Robin Hood (2010)

"On my signal, Unleash Hell." Sorry, wrong Crowe/Scott period film. So this film pretty much got crapped on at the box office and message boards, so I had to watch it. I read that the original script was titled Nottingham, and was gonna be about the hierarchy and tyranny of the town. That sounded way cooler than another identical Robin Hood film. Bad promotion and NO word of mouth is why this failed. When you have Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe, and Cate Blanchett attached, it should be golden. Once I was about 35 minutes into it, I felt it could go either way. The story was way different than the other versions. Good different, not stupid different. Although with a 2 hour 20 min run time, I felt it had better pick up or give us something. It did. So the Robin Hood we all know was a rich boy who stole and gave to stick it to the man. This version is actually more about identity theft than anything. When Sir Robin of Locksley is killed, Robin Longstride (Crowe) assumes his identity to get wealth and be safe from battle. Sir Robin should've had Lifelock. None of this would've happened with Lifelock. When Longstride returns to tell the Sir Robin's Father, played by the awesome Max von Sydow, of his son's passing, the charade begins. However, there are bigger problems ahead. With King Richard dead (good, new story line) his moron brother John takes over as King. With his new power he fires his Brother's and Father's right hand man, Marshal (William Hurt), and puts Godfrey (Mark Strong) in charge. He does not know, however, that Godfrey is working with France to overthrow England. All in all, the story is surprisingly good, great even. The deeper it went, the better it got. It really is about the uniting of England's power to not fall to France. The action is great. Great action can only be made possible through great direction. The angles of the scenes and choreography are seemless. I did joke that when this was coming out that I had already seen Gladiator. You gotta admit, it looks similar. Russell Crowe even rides a horse through battle and one of his men toss him his sword in full stride. I don't know if one can technically knock off someone's work if the other person is the same person then and now. Conundrum? This is a complete 180 from Prince of Thieves, which I love, but equally enjoyable. I was more than pleasantly surprised when it was all said and done. What I am sad about, is this was obviously the first of at least 2 Robin films with this cast, but poor ticket sales may have sunk those dreams. After seeing what this one was, I would definitely see a sequel.


NBM rates Robin Hood (2010) - Awesome (for now anyway)


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