Oscar-winner Russell Crowe and acclaimed director Ridley Scott, in their fifth collaboration (after Gladiator, A Good Year, American Gangster, Body of Lies) retell the Robin Hood legend – last tackled by Kevin Costner in Prince of Thieves.
Crowe stars as the bow-wielding hero, while Cate Blanchett plays Maid Marian.
I had a sense of unfulfilled hopes when I sat through the whole of Robin Hood only to have the words “The legend begins” appear in the final few seconds. Why not begin when the legend does? That’s when the fun starts, surely?
Like Casino Royale, or Batman Begins, this is a back-to-the-beginning tale that explains how the character came to be. The intention is to revisit the folklore hero, to make him more real and ditch the fantasy. Personally, I liked the fantasy.
Instead, this bland but bombastic version attempts to set everything within a pseudo-historical context, channel-hopping between England and France, and throwing in a bit of politics.
Fans of Scott’s Gladiator will be relieved to find quite a bit of action, including a beach landing that recalls Saving Private Ryan. And yet it’s not very graphic – there are plenty of arrows going through bodies but there isn’t much blood to be spurted.
There’s certainly a thrill in seeing all the usual characters on screen (The Sheriff, Little John, Friar Tuck et al) and they are well cast. Hood’s camaraderie with his merry men (not referred to as such, although they use ‘merry’ as an adjective on occasion) is fun.
Everything is set up for ‘Robin Hood 2’ and hopefully that will have a better sense of adventure. Meanwhile, the 1991 Kevin Costner version remains a more entertaining take on the hero of Sherwood forest.
By Andrew Hedley, Flicks.co.nz
I give it two and a half rotis
The best movie absolutely. Watched it twice and the extra features. Both Russell and the whole cast were amazing. For us it was like we were there in the movie in the 1200's. Action, twists, you name it.
best movie i have seen in a long time. lots of jokes and action plus russell is a total hottie
This is a long movie and it feels awful long. This is Robin Hood's story before he became an outlaw. And it makes a fair mockery of history. For some reason the movie focus on the French trying to invade England after Richard LionHeart came back from Jerusalem and died on his way back to France. Only Ridley Scott failed to explain that Richard Coeur de Lion (his original nickname - later translated as Lionheart in English) was not only French speaking very little English, son of King Henry II of England (also French) and great grand-son of William the Conqueror (French again) but was also living in the Duchy of Aquitaine, in south west... eur France. This took place a century after the French (Franks) conquered Jerusalem during the First Crusade. Saladin led the Ottoman (Turks) to reconquer Jerusalem and that is when the Pope called for a Third Crusade. So while painting Richard "Lionheart" as an Englishman fighting the French seems patriotic to Ridley, it is historically inaccurate. Richard Coeur de Lion although born in Oxford was a Frenchman fighting his French father King Henry II of England, and in order to do so, he made an alliance with the French court and pledged allegiance to King Louis VII. So it was pretty much an all French affair. Now, that is where it becomes horribly complicated. Robin Hood fought under the orders of Richard Lionheart therefore he was on Louis VII side against the King Henry II of England. Then, once returning in England, he creates an alliance with Henry the Young King (who betrayed his father Henry II King of England) but who also happened to betray Richard Lionheart. In other words, Robin Hood never fought the French as it is described in the motion picture, he just switched camp whenever suited him. In other words, in true History Robin would be more of a treator than the bad guy of that movie who was in fact the only guy loyal to his King Henry II, if you still follow me. If you are not fond of History, they are two other major let downs in this movie. First, Robin Hood made use of his bow only twice the whole time. (once to torture a French dude then to kill the treator at the end) The rest of the movie, Robin is using a sword having stolen the identity of a knight in order to save his skin. At this point Robin seems to enjoy his knighthood (and an old Mariane played by Cate Blanchett) while trying to find who killed his real father, a pointless quest that brings only more confusion to the movie. Indeed, he becomes friend with the old man who had his real father killed. The old man in question is 80+ years old which is well worth a page in the Guinness Book Record given we are in the Middle Age and everyone dies in their 40s (bad luck and bad teeth). The second major drawback is that the infamous Sheriff of Notthingham plays no major role in this prequel, only the role of a buffon who seems to be afraid of his own shadow. It is hard to imagine how the Sheriff could ever become the main bad guy in the sequel, because any little respect Ridley Scott gave him, he took it back almost immediately. Now the good news is: I sincerely doubt Ridley Scott will dare to do a sequel. His movie was so bad it is already available on DVD as a bundle with Gladiator. Hence the reason(s) why this Robin Hood is by far the worst version ever. Atrocious indeed.
Excuse me, dis is Malofo from da islands, and here is my reviews of da Robin hoods. Oh my life, is he da baddies or da goodies? I am so confused. He is doing da armed burglaries, when my cousin latu did da armed robberies in mangere he got da arrested and he was on da police ten 7 and now hes famous in all of da tuvalu islands
Grown-up but not too serious; action-packed but not juvenile… Not only is this the mullet-free Robin Hood movie we’ve been waiting decades for, it’s also Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe at their most entertaining since Gladiator.
Scott has an eye -- and it's a very good one -- for sieges of castles, charging horsemen, hand-to-hand combat, glistening swords arcing through the air and deadly arrows whistling toward helpless targets.
Rusty Crowe and his trusty bow in good form but movie can't see Sherwood forest for the trees...
The most pointless and bloated vanity project since Battlefield Earth. Overthought, overwrought and not over soon enough.
The final epic sequence which culminates on a battle on England's Dover cliffs is stunning - cameras swoop in and capture every nuance of the action.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 13th May 2010.
Release date: May 13th 2010.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
