Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe Reinvent Sherwood Forest in Robin Hood

By: Scott Yager

Robin Hood, the most recent effort from Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe (in theaters today) has been accused of attempting to please masses too much. For the most part, however, the film is successful in delivering the best movie possible given the circumstances. For a movie that mainly takes place on the battlefield they do a decent job of keeping you entertained even though the violence could obviously be taken up a notch. The script is good, a nice blend of action filled with small bursts of lighthearted comedy. The casting was phenomenal. This film has at least five great performances, especially from some of the smaller parts.

Mark Strong, whose recent ascent to the top of the blockbuster movie mountain has probably caused his semi-look-alike Andy Garcia to consider taking up some non-acting related hobbies, delivers another dark and convincing performance. In Sherlock Holmes it was hard to take in how good he was cause his plot line was so absurd but in Robin Hood he really stands out.

The reimagining of the Robin Hood story attempts to give a different side of the story, this time telling us everything that happened to Robin Hood before all the other movies we have seen about him. Because of this, the film is packed with just as many battle scenes as Braveheart and actually resembles a movie like that more than the Robin Hood version that Bryan Adams made in the early 90’s with Kevin Costner.

Running two hours and twenty minutes, Robin Hood is actually on the shorter side when it comes to movies that deal with so many countries and battles of such epic proportion. It’s a very charming film that never offends you or bores you, a popcorn flick if you will. The music and the direction were superb and Robin Hood serves as a reminder that good filmmaking can take a stale story and reinvent it even without the excessive violence that made a movie like Gladiator so freaking awesome. Nothing spectacular that people are going to be watching until the end of time but in comparison to another rejuvenated franchise, Sherlock Holmes, if there’s one of them that should continue, it’s Hood not Holmes.

I give it Four Shots of Yager (out of Five).

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