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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 15, 2007

BEOWULF **½

The name "Beowulf" alone surely will inspire painful memories of high-school English class and pangs of dread.

Never fear. This 3-D animated "Beowulf" is more like "300," only with more violence, if that's possible. And nudity - lots and lots of nudity.

Director Robert Zemeckis, using the same performance-capture technology he introduced with 2004's "The Polar Express," takes on the epic Old English poem by sexing it up. It's the cinematic equivalent of slipping pureed spinach into your kids' brownies.

Adapted by Neil Gaiman (the "Sandman" comics) and Roger Avary (who co-wrote "Pulp Fiction"), the film follows the mythic Viking hero who emerges from the sea to rid a Danish kingdom of the bloody, raging, pus-covered monster Grendel (played with pathos and twisted physicality by Crispin Glover). Only then can there be much merrymaking and mead-drinking and wench-bedding.

The 3-D effects are extremely cool. The way stuff comes at you (swords, spurts of blood) and seems to come out of nowhere, along with Zemeckis' use of reflections and realistic perspectives, makes you feel as if you're fully immersed in this ancient world.

But then the characters look distractingly fake and stiff, as if they're made of wax.

The storied Beowulf is played with a growl and a roar and very little clothing by Ray Winstone, though the character on screen strangely looks nothing like Winstone, the slightly tubby yet powerful British actor best known for his work in "The Departed" and "Sexy Beast." Everyone else in the stellar cast resembles the actors playing them: Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson and especially Angelina Jolie as Grendel's seductive, magical mother.

Unless you're a fantasy geek, though, it's hard to take all this swordplay and dragon slaying seriously. Beowulf bellows "I am Beowulf!" so many times, it could be a drinking game; it certainly rivals "This is Sparta!" as the year's preferred macho catch phrase.

Themes of heroism and bravery and loyalty seem secondary here. Depicted today, this comes off as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of undeserved fame. Beowulf could be Paris Hilton, if Paris Hilton had a goatee and six-pack abs.

PG-13 (intense violence, sexual material and nudity); 113 minutes

Christy Lemire,

The Associated Press

MR. MAGORIUM'S WONDER EMPORIUM

The lovely moments are plentiful but the marvels minor in "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium."

With this story of a toy impresario (Dustin Hoffman) who wants to hand over his shop to his favorite employee (Natalie Portman), director and writer Zach Helm ("Stranger Than Fiction") sets standards pretty high for himself. Any film that so clearly evokes "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" needs to be transcendent.

"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," unfortunately, is not transcendent, though its toy-store scenes offer fun moments like one with a red rubber ball so gigantic it's impossible to dodge. The special effects are too obvious at times, and in trying to impart an eccentric vibe, Helm relies too heavily on kooky camera angles.

Though it sometimes plays like a romp, this G-rated picture contains serious subject matter. This aspect of the story is handled with great care but still might provoke questions from little ones in the audience.

The movie's greatest assets are its actors. Portman and Hoffman share an easy, friendly chemistry. So do Jason Bateman, who plays an accountant brought in to make sense of unbalanced books dating back to the 18th century (Mr. Magorium has been in the toy business a long time) and young Zach Mills, who plays Eric, a friendless boy who spends all his time with the shop's magic animals.

As the wild-haired Mr. Magorium, Hoffman adopts a teeth-centric delivery style evoking his performance in "Tootsie." He's doing a bit, but that doesn't make his character any less warm or witty.

Mr. Magorium is supposed to be 243 years old, but Portman's character, Maloney, is actually the harder one to buy. A one-time piano prodigy, Maloney keeps trying and failing to compose a concerto.

Her setbacks supposedly occur because she lacks a sparkle - a concept requiring a real suspension of disbelief. The always radiant Portman glows without any magical assistance throughout "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium."

G; 93 minutes

Carla Meyer,

McClatchy Newspapers

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