Robin Hood

[stray]

Dammit, I KNEW I shoulda looked that up. Blame Numtini

I like "preternatural beauty" though.

To be fair, she's somehow shaped into a fairly normal looking person (or if you're inclined, just ugly in a normal sense). When she was younger, she was weirder looking. I'd still like her for being tall though.

[Sir T]

I was actually semi serious about the Kevin Costner thing. If you look at it. Kev is trying to be a really serious epic hero (badly) and everyone else is swashing their buckles in the same vein as 'Pirates of the Caribbean.' Cut out Costner and there is a really lighthearted film with lots of action, that Costner ruined by trying to be Laurence Oliver's Hamlet.

I remember reading about the production at the time. The problem was that there were actually 2 different visions in the film. There was Costner (who had creative control) trying to make an serious epic, and His Director who had an entirely different vision. It came to a head when Costner had the Director fired after shooting had finished, then re-cut the film to cut out multiple scenes with the sheriff and other characters (as he felt, rightly, that Alan Rickman was upstaging him) and enhance his role. Which naturally left a bit of a mess, but I stand by the assertion that if you ignore Costner the film is a damn good one.

Oh and Costner and that Director(who's name I cant remember, sorry) patched things up and they went on to make 'Waterworld', where Costner fired him mid shooting...

[Samwise]

To be fair, she's somehow shaped into a fairly normal looking person (or if you're inclined, just ugly in a normal sense). When she was younger, she was weirder looking. I'd still like her for being tall though.

She looked her best in Baron Munchausen IMO:

[Lakov_Sanite]

My vote for best robin hood

[stray]

Wasn't he also the king in Men in Tights?

You could pretty much cast him as any classic character and he's great. Ahab, Scrooge..... Professor X :P

[Sir T]

Wasn't he also the king in Men in Tights?

You could pretty much cast him as any classic character and he's great. Ahab, Scrooge..... Professor X :P

"I hereby declare that all the toilets in the realm shall be called 'Johns'"

And Professor X is a classic character?

[Abagadro]

To be fair, she's somehow shaped into a fairly normal looking person (or if you're inclined, just ugly in a normal sense). When she was younger, she was weirder looking. I'd still like her for being tall though.

She looked her best in Baron Munchausen IMO:

I prefer her in Dangerous Liaisons. Much more naked.

[Venkman]

I'm all for the naked, but really, it's not like she's all that hot either. I've got to be missing something.

The problem was that there were actually 2 different visions in the film. There was Costner (who had creative control) trying to make an serious epic, and His Director who had an entirely different vision.

Interesting. In retrospect, I can totally see that. At the time, I actually thought he wasn't trying to take himself too seriously. Not like anyone else in the film really was either. But that's a hallmark of 80s action flicks too, so I figured it was intended.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Wasn't he also the king in Men in Tights?

You could pretty much cast him as any classic character and he's great. Ahab, Scrooge..... Professor X :P

"I hereby declare that all the toilets in the realm shall be called 'Johns'"

And Professor X is a classic character?

'classical' no but prof X is certainly a comic classic/icon

[Sir T]

Yeah I'll give you that.

[stray]

Prof X was tongue in cheek. Maybe woulda been funnier if I just said Jean Luc Picard.  

His Scrooge is great though. I think both that and Moby Dick were TNT TV movies, but they were good.

[Abagadro]

I am a Robin Hood freak. I'd say the Flynn version is my favorite, followed by the Pagan Robin of Sherwood series--at least the first two seasons. After that, I'm very fond of the 91 Patrick Bergin/Uma Thurmond one that sort of got lost because Prince of Thieves, which oddly I've never seen, came out the same year.

In a plate of shrimp moment, stumbled upon this tonight on Encore WAM and am watching it. They definitely play up the historical aspect quite a bit with the Norman/Saxon tension aspect. Good cast for sure and quite interesting although I don't altogether buy Jurgen Prochnow even though I like him as an actor.

[Khaldun]

I loathe Men In Tights.

Then don't ever watch Prince of Thieves, because MIT borrowed heavily from it for a lot of the jokes.

Also, your comedy sense is broken. 

A heck of a lot of MIT is actually about the Errol Flynn version.

Which I also love. Yay Numtini.

The Bergin one is really quite decent, quite watchable.

[Xuri]

Necro!

Critics (who have, at least in Norway, been very critical - which I guess is their job) be damned, but I just saw this movie tonight and enjoyed every last bit of it.

[SurfD]

Semi historical query to those who would know:

Did Richard the Lionheart actually die on his way home from the crusades or not?   Having grown up as a youngster with the Disney version of Robin hood and later watched Prince of Thieves, the whole staple of Richard returning at a crucial moment to save Robin and co from evil John was always taken as sort of a given in the Robin Hood mithos for me.

The new take with Crowe of course, throws that whole notion out the window.

So what gives?

[Riggswolfe]

Necro!

Critics (who have, at least in Norway, been very critical - which I guess is their job) be damned, but I just saw this movie tonight and enjoyed every last bit of it.

I find myself with the critics. Frankly, this isn't a Robin Hood movie and it was....well...boring and pretentious.

[Tebonas]

They transplanted the Robin Hood story to a later time in history it seems.

Richard Lioneart was captured in Austria when he returned from the Crusade. That is a historic fact and a city I was in once or twice was founded by the ransom money, Wiener Neustart.

John tried to overthrow Richard with the help of King Philip (yes, the one he fought in the movie). Richard returned to England after the ransom was paid and died 5 years later in France by a crossbow bolt when he besieged a small castle while supressing the revolt of a local Lord in France.

He lived long enough to die in the arms of his mother and settle his own succession (he himself gave his territory to John, whom he had already forgiven after his return).

[Megrim]

So, apart from this being Gladiator II: The Forests Of England, is there any truth to the rumours that the script was originally called 'Nottingham' and featured the sheriff being the good guy?

[Velorath]

Kind of hard to call them rumors when you can look up news articles from back when it was called Nottingham.  But yeah, the script went through a number of changes.

[devildog]

I walked out on the movie at the 1.5 hour mark or thereabouts. This is only the second movie i have ever walked out on. It was that bad. They couldn't pay me to watch this movie, and i use the term movie loosely. I went in knowing it was a prequel and a twist on the normal story, but no where do i remember them saying the fighting would suck and i would be bored to tears. If this movie was a book i would have exited after chapter 2 i think. How you take the heroism out of Robin Hood and make it a girly movie I'm not sure. There were actually reviewers out there that liked this movie on rottentomatoes.com. I think one guy from the NY post and a couple of other people from credible papers liked it. I just don't see it.

I would personally warn everyone away from this movie even when it comes on t.v. in a few months. It was painful. I can't even put my finger on what sucked so badly. It was just a compilation of small problems adding up to a flaming pile of shit. None of the actors seemed invested, though i don't blame them. None of the characters were that heroic nor did i feel attached to any of them much. They took a comic book story/ mythology and somehow turned it into Robin Hood/Dances with Wolves or worse. The wheel of time series is laughing at your epic butchering, that's how bad it was. They took the descriptiveness too far and gutted the story for me. Painful, sad, and a waste of cash this weekend. Somehow Kevin Costner comes away smelling like a rose and still the reigning Robin Hood of this generation, pathetic.

[Ginaz]

I walked out on the movie at the 1.5 hour mark or thereabouts. This is only the second movie i have ever walked out on. It was that bad. They couldn't pay me to watch this movie, and i use the term movie loosely. I went in knowing it was a prequel and a twist on the normal story, but no where do i remember them saying the fighting would suck and i would be bored to tears. If this movie was a book i would have exited after chapter 2 i think. How you take the heroism out of Robin Hood and make it a girly movie I'm not sure. There were actually reviewers out there that liked this movie on rottentomatoes.com. I think one guy from the NY post and a couple of other people from credible papers liked it. I just don't see it.

I would personally warn everyone away from this movie even when it comes on t.v. in a few months. It was painful. I can't even put my finger on what sucked so badly. It was just a compilation of small problems adding up to a flaming pile of shit. None of the actors seemed invested, though i don't blame them. None of the characters were that heroic nor did i feel attached to any of them much. They took a comic book story/ mythology and somehow turned it into Robin Hood/Dances with Wolves or worse. The wheel of time series is laughing at your epic butchering, that's how bad it was. They took the descriptiveness too far and gutted the story for me. Painful, sad, and a waste of cash this weekend. Somehow Kevin Costner comes away smelling like a rose and still the reigning Robin Hood of this generation, pathetic.

Good lord, it wasn't that bad.  It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen but it was far, far from the worst.

[Xuri]

It was good entertainment, and I consider the ticket-money well spent. *shrug*

[Tebonas]

Overall I was amused by it, but the pony cavalry of Sherwood Forest at the battle with the invasion force was beyond retarded.

[Nebu]

Well, this just dropped from "must see at the theater" to "I'll get it from Netflix and watch it on my flat screen".

Thanks for saving me the money and hassle.

[Mrbloodworth]

I really don't care about yet another retelling of robin hood.  Like what, 5 movies, 4 series...bleah

[Nebu]

I really don't care about yet another retelling of robin hood.  Like what, 5 movies, 4 series...bleah

Did you like The Dark Knight?  Sometimes the 50th retelling is well worth watching.

[Evildrider]

I really don't care about yet another retelling of robin hood.  Like what, 5 movies, 4 series...bleah

Did you like The Dark Knight?  Sometimes the 50th retelling is well worth watching.

Batman > Robin Hood tho.   

[Thrawn]

From watching interviews and such I think "Generic middle ages movie" would of been a better title.

[Comstar]

It's one of the big budget Hollywood movies that won't lose anything by seeing it on a TV or PC monitor.

[WindupAtheist]

From watching interviews and such I think "Generic middle ages movie" would of been a better title.

[Sir T]

He was invoking his inner cockney for the occasion.

[Mrbloodworth]

I really don't care about yet another retelling of robin hood.  Like what, 5 movies, 4 series...bleah

Did you like The Dark Knight?  Sometimes the 50th retelling is well worth watching.

The dark night is the detective, not woodland chivalry socialist man.

[Zetleft]

Robbing from the poor.  Decent read from the original screenwriter on how he believes Nottingham became yet another run of the mill Robin Hood movie.  I had read a great article on this a few days ago but can't seem to find it now. 

[DraconianOne]

Bill Martell wasn't the original screenwriter of Nottingham but he is a respected writer who has had many, many screenplays turned into absolute dross. If you saw the films made from his screenplays, you'd be inclined to think that he was the Worst Writer Ever until you read his scripts and realise that the films bear absolutely no relation to the source barring, perhaps, some character names and a line or two of dialogue. See also the original US Godzilla script by Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio (subsequently butchered by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich).

The original "Nottingham" screenplay is around on the internet (Here's a link but it may not last too long ) and it's worth a read because it's pretty good and definitely an interesting take on an old story. I'd have been more interested in seeing it if they'd made that version.

[Tarami]

I thought it was rather mediocre. Sure, the concept could work, but the actual script was riddled with the usual silly anachronisms and infantile Hollywood dialogue. Then again, I haven't seen Robin Hood so it might be fantastic compared to that.