I‘m going on record saying I LOVED watching Ridley Scott’s production of ROBIN HOOD starring RUSSELL CROWE. However, I seem to be in the minority of film reviewers – but then again, I’m NOT a film reviewer, just an opinionated amateur.
Russell Crowe - Robin Hood
So here’s what They said; New York magazine: Scott’s Robin Hood is a pompous, interminable hash. New Yorker magazine: What do you get if you mix “Gladiator,” “The Return of Martin Guerre,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Elizabeth,” “Troy,” “The Seventh Seal,” and a hundred buckets of mud? The answer is “Robin Hood”—the latest version, that is, directed by Ridley Scott. Anthony Lane neither applauds or derides the movie, his review is more of a plot synopsis.
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2010/05/24/100524crci_cinema_lane#ixzz0oVdwXti0
Slash Film: How does a good idea become a terrible movie? That’s the perennial question in Hollywood, where the intersection of creative ideas, business sense and big egos can so easily produce something very different from what was originally intended. That seems to have been the case with Robin Hood, which was originally meant to be based on a hot screenplay by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris called Nottingham. Then Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott
came along and everything changed. Eventually the result was a film that stands at less than %50 Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and was beat by Iron Man 2 in that film’s second weekend. So what happened? Cinematical: The results are in for the weekend box-office, and Tony Stark has officially delivered a beat-down to Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. Everything seemed to be in place, you had two Academy award winners, a great figure from popular myth, and origin-story fever in full swing. But, so far the flick has only earned so-so reviews and unfortunately, even more bad press for Crowe. Collective Review, Nicholas Deigman: The acting is average; but when the acting is ‘average’ in a film with a cast like this, you know something is wrong. Poor performances have become a Ridley Scott trope as he tumbles into his winter years. He seems to have grown tired – or scared – of the questioning glances of his desperately confused actors; preferring instead to fawn over the stuntmen and choreographers that will garner him praise for his mastery of ‘action sequences’. The cast is enviable, and every one of them wasted. News in Film, Jeff Leins: Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood is an unnecessary entry to the lore, going to great lengths to uncover the man behind the myth by ignoring much of the beloved legend that has endured for centuries. Masquerading behind a traditional title, this contemporary remake robs from a rich history and gives only a poor origin story in return.
BUT ENOUGH OF “THEM”
The movie is NOT your usual depiction of the legend that has become Robin Hood and his Merry Men stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. OKAY so??? Why would a director like Ridley Scott just redo what has already been done and re-done again? This is meant to be a prequel, a story of how Robin Longstride becomes Robin Hood. I think the problem so many people have with it is that up to this point our image of Robin Hood is somewhere between Peter Pan and Zorro. He is the good guy and the Sheriff of Nottingham is the bad guy….but that has been played out so much it’s taken on the aura of The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. And most of the prior incarnations of this legend have Robin Hood, lithe, lean and dressed in green! NOT so in this version and thank God! I’ve seen the giggling, leaping and posing Errol Flynn and I’ll take Russell’s brooding, dark and powerful Robin Hood any day. I’m not even a big Russell Crowe fan BUT ladies, he is reeking animal magnetism under that chain mail!!! Sexy – YES!
Much has been said about the casting of Cate Blanchette as the fair Maid Marian. She is not fair and she is not Olivia de Haviland and again thank God because Olivia would probably not find the brutish, sweating and downright dirty Russell would not appeal to her more delicate sensitivities. While Cate is SO real woman, so 12th Century and the scene of her washing the mud off her feet is perfect. The chemistry between them is palpable and yet demure because she is after all, a lady.
The film is full of blood and gore and mud – lots of mud! A lot of action, long fight scenes that have been artfully edited as they were in Gladiator. And some great actor portraying some pretty nasty characters. This just isn’t a happy go lucky band of mandolin players and archers who are really anarchists led by a prancing, dancing Jolly Green Good Guy. Thank God! Thank Ridley Scott and thank you Russell for managing to bring your rough, angry man, all man film persona to this character. Oh and by the way, the archery scenes are great BUT the arrows shot forth from Robin Hood’s bow make you just quiver – PUN INTENED!
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