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Robin Hood
Rate It:
Total votes: 992
Average Rating: 2.8
Robin Hood
Rate It:
Total votes: 1129
Average Rating: 2.9
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Year: 2010
Genre: Drama / Action
Trailer: Trailer 1
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Russell Crowe,
Cate Blanchett,
William Hurt , Max von Sydow, Mark Strong, Mark Addy, Oscar Isaac, Eileen Atkins, Danny Huston, Léa Seydoux, Ruby Bentall
Cast aside all notions of men in tights: Ridley Scott's Robin Hood is decidedly earthier and more grown-up than most romps through Sherwood Forest. The presence of the over-40 Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett cinches the deal, lending a dose of worldliness to a project that means to be about the origins of the famous character, who in this incarnation was evidently a late bloomer. Robin Longstride (that's his name before he started wearing a hood) is just returned from a 10-year jaunt in the Crusades when he loses his king (Danny Huston as Richard the Lionheart) and his job. Back in England, Robin folds himself neatly into a Nottingham family, where a grieving widow named Marion (Blanchett) and her father-in-law (Max von Sydow) hardly care that he doesn't much resemble their own departed warrior. But the merry men and their famous sideline will have to wait: except for one bit of robbing from the rich (i.e., the greedy government of King John) and giving to the poor, this movie is more concerned with creating a portrait of the royal intrigue that went into creating Robin Hood than in detailing the high jinks of the Nottingham outlaws. And that's not a bad thing, because although Robin Hood lacks the mechanical action beats that distinguish most films of its scale, it creates an engrossing story line around its political chess playing (outlined by screenwriter Brian Helgeland and apparently a few others). Crowe is in reliable crusty-tender form and Blanchett summons up more than her sketchy character probably deserves, but the film has a large cast of chewy, fun performers: Mark Strong (Kick-Ass) does baddie duty as the treacherous pal of King John (preening Oscar Isaacs), William Hurt is stalwart and wise as a royal power broker, Eileen Atkins is a carefully considered royal mum, and Matthew Macfadyen is a Sheriff of Nottingham who's no longer central to the villainy--though no less hissable for his ineptitude (and a prime candidate at film's end for No. 1 bad guy in the sequel). In short, not a Gladiator re-do for Scott and Crowe, but a civilized tale of tyrants and rebels, staged in a pleasingly old-fashioned way.
Source: Robert Horton (Amazon.com)
Year: 1991
Genre: Drama
Trailer:
Director: John Irvin
Cast: Patrick Bergin, Uma Thurman,
Jürgen Prochnow, Edward Fox, Jeroen Krabbé, David Morrissey
Film buffs may remember the tangled tale of competing Robin Hood projects in 1991. Kevin Costner, riding high from his Oscar wins for Dances with Wolves, had his pick of projects at the time, and he juggled his interest in parallel Hood films that were under development at different studios. Costner chose Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, of course, directed by his friend Kevin Reynolds, while the other production (the one described here), attached to veteran British director John Irvin (The Dogs of War), ended up on cable television with another Yank, Patrick Bergin, in the lead. Comparisons were inevitable, even though the two films were very different from one another. A little harder edged and more surprising than Reynolds's work, the Irvin-Bergin movie made all that medieval heroism seem more an effort of the heart than previous versions. Roughing things up a bit is Uma Thurman as a bratty Maid Marion, not quite the traditional damsel in distress of yesteryear. Irvin keeps the adventure quotient up, but this is simply a darker, grittier variation on the old tale. With Jürgen Prochnow, Jeroen Krabbé, and Conrad Asquith.
Source: Tom Keogh (Amazon.com)
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