Robin Hood

[hdaniel82]

Synopsis: a telling of the origin of the legendary Robin Hood, the Sherwood Forest warrior who stole from the rich to give to the poor, sticking closely to the facts of the time. Robin is abandoned by his parents as a child and finds comfort and acceptance with the people of Nottingham. The traumas of his younger life leave him reluctant to fall in love, but that changes when he meets the headstrong Maid Marian.

Release date: 14 May 2010

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Russell Crowe, William Hurt, Cate Blanchett

[EthanRunt]

Prior word was really negative, then recent reviews were really positive.

I just got back from watching it, brilliant.
Not perfect by a long shot, but the choice of not going into the living on the outskirts an outlaw, well, until the final minutes setting up the sequel, was brilliant, 2 hours of interesting characters, a surprisingly well handled comedy character in Mark Addy's Friar Tuck and excellently done action sequences, including a reverse Saving Private Ryan segment.

Top notch stuff from the lesser Scott brother, I do hope it does well enough to warrant a second film, I would have been happy to sit through a further 140 minutes.

8/10

[andrews]

Russell Crowe is hoping that his 'Robin Hood' film will be the first of many. (Source: yahoo)

The film's premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival has been met with a somewhat lukewarm reaction, but Crowe is banking on the film to be a hit. And if so –Crowe will be looking forward to playing the character again.

He said, “Obviously there's a figure in the studio heads' minds, and if we pass it then they'll give us a call and say, 'Well, tell the next part of the story.'

“It's theatre on a grand scale and an experience second to none. If I had the opportunity to address what happens next with Ridley (Scott) and Cate (Blanchett), then great, let's do it.”

“We take a very arrogant perspective on this – whatever you think you know about Robin Hood previously is an understandable mistake.”


(He stated on GMTV this morning that he wanted to make a second Robin Hood film.)

[Beate]

Anyone else seen it yet? Have seen a lot of 4 star reviews and one 2 star from the Standard.

[kevinknapman]

I have to say that I hadn't really been able to get excited about the prospect of this film. None of the trailers really impressed me that much and it all seemed a bit bland. Some of the early reviews weren't great either but a few more positive reviews had started to appear over the last week so I thought I'd give it a go.
I'm glad I did. Not a great movie but a perfectly watchable one. The decision to present an origins story, showing how Robin became an outlaw is an interesting one (though admittedly not as interesting an idea as the original intention to tell the story from the viewpoint of the Sheriff of Nottingham). This does however turn out to be both a strength and a weakness. A strength because it gives us a new look at the legend and feels different to other Robin Hood stories. A weakness because it means that a lot of the things that makes Robin Hood what it is are largely absent. The outlaw living outside the law is only really introduced at the end of the film (aside from a brief sequence in the middle where they steal back grain intended for York). So it never really feels like a Robin Hood story. It seems to have more in common with Ridley Scott's earlier 'Kingdom of Heaven'.
Most of the acting is pretty good. Though it's a shame that only one of the Merry Men is actually played by an English actor (Mark Addy as Friar Tuck) with the rest made up of a Kiwi, an American and two Canadians. The global feel also extends to the rest of the cast with a couple more Americans, a Guatamalan, an Australian and a Swede. This means that some of the actors accents are all over the place. For a fair while I thought Will Scarlett (ER's Archie) was Scottish but apparently he's supposed to be Welsh and Crowe's accent also wanders a fair bit.Though there is a fair amount of recognisable English actors in the cast, mostly in minor roles (I was particularly amused by Looking For Eric's Steve Evets in a tiny cameo).
It does however look great. The cinematography and settings are perfect. I was less keen on the appearance of amphibious landing craft which seemed a little out of place and only there to give the beach battle sequence a 'Saving Private Ryan' feel. Also the feral children seemed like an unnecessary addition, the leader of them looked like he'd stepped off the set of 'The Orphanage'. Their involvement in the final battle led by an armour clad Cate Blanchett also felt false. So it's a mixed bag overall, but well worth seeing. In a year of loud dumb blockbusters (nothing wrong with that though) it is a relief to see a big movie that's not afraid to take it's time telling its story. And by the end I enjoyed it enough to want them to go ahead and make a sequel where we should get to actually see more of the outlaw Robin Hood in action.

[Preston1990]

I'm really looking forward to seeing this seemingly unusual take on the story leading up to Robin Hood adopting the life of the outlaw. I was going to use one of my Odeon competition win blue passes to see the film, once it came off the "free film suspended" list. That was until Andrews mentioned to me the other day that the Mirror/Sunday Mirror were running a special promotion for it.

Cue the excellently timed post from Juliusklein in the Cinema Deals thread on the Bargain Board which explains the offer in more detail. It seems you can get 2 "free" tickets for sending off three newspaper tokens and a stamped addresssed envelope. Here is a link which should take you right to Juliusklein's post:

http://www.fmuk.org.uk/forum/viewtopic. ... 236#p36236

Looks like a no-brainer to me!! I'll use my Blue pass for something else

[Beate]

You could then use them on Orange Wednesday and save further! Me, I will be using Picturehouse or Cineworld vouchers, but I am planning on seeing it soon.

[bevvy]

the Mirror website says

You'll be sent two cinema tickets for Robin Hood to take to your nearest participating ODEON cinema valid Mon-Fri only from May 24 until Thursday July 1, 2010.

The words 'participating' makes me suspect that it might not be available in the West End etc

Did anyone b*y the Mirror today? The website refers to 'full terms and exclusions' of the offer on page 47 but I can't find this online

[Beate]

What needs figuring out as well is how much are 3 newspapers plus £1.50 postage and how long will it take to get the vouchers? Might not be such a good deal after all. You could always use Nectar points in Vue cinemas or Tesco deal vouchers in Cineworld instead. At least you can use them at weekends.

[bevvy]

What needs figuring out as well is how much are 3 newspapers plus £1.50 postage and how long will it take to get the vouchers? Might not be such a good deal after all. You could always use Nectar points in Vue cinemas or Tesco deal vouchers in Cineworld instead. At least you can use them at weekends.

Too true, I won't be going for this offer unless I find a Sunday Mirror lying around somewhere!
And as to your point about how long it will take to get them - it could end up being like the Oxford Notebook fiasco , where they were not prepared for the overwhelming response to the offer. I am still waiting for my free ticket from them.