The real star here is director and co-writer Sergei Bodrov, who largely turns his back on CGI effects and creates stirring battle scenes the old-fashioned way.
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06/25/08
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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.
Theatrical Release:Jun 6, 2008 Limited
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
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Reviews for Mongol
'Mongol' is so beautifully photographed that it should knock your socks off.
06/24/08
Not that I'm a fan of violent behavior, but if I'm watching a movie about Genghis Khan, I expect more gut-wrenching slaughter than this.
06/24/08
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.
06/23/08
Top CriticThis - the first of a trilogy - is a coming-of-age story about the nomadic lad who eventually became the great warrior, Genghis Khan.
06/21/08
I liked it, even though the one-bloody-battle-after-another deal is not my sort of thing. If it's your sort, I bet you'll like it even more.
06/20/08
Bodrov's movie is most likely to be remembered for its fierce battle sequences, which frequently place the camera smack in the middle of the action.
06/20/08
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.
06/20/08
Bodrov has simply created an overwhelmingly awesome Khan who could believably conquer the overwhelmingly awesome landscape over the course of two more films.
06/20/08
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
A broad, old-fashioned epic in the David Lean mold.
06/20/08
Bodrov and Arif Aliyev wrote the film, which was one of this year's foreign-language Oscar nominees, and their account is framed as a drama of inflamed loins and intense loyalty.
06/20/08
Top CriticThe movie would be an unbearably grueling endurance test for the audience and the hero were it not for the arid beauty of the Great Steppe and the sweep of the battles, rendered with splatters of gore that lend a Jackson Pollock-like excitement to [it].
06/20/08
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
Mongol is an impressive epic that also captures intimate moments in the early life of the Mongolian leader.
06/20/08
A ferocious film, blood-soaked, pausing occasionally for passionate romance and more frequently for torture. As a visual spectacle, it is all but overwhelming, putting to shame some of the recent historical epics from Hollywood.
06/20/08
Top CriticTemudgin is so single-minded that Asano has trouble suggesting much about his inner life.
06/20/08
Even the most intense human drama is somehow reduced by the landscape.
06/20/08
The visuals and performances make it worth it, but this is a wilfully oblique bit of warrior hagiography.
06/20/08
Mongol is a little slow at times, but you do a get a good history lesson while you get to see blood spraying and bodies flying all over the place.
06/19/08
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. 
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June 05, 2008:
Box Office Guru Preview: Black vs. Sandler in Comedy Showdown
Two big doses of comedy from a pair of Hollywood's funniest men will hit the multiplexes across North America on Friday in a fierce battle for the number one spot. For family... More...
March 30, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review
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