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Mongol (2008)

tomatometer

86

Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 100
Fresh: 86 | Rotten: 14

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

93

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 26 | Rotten: 2

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

audience

76

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 21,015

My Rating

Movie Info

Based on the controversial writings of Russian historian Lev Gumilyov, director Sergei Bodrov's look at the early years in the life of the Mongol conqueror stars Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano as Temudgin (as he was then known), Honglei Sun as Mongol chieftain Jamukha, who was both Temudgin's close friend and mortal enemy, and newcomer Khulan Chuluun as his wife, Borte. Born in the year 1162, Temudgen's childhood was marred by tragedy and peril. But a great battle would seal Temudgen's fate

R, 2 hr. 1 min.

Drama, Classics

Arif Aliyev, Sergei Bodrov Jr.

Oct 14, 2008

$5.6M

Picturehouse

Cast

All Critics (100) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (87) | Rotten (15) | DVD (2)

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.

July 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Film.com | Comment
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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

June 29, 2008 Full Review Source: New Republic | Comment
New Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

June 27, 2008 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Mongol, from its thrilling battles to its intimate romance, has the look, scale, story and feel of an old-fashioned epic in the best and biggest sense of the word.

June 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The action sequences here are first-rate, the performances are uniformly excellent, the cinematography as good as I've seen in any film this year.

June 23, 2008 Comment
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There are plenty of haunting landscapes... along with the sort of warfare scenes that define epics, but also an unexpected take on one of history's most fearsome leaders.

June 20, 2008 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop 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

February 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly | Comment
Fayetteville Free Weekly

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.

October 22, 2008 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

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

October 17, 2008 Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | Comment
Sin Magazine

...for the most part we get a sensitive, personal, though somewhat superficial story of the man. (Blu-ray Edition)

October 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

...probably not the movie most audiences expected.

October 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Visually stunning, historically interesting, and very entertaining.

October 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Aisle Seat | Comment
Aisle Seat

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

July 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

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

July 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Atlantic City Weekly | Comment

Genghis Khan's lost decade fuels a handsome fantasy.

July 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | Comment
Sydney Morning Herald

Hell has no wrath like a Khan scorned.

July 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | Comment
Arizona Daily Star

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

July 7, 2008 Full Review | Comment
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.

July 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comments (2)
Film Threat

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.

June 27, 2008 Full Review Source: Miami Herald | Comment
Miami Herald

The melodrama is as thick as the blood in the spectacular battle sequences, but Asano's soulful performance brings this little-understood historical icon passionately to life.

June 27, 2008 Comment
Salt Lake Tribune

Probably the only movie you'll ever see that opens in '1192 -- Year of the Black Rat.'

June 27, 2008 Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | Comment
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Mongol

Very good movie, and VERY well done. The fight scenes are just amazing. I didnt realize until the end that he was Genghis Khan. I just love movies with historical content, and this one did not disappoint.

October 14, 2010
itsjustme2004

Super Reviewer

A very good film chronicling the exploits and reign of Genghis Khan. This is a terrific film with an excellent cast of actors. Mongol is a very beautiful film and if you love foreign film, you'll love this one. This is a powerful film about the greatest conqueror who ever lived. Mongol is a stunning historical epic in

July 3, 2010
TheDudeLebowski65
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

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