Talking Pictures

Another update of the Robin Hood legend, this time starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. In this Ridley Scott directed piece, Crowe is an archer in the army of Richard the Lionhearted and through a series of situations is mistaken for a nobleman.

When he returns to the nobleman’s home, a village called Nottingham, he is asked to continue the ruse to protect the nobleman’s land and family. He meets Marion (Cate Blanchett), the wife of the man he’s pretending to be and the two start to fall for each other.

Both Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett turn in better-than-average performances, but it isn’t enough to save the film from its long-winded feel.

As a story being told, the audience really needed more swashbuckling and bit more bravado.

What they received is a dark, brooding and sometimes morose man who is uninspired as a leader. Actually it is Cate Blanchett’s Marion who is more Robin Hood, than the Russell Crowe character.

Robin gets a B for its camerawork and acting. It’s rated PG-13.

Rich’s Quickie: If you like Gladiator and/or Braveheart, you’ll probably like this. But if you like your Robin Hoods a bit lighter, though; you may not like this!

Robin: Did we need a Robin Hood origin story? Ridley Scott has given it to us anyway, a full 140 minutes of it. Both director and star Russell Crowe are in fine form here (as well is the rest of a stellar cast including Cate Blanchett as Marion Loxley, William Hurt, Mark Strong, and Danny Huston, among others), and the film has a lush look to it. The action sequences are thrilling (if a bit too few and far between), and few of the battles will certainly draw you right in. Max von Sydow arrives in the nick of time and provides much needed humor, depth and soul to the story.

Stealin’: But Robin Hood is likely to remind you a LOT of other movies, such as Gladiator, Braveheart and even the parts of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Obviously, with such similar themes that’s bound to happen; but some of it was too much (like Marion hiding behind a knight’s helmet on the battlefield and taking on the main bad guy). Actually Marion is a sore spot for me in general; trying to make her a strong-willed character it took me right out of the literal time of the movie – in THAT day and age, she simply would have been killed for behaving so.
The movie is also strangely loaded with characters, subplots, and double-crosses between noblemen; you may need a spreadsheet just to keep track of them all. And finally, Crowe is simply in Gladiator mode for most of this movie, a couple of moments of levity notwithstanding. I didn’t want to see him singing in tights necessarily, but I did want my Robin Hood to have a touch more merriment, and to not be so heavy.

Movie Grade: B-

Rated PG-13 for violence including intense sequences of warfare, and some sexual content.

Directed by: Ridley Scott
Written by: Brian Helgeland (screenplay & story) and Ethan Reiff & Cyrus Voris (story)