#100-B: ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES (1991) & ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS (1993) & DISNEY’S ROBIN HOOD (1973)

 

ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES (1991)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

No, first time watching it

BEST SEQUENCE

The execution rescue scene

BEST LINE

“Locksley! I’m going to cut your heart out with a spoon!” - The Sheriff of Nottingham, with a pretty good threat

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

51%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

“Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves brings a wonderfully villainous Alan Rickman to this oft-adapted tale, but he's robbed by big-budget bombast and a muddled screenplay.”

IMDB SYNOPSIS

“When Robin and his Moorish companion come to England and the tyranny of the Sheriff of Nottingham, he decides to fight back as an outlaw.”

THOUGHTS

• Well, let’s get it out of the way. Kevin Costner, as Robin Hood, is really bad in this. Most famously, he was ripped apart for his English accent, and it really is quite terrible, especially since you can tell that in some scenes there was an unsuccessful attempt. More importantly for me, though, he’s just so incredibly boring in this movie in general. He’s a black hole of charisma, and you’d think an outlaw leader living in a treehouse town would be having a little more fun, but he really isn’t interesting to watch.
• I’m not sure why, but I feel like I’ve always had an affection for Kevin Costner, despite not having seen him in much. I think he’s good in The Untouchables, and at some point in my life I’ve seen Field of Dreams and Bull Durham, and that’s about it. Thinking about those movies, Kevin Costner is maybe just a boring actor and that’s his range? It works in The Untouchables because that’s the character’s whole deal, but come on, Robin Hood needs a little more pep.
• Alan Rickman as the Sheriff, on the other hand, you can tell he’s having a good time, and that was generally the critical consensus. But in my opinion, he’s fine. Sure, he’s more interesting than Kevin Costner. But he doesn’t make this movie worth watching.
• He got more and more unhinged towards the end of the movie, but at the beginning I got distinct Hans Gruber vibes. If I want to get Hans Gruber vibes, though, I’m just going to watch Die Hard (a movie that we’ll be talking about in full a little later, and I can’t wait)
• The rest of the cast is also pretty much fine, with some more inconsistent accents. Christian Slater and Morgan Freeman pretty much sound like Christian Slater and Morgan Freeman. Respectively, I mean, they didn’t swap voices or anything, although I do think that would look and sound hilarious.
• The first half of the movie is terribly dull. I’m fairly certain Robin doesn’t even shoot an arrow until minute 56
• There are a couple of good action scenes in the back half of the movie - the Sheriff attacks Robin’s hideout, burning it down, and that’s pretty thrilling. As well, as mentioned above, the climactic sequence in which Robin saves a group of his men from hanging is pretty effective. Nice to finally be able to say that the climax of a movie is the best part, especially after most of the Marvel movies left me a little cold

ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS (1993)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

4

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, but it’s probably been 20+ years

BEST SEQUENCE

Little hard to choose a best sequence in a movie like this, but I’ll go with the rapid-fire gags in the training montage.

BEST LINE

“Because, unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent.” - Robin, explaining why the people of England will follow him

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

40%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

“Undisciplined, scatological, profoundly silly, and often utterly groan-worthy, Robin Hood: Men in Tights still has an amiable, anything-goes goofiness that has made it a cult favorite.”

IMDB SYNOPSIS

“A spoof of Robin Hood in general, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) in particular.”

THOUGHTS

• Fun fact, Mel Brooks has not directed a movie since 1995 when he directed Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Robin Hood was the second-last movie he directed, and we can be honest, this is not peak Mel Brooks
• But did I have fun? Sure. More fun than I had watching the movie this was directly parodying
• I love Cary Elwes. He was clearly having a ball in this, and he’s actually pretty good at sword fighting, as we’ve seen in The Princess Bride, leading to this having a higher-than-expected Thrill Score!
• Richard Lewis as Prince John and Roger Rees as the Sheriff are also pretty fun! Slimy and sleazy
• All of these live-action Robin Hood movies include a scene where someone gets whacked on the butt with the broad side of a sword. Was sword spanking actually a thing?! Let me know, all you medieval scholars, and put your research to good use
• Jokes that flew miles over my head when I was a pre-teen:
• When trying to rouse the troops Robin makes an attempt at an inspiring speech by emulating Winston Churchill. This falls flat, so Dave Chappelle puts on some Malcolm X glasses and actually succeeds. Definitely would not have recognized the references, and especially the glasses.
• There is an attempt to assassinate Robin, in which a sniper hides out in a tower to shoot Robin with a crossbow. There’s a sign in the tower which reads “Royal Folio Depository,” referencing the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK from the Texas School Book Depository.
• And yeah, Dave Chappelle was in this movie, in his film debut!
• And finally, a couple more lines that made me laugh:
• Isaac Hayes, as Asneeze, describing his son, Ahchoo: “He is in need of guidance. He is headstrong and cocksure. Or is it the other way around?”
• Robin’s servant, Blinkin, presenting Robin with a gift left to him by his late father: “Your father wanted me to give you this. He said that inside is the key to the greatest treasure in all the land...May I keep it?”

ROBIN HOOD (1973)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

4

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, but it’s been even longer, 25+ years

BEST SEQUENCE

The Phony King of England song

BEST LINE

“You heard his mightiness, move it, creepy, get lost. Begone, long one.” - Little John, in disguise, shooing away Sir Hiss

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

54%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

“One of the weaker Disney adaptations, Robin Hood is cute and colorful but lacks the majesty and excitement of the studio's earlier efforts.”

IMDB SYNOPSIS

“The story of the legendary British outlaw is portrayed with the characters as humanoid animals.”

THOUGHTS

• I liked it! Fun voice acting, appealing characters, and nice animation and scenery.
• He’s a very prolific and famous actor, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Peter Ustinov in anything else. He plays Prince John the lion in this and he’s hilarious!
• I always had it in my head that Little John in this and Baloo from The Jungle Book were portrayed as the same bear. Phil Harris voiced both, but nope, they’re definitely different bears. Little John is brown and Baloo is grey
• I had the same idea about Sir Hiss from this and Kaa from The Jungle Book. They’re even further removed, though. Different voice actors and different appearance, although they do both hypnotize people with their eyes.
• At some point, practically every character in this movie says “oo-de-lally,” to the extent that I started to wonder if it was actually an expression from medieval England, but nah, apparently it was popularized in the 1950s. So much for verisimilitude.
• Also, multiple characters refer to the Sheriff as “bushel-britches” which is such an oddly specific thing to say more than once.
• Another pretty good escape scene as a climax!

And now, time to compare all four Robin Hood movies I watched!

Best Robin Hood: Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood

Best Maid Marian: Olivia de Havilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood

Best Prince John: It's a tie! Claude Rains in The Adventures of Robin Hood, Peter Ustinov in Disney, and Richard Lewis in Robin Hood: Men in Tights, I like them all. But Prince John isn’t even a character in Prince of Thieves!

Best Sheriff of Nottingham: Alan Rickman in Prince of Thieves

Best Little John: Phil Harris in Disney

Best Friar Tuck: Mel Brooks as Rabbi Tuckman in Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Best romance between Robin and Maid Marian: Disney

Best Action: The Adventures of Robin Hood. If I could go back, I might even bump that Thrill Score up to a 7/10, but I shall try my best not to change scores after they’re decided

Up next: Speed! And spoiler alert, for the first time we’ll be talking about a movie that I think should be much, much higher up on the list!

#100: THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

6

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

No, first time watching it

BEST SEQUENCE

Robin’s escape from execution. About to be hanged, Robin's men rescue him, and there's a really cool part where Robin chops through a rope, dropping a heavy portcullis, and riding the rope to the top of the gate.

BEST LINE

“There’s a lusty infant!” - Robin Hood, the first time he sees Little John

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

100%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

“Errol Flynn thrills as the legendary title character, and the film embodies the type of imaginative family adventure tailor-made for the silver screen.”

IMDB SYNOPSIS

“When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla army.”

THOUGHTS

• Errol Flynn certainly dashing as Robin Hood
• Claude Rains as Prince John is not intimidating in the least, just whiny and obnoxious. Sometimes that makes for a perfectly hateable villain, though, and that’s surely what they were going for
• Basil Rathbone as Guy of Gisbourne, on the other hand, is supposed to be the intimidating one, but he doesn’t leave much of an impression. His climactic sword fight with Robin is pretty exciting, however
• Olivia de Havilland is a lovely Maid Marian
• Impressive sets and beautiful scenery. And you have to love the costumes
• Some of the action scenes have a weird sped-up, cartoony quality. Just a filming technique from back then, I suppose
• In some scenes the good guys are killing dudes in cold blood by shooting them through the heart with arrows, and in other scenes they’re swinging around on vines and jumping out of trees like frigging Ewoks
• The archery is really quite effective, though, and the arrows thunk into the bad guys with an impact you can feel. At first I assumed it was just movie magic and they weren’t real arrows, but according to Wikipedia, “Stunt men and bit players, padded with balsa wood on protective metal plates, were paid $150 per arrow for being shot by professional archer Howard Hill.” Sure, I’ll take an arrow for $150, come at me
• Lots of talk about the Normans and the Saxons, and I have so little knowledge about English history that I have no idea what either means
• While I chose Robin’s “lusty infant” line as the best line of the movie, just because of how bizarre it sounded, there were actually quite a few great lines throughout the movie:

Maid Marian, to Robin: “Why, you speak treason!”
Robin: “Fluently”

Maid Marian, defending herself, after being caught helping Robin Hood: “I’d do it again if you killed me for it”

Prince John: “Prophetic speech, my lady. For that is exactly what is going to happen to you.”

• And lastly, perhaps my actual favourite line.

Will Scarlet enters and sees Friar Tuck (a portly fellow) for the first time.

Robin, to Will: “It’s all right, he’s one of us.”

Will: “One of us?! He looks like three of us!”

• I mean, come on...that’s just funny.

Up next: We supplement the AFI's 100 Thrills list for the first time by checking out a more modern Robin Hood story with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

MARK'S REVIEWS OF THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE'S 100 YEARS...100 THRILLS LIST

And here we go again! A little over a year after my last Marvel review, I decided to choose a new list to go through, and I landed on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills list. A list of the most thrilling and chilling American movies ever made, according to a bunch of people I've never met before. You can find the list here: 100 Years...100 Thrills

Some Notes:

• I'll start at #100 and go down from there
• I'm not going to shy away from supplementing this list! If there's a movie that I think would pair up nicely with the ones on the list, I'll watch that and review it too. Plus, this list was apparently made in 2002, and only considered American movies, so there are some pretty big omissions. Mad Max: Fury Road, for example, wasn't included, and in my opinion it belongs in the top 10 at least. And right off the bat, we're starting with the 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood, which I've never seen. But you know what else I haven't seen? Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves from 1991. Let's add that to the mix! And if you have any requests for supplementary movies, hey, comment on my reviews! I can't promise I'll do all of them, but if something strikes my fancy, I just might!
• Each review will have a Thrill Score from 1 to 10. They'll also include the Rotten Tomatoes score and consensus, the IMDB synopsis, the info about whether or not I've seen it before, and I'm thinking of also including the best sequence of the movie and/or best quote. Maybe we'll come up with some more regular features!
• I'll set a goal of 1 movie per week minimum, aim for 2 per week when I can, and who knows, if I find a groove maybe I'll bump that up to 3

And we're off! Check out the list and tell me what you're excited for me to watch, or if you already have suggestions for additional movies to add. And PLEASE, if you're at all interested, feel free to watch along with me and join in on the conversation!

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME

 

• First time seeing it
• Quite liked it. Funny script
• The Ned and Betty relationship was good for some laughs
• Despite Happy Hogan being kind of a dull character, it was nice to have Favreau around as a connection to the previous movies and Iron Man
• Loved Jake Gyllenhaal. I knew going into this that Mysterio is typically a bad guy, and I feel like I knew Gyllenhaal was the villain of the movie. Despite this, his heel turn scene was still pretty effective. I liked the righteous way he was playing the character in the beginning, and especially how that went out the window once he revealed his true, weaselly nature
• The elemental special effects looked pretty great, and as I've been complaining for ages about CGI in these movies, I thought the fact that all the big action pieces in this movie in fact WERE CGI was very clever. I took it as Marvel poking fun at itself in a very self-aware way
• Great mid-credits scene. J. K. Simmons!
• And speaking of recognizable bald guys, you know William, Quentin Beck's special effects guy? Yeah, that's Ralphie from A Christmas Story, Peter Billingsley

AVENGERS: ENDGAME

 

• First time seeing it
• Loved it
• Let's say this right here and now. I loved this movie because I had seen everything that came before it. Would I have liked it anyway? Sure. It's a very entertaining movie. But I'm a completist, and had I seen this movie before all the others I would have been bothered by not knowing what came before. I'm glad I engaged completely with the MCU because a film like Endgame is made so much richer for it
• Incredibly effective intro with Hawkeye and his family
• And then the intro gets even more effective. Of course they'll hunt down Thanos! Of course that will let them undo what he did! Nope. Thanos gets beheaded and our movie begins. Five years later.
• I like how Endgame sits in the aftermath of Infinity War. The consequences are not glossed over, they are addressed and explored
• Scott's reentry into the world is such a good way of showing us how much the world has changed. And him realizing that he's been listed as one of the dead was chilling
• Sexy Ruffalo-Hulk is sexy
• Love the condescension towards Scott
• Time travel movie poking holes in every single other time travel movie
• Before they time travel Nat says "See you in a minute." Now that's something that hits you right in the feels on a rewatch
• The whole middle hour of the movie is brilliant in the way it entertains and revels in some of the movies and moments that came before. It celebrates the entire franchise while not forgetting to have value in its own right
• Cap Vs. Cap fight is pretty great
• Loved the Come and Get Your Love gag
• And man, that climax. Fittingly enough, one of the best of the franchise. The action is good, the stakes are immense, and the emotional beats feel earned
• When all the heroes start to come back, it is impossible not to feel invigorated
• "Avengers assemble"
• "And I am Iron Man." I cried.
• Lastly we have a touching, fitting denouement to bid farewell to some of our heroes and tease the future adventures for some of the others. And I loved how they did the credits

CAPTAIN MARVEL

 

• First time seeing it
• I knew very little about the character, and this was a weirder movie than I expected going into it. The early part reminded me of Guardians of the Galaxy without the wisecracks (the Kree connection might have something to do with this), and I found it disorienting and hard to connect with. I couldn't tell how much I was liking or disliking the movie for most of its runtime, although it was keeping my attention
• This is one of those cases where I developed a stronger appreciation after the fact. We watched it last night. I've landed on the conclusion that I quite enjoyed it after all, while not quite meeting the level of my favourites
• A fair amount of this was familiar, but it worked for me. The Skrulls were effective villains while they were still the villains, and more on that in a moment. I liked what was done with shape-shifting
• I'm not usually one to spend too much time anticipating what a movie's going to throw at me. Most people could have anticipated the twist a mile away, if for no other reason than the fact that we've seen the Kree before and they were not nice. But I liked the twist, and I liked how the movie changed our view of these characters
• Fun cast, good chemistry. They do love their de-aging technology, don't they
• Holy Moses, does Captain Marvel get super-powered. Not surprising that Fury hit up that pager at the end of Infinity War
• This might be surprising to hear, but I liked the climax. The fact that it basically consisted of Carol absolutely DESTROYING set it apart from the same old climax beats we've seen 20 times already
• Girl power without hitting you over the head with it. This movie fits into the Marvel formula, and it's been said many times that it shouldn't have taken this long for a female-centric Marvel movie, but looking at the team behind this is heartening. Also the subtle touches like the soundtrack, which is not only kick-ass, but also features some terrific contributions from ladies of rock

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

 

• First time seeing it
• Liked it. It was a fun, light movie with a funny script and charming performances
• Lost some of the ingenuity of the way the first Ant-Man played with scale. Best action scene was Hope fighting bad guys early in the movie, shrinking in size and using kitchen implements to her advantage
• As per usual, villains were meh
• For such a big name, definitely expected more Pfeiffer than what we got
• Really liked Randall Park. He was a delight
• Michael Peña was still fun but he didn't have as much to do. I was happy to see the return of the Luis story
• I liked the climax. It was wacky, and multi-faceted, and it kept my attention
• THAT MID-CREDITS SCENE, THOUGH. That got me. Possibly the most effective mid-credits scene yet, which is saying something considering this is one of the lower-stakes movies
• Oh. And one last thing. The scenes of Paul Rudd on house arrest singing karaoke and playing drums reminded me of this video. Damn does our boy look good playing the drums