehow reduced by the landscape.
06/20/08
Top CriticTemudgin is so single-minded that Asano has trouble suggesting much about his inner life.
06/20/08
Top CriticThe visuals and performances make it worth it, but this is a wilfully oblique bit of warrior hagiography.
06/20/08
Top CriticGenghis Khan's lost decade fuels a handsome fantasy.
07/10/08
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.
06/12/08
Top CriticLacking great themes and inner depth, Mongol is just another galloping wondershow of ice blue skies and rocky plains, a light diversion with delusions of grandeur
06/06/08
This would have been one of the greatest all time epics, but there were some major gaps in the story.
10/17/08
This revisionist history of the early life of Ghengis Khan leaves one baffled and unconvinced.
06/06/08
I'd rather have seen the sequel.
06/06/08
For a motion picture about man who changed the world on his own terms, one would think his life story would be a riveting experience, not something that requires a pot of coffee and occasional magazine breaks to enjoy.
06/05/08
Relates the story of Genghis Khan's early years in a plodding, uninspired fashion that doesn't bode well for the next two entries in a planned trilogy.
06/10/08
If a hero is to deserve this much spectacle, he ought to be at least a little bit interesting.
06/05/08
While fur-clad pillaging sounds fun enough, a Crouching Tiger–style ponderousness hollows out this largely Russian-produced dud.
06/05/08
Combining the intelligence of an action movie with the excitement of an art-house release makes Mongol as dry as summer in the Gobi Desert.
06/06/08
Asano's Khan is a hero in the classic mold, and the portrayal is riveting. Not entirely so the film, however, which concludes with a lengthy endnote as though it were Steppe Wars IV: A New Hope and Equal Plunder for All Men.
06/20/08
It must have been a pretty weak year for subtitled fare if the Oscar voters sought to praise this inert, inept epic.
07/05/08
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.
05/26/08
Give Mongol’s makers credit for taking advantage of the spectacular scenery and creating an almost documentary reality regarding life among Mongolia’s nomads. But as storytelling the film goes nowhere slowly.
06/20/08
Latest News for Mongol
January 08, 2009:
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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. 
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June 05, 2008:
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March 30, 2008:
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