Movie of the Week: Robin Hood

[jacey]

This owes little allegiance to the  medieval ballads of Robin Hood from which retellers of the tales have taken inspiration for the last century. To be honest the trailer made it look like a cross between Walt Disney and Assassin's Creed, but against all odds I found that I actually enjoyed it. Of course the only way to approach something like this is to consider it as an alternate universe version. The only thing that maps on to more traditional versions of Robin Hood are the names. Forget anything approaching an attempt at historical accuracy. Nottingham never looked like that and the costumes were about as realistic as those in Knight's Tale (which is not necesserily a bad thing because it's still one of my favourite movies).

Once my brain had readjusted to the alternate universe, I went along with this for the ride. Against my expectations Taron Egerton made a respectable Robin (thought it would have been nice if he'd managed a Nottinghamshire accent instead of Essex-boy speak). Eve Hewson as Marion was, for once, not in need of rescuing from the lecherous Sherriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn dressed to look more like an elite Nazi from WW2) Jamie Foxx played John as a Moor recently relocated from the Crusades. At no time did I hear anyone call him 'little'.

Special mention to Tim Minchin as Tuck who was not only there for comic relief, but had a serious side as well.

It's definitely a rock and roll version of Robin Hood, but none the worse for all that. And the ending was set up for a possible sequel. I find I'm quite looking forward to it.

Comments

[sartorias]

I've got to catch this one--sounds like fun. (And I'm happy if a Robin doesn't talk like he's from Los Angeles.)

[jacey]

Yes, it's fun. I've always liked Robin Hood movies and TV shows - the good, the bad and the Disney - from Errol Flynn to Michael Praed's Robin of Sherwood. I even liked the Costner one. (Though I was a bit leery about the Jonas Armstrong one because of the quality of the writing).