Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
3.5/4
You don't need $200 million to make a good epic.
Indyfreak - wrote on 11/23/2014
Just 10% of that would do apparently.
Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan succeeds at being what most (usually more expensive) biopics fail to do these days: it's actually entertaining not because you admire its scale and visuals which are good but because you find the characters interesting and you want to know how it ends even though you already know it's about Genghis Freaking Khan. And yes, there are grand battles, daring escapes, romantic entanglements, and it's all in the Mongolian language! Director Sergei Bodrov has a smaller budget than his Hollywood counterparts but it looks and feels as immersive and sweeping as an epic film should be.
Using the oldest storytelling technique in the book (first-person narration), Genghis Khan (Asian dude from Thor 1 and 2) recalls how he rose …
Rating of
2.5/4
"Mongol" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/19/2012
Mongol charts the life of Genghis Khan, from boy who sees his father assassinated, is abandoned by his clan and has his bride abducted, to the feared leader conqueror of half the known world. Well, some of it anyway. Mongol bears all the hallmarks of a quality historical epic, from the beautiful cinematography and fantastic costume design to the brilliantly staged battle sequences. Although he's obviously no John Wayne(!), Tadanobu Asano makes a charismatic Temudgin, and the relationships between his pragmatic and wily wife (nicely played by the striking Khulan Chuluun) and his brother turned enemy are interesting and well done. Unfortunately, the rather glamourized script seemed to lack focus; it happily showed his happy home life as loving husband and father in a way that reminded me …
Rating of
3/4
Bodrov comes to Hollywood with decent results
TommyL31 - wrote on 04/17/2009
There were a lot of things to like about this movie. I enjoyed how they kind of mixed Hollywood with the more raw Central Asian/Eurasian feel that Sergei Bodrov used in "Prisoner of the Caucuses." I think there was some interesting camera work and effects that gave parts of the movie a unique and innovative feel. Fight scenes were pretty good and Temudgin was a good character.
That being said I think the story jumped around too much and there was so much to cover that the movie would've been well served if it were longer and it could flush things out more. It could've been a four hour epic movie, IMO, and been much more full and robust. Heck, I would even have liked it to deal with his entire life and been a really long series for tv.
Overall, see it if Genghis Khan interests you, …
