Not so easy when your adversary makes the Grendel clan look like Laurel and Hardy.

FORBES: Leadership lessons from Beowulf

For 12 years the monster Grendel has been picking off King Hrothgar's best guys, munching them like so many rice crackers.

FORBES: Leadership lessons from Beowulf

Beowulf shows up, boasting he can destroy Grendel with his bare hands.

FORBES: Leadership Lessons from Beowulf

When Grendel's mother emerges from the slime as the delicately airbrushed Angelina, her feet are cloven stilettos and her long ponytail curves behind like a dragon's tail.

CNN: Review: Exciting 'Beowulf' jumps off the screen

"I'm like Grendel in Beowulf, " he continues.

FORBES: Karl Rove Speaks Up

Sure, Grendel has an anger management problem, but then he is stuck with appallingly noisy neighbors, egged on by a beer-bellied Dionysus, King Hrothgar, the demon's own dad (Anthony Hopkins, whose paunch is one 3-D effect too many).

CNN: Review: Exciting 'Beowulf' jumps off the screen

The story concerns the title warrior, who arrives in Denmark in the year 507 to do battle with Grendel, a giant, pustulant, suppurating demon that terrifies the Danish court whenever they're in their mead cups, which is often.

CNN: Review: Exciting 'Beowulf' jumps off the screen