RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / Mongol
Mongol

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Buy Poster External Icon
  • Visit Official Site External Icon
  • Bookmark and Share

Mongol (2008)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
87 %
Tomatometer

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

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.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for sequences of bloody warfare.

Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:06-06-2008

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... 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 accounts and written by Bodrov and Arif Aliyev, Mongol delves into the dramatic and harrowing early years of the ruler who was born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows Temudgin from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, but as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader. Mongol shows us the making of an extraordinary man, and the foundation on which so much of his greatness rested: his relationship with his wife, Borte, his lifelong love and most trusted advisor.

Filmed in the very lands that gave birth to Genghis Khan, Mongol transports us back to a distant and exotic period in world history; to a nomad's landscape of endless space, climatic extremes and ever-present danger. In a performance of powerful stillness and subtlety, celebrated young Japanese actor Asano Tadanobu (Zatoichi, Last Life in the Universe) captures the inner fire that enabled a hunted boy to become a legendary conqueror. Asano's achievement is matched by those of his co-stars, including the radiant newcomer Khulan Chuluun as Temudgin's courageous, spirited wife Borte, and the Chinese actor Honglei Sun (The Road Home) as the Mongol chieftain Jamukha, Temudgin's dearest friend and deadliest enemy. Masterfully blending action and emotion against some of the most arresting terrain on earth, Bodrov delivers an exciting and awe-inspiring tale of survival and triumph, and a love story for the ages. --© Picturehouse
[More]

Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Honglei Sun, Khulan Chuluun, Odnyam Odsuren

Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Honglei Sun, Khulan Chuluun, Odnyam Odsuren, Aliy A, Ba Sen, Amadu Mamadakov, Ba Yin, He Qi, Sun Ben Hou, Ji Ri Mu Tu

Director: Sergei Bodrov

Director: Sergei Bodrov
Screenwriter: Arif Aliyev, Sergei Bodrov
Producer: Sergey Selyanov, Sergei Bodrov, Anton Melnik
Composer: Tuomas Kantelinen
Studio: Picturehouse

[See More Credits]

  • Trailers
  • Pictures
  • Trailer
    >
    Brothers Battle
    >
1 - 2 of 2

See More Movie Trailers & Pictures

Reviews for Mongol

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
Arrange By: Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Surrender to its exotic oddity and guttural throat-singing and you’ll be entertained by a sweeping saga that’s like a Mongolian Braveheart.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
06/06/08
Neil Smith
Total Film

A beautiful and ambitious film flawed by its dogged determination to cast Genghis Khan in a new light, the best that can be hoped is that Mongol provides a stage for better things in the forthcoming films.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
06/06/08
Steve Watson
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A gracefully mounted, stunningly photographed historical account, fascinating in its attention to detail if somewhat unengaging in its story and characters.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/05/08
Tom Huddleston
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

With its breathtaking landscapes, bloody battles, bitter betrayals and an aching love story, Mongol is a sumptuously crafted epic

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
06/05/08
Will Lawrence
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top 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

Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly | comment Comment
02/01/09
Tony Macklin
Fayetteville Free Weekly

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

Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | comment Comment
10/17/08
Austin Kennedy
Sin Magazine

...probably not the movie most audiences expected.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
10/10/08
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

Visually stunning, historically interesting, and very entertaining.

Full Review Source: Aisle Seat | comment Comment
10/08/08
Mike McGranaghan
Aisle Seat

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

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
07/19/08
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

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.

Full Review Source: Film.com | comment Comment
07/11/08
Jonathan F. Richards
Film.com

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

Full Review Source: Atlantic City Weekly | comment Comment
07/10/08
Lori Hoffman
Atlantic City Weekly

Genghis Khan's lost decade fuels a handsome fantasy.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
07/10/08
Sandra Hall
Sydney Morning Herald

Hell has no wrath like a Khan scorned.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
07/09/08
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

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

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
07/07/08
Mark R. Leeper
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.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
07/05/08
Phil Hall
Film Threat

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

Full Review Source: New Republic | comment Comment
06/29/08
Stanley Kauffmann
New Republic

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.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
06/27/08
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle

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.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
06/27/08
Rene Rodriguez
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.

Full Review Source: Salt Lake Tribune | comment Comment
06/27/08
Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune

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

Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | comment Comment
06/27/08
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
all

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. Opens in new window
More...

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 Opens in new window
More...

See More Topics...

Related Forums for Mongol

Click here to be the first to post a message on this forum.

See All

More DVDs

Top Rentals
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
—
The Code
23%
23%
Confessions of a Shopa…
39%
39%
Inkheart
80%
80%
Gran Torino
28%
28%
Tyler Perry's Madea Go…

More Rentals…

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
22%
22%
Push
12%
12%
The Unborn

More New Releases…

What’s Hot On RT

Renny Harlin

Renny Harlin

5 Fave Films from the 12 Rounds helmer.

Star Wars

Star Wars

We celebrate 10 years of Episode I.

Drag Me to Hell

Drag Me to Hell

We chat to Sam Raimi and his cast.

Cannes Must-Sees

Cannes Must-Sees

We pick the 10 movies not to miss.

Other News

  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Weekly Ketchup: Universal Takes on Asteroids
86
  • Brandon Routh Talks Superman's Future Source: Moviehole
89
  • Sony's Amy Pascal Explains Moneyball Balk Source: Los Angeles Times
6
  • Three Theaters Getting Harry Potter in IMAX Opening Day Source: Collider.com
18
  • Weekly Ketchup: Adam Sandler joins The Zookeeper, David Fincher joins Facebook
72
  • Zak Penn Talks The Avengers Source: Sci Fi Wire
20
  • Watchmen Director's Cut Headed to Theaters Source: Collider.com
32
  • Lorenzo di Bonaventura Talks G.I. Joe, Beverly Hills Cop 4, More Source: Collider.com
14
  • (Teaser) Trailer Bulletin: The Last Airbender Source: MTV
61
  • Johnny Depp Talks Alice, Pirates 4, Dark Shadows Source: Collider.com
12
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Critics Consensus: Solid Public Enemies Doesn't Quite Bring The Noise
104
  • Five Favorite Films with Fred Durst
87
  • Total Recall: Johnny Depp's Best Movies
87
  • RoboGeisha: 2009's Most Insane Trailer?
79
  • Weekly Ketchup: Universal Takes on Asteroids
43
  • RT on DVD: Street Fighter, Transmorphers 2, and Uwe Boll's Tunnel Rats!
36
  • Academy Invites Tyler Perry, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen to Join Oscar Ranks
28
  • Box Office Guru Wrapup: Transformers and Ice Age Tie for Top Spot
28
  • Box Office Guru Preview: Dinosaurs and Gangsters Spark Fireworks
23
  • Karl Malden: 1912-2009
17
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • RT Interview: Director Carlos Cuaron on Rudo and Cursi
0
  • RT Interview: Tony Scott on The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
10
  • Cannes 2009: RT Interview - Sally Hawkins on We Want Sex
2
  • RT Interview: Tilda Swinton on Julia
5
  • Hollywood Legend Debbie Reynolds Reflects On her Life in Showbiz
10
  • Exclusive: McG Talks Terminator Salvation
24
  • Georgia Groome - Fresh Talent on RT
5
  • RT Interview: Reading The Reader with Stephen Daldry
11
  • RT Interview: Oscar Nominee Melissa Leo
7
  • Carey Mulligan - Fresh Talent on RT
7
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • Mongol at Rotten Tomatoes
  • Mongol at IGN
  • Mongol at AskMen

Fresh Links

Competitions
Blood: The Last Vampire
Blood: The Last Vampire External Link

Combine live-action and manga to create your own movie short and win big!

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.