Now, where's that flammin' mongrel who told me this would be good for my career...Dreams really can come true. On Tuesday night I dreamt that Robin Hood -- the fourth collaboration between Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe this month -- was a massive disappointment. On Thursday night in the real world, this was confirmed.
I had quite high expectations for Robin Hood. Scott and Crowe produced the goods -- or at least some good -- in Gladiator, so I had little reason to doubt that they could create something compelling out of this popular legend. While Robin Hood hasn’t been camped up to the same degree that Batman was when the caped crusader reached his nadir in Batman and Robin, there was certainly room for improvement after his last "serious" big-screen outing in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. This felt like the right time for a makeover; the time to make the definitive Robin Hood film.
What we get instead is a feature-length episode of Xena: Warrior Princess without the lesbian undertones. And oh how they were missed.
Things get so bad that at one point the film turns into a sort of medieval rom-com, with Robin Hood and Lady Marion having to pretend to be married, much to Robin’s amusement and the fair lady’s disgust. At this stage I was just glad not to see Matthew McConnaughey join Robin’s band of merry men and make a bet with them that he could woo Marion before Robin could. Although on second thoughts, that might have made for a more entertaining film. It also would have been fun to hear who could do the worst English accent between the two male leads. Crowe changed his around five times, none of which were ever close to being convincing. I can only imagine the level of butchery that McConnaughey would have reached.
My advice is to skip this dull mess, whose sole highlight comes in the last minute of the film. If you’re desperate to feed this part of your brain, simply switch on an episode of Xena. It’s just like Robin Hood, but with lesbian undertones.
I had quite high expectations for Robin Hood. Scott and Crowe produced the goods -- or at least some good -- in Gladiator, so I had little reason to doubt that they could create something compelling out of this popular legend. While Robin Hood hasn’t been camped up to the same degree that Batman was when the caped crusader reached his nadir in Batman and Robin, there was certainly room for improvement after his last "serious" big-screen outing in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. This felt like the right time for a makeover; the time to make the definitive Robin Hood film.
What we get instead is a feature-length episode of Xena: Warrior Princess without the lesbian undertones. And oh how they were missed.
Things get so bad that at one point the film turns into a sort of medieval rom-com, with Robin Hood and Lady Marion having to pretend to be married, much to Robin’s amusement and the fair lady’s disgust. At this stage I was just glad not to see Matthew McConnaughey join Robin’s band of merry men and make a bet with them that he could woo Marion before Robin could. Although on second thoughts, that might have made for a more entertaining film. It also would have been fun to hear who could do the worst English accent between the two male leads. Crowe changed his around five times, none of which were ever close to being convincing. I can only imagine the level of butchery that McConnaughey would have reached.
My advice is to skip this dull mess, whose sole highlight comes in the last minute of the film. If you’re desperate to feed this part of your brain, simply switch on an episode of Xena. It’s just like Robin Hood, but with lesbian undertones.
No comments:
Post a Comment