subject: New Movies Out On Dvd - New Version of Robin Hood Movie [print this page] Click for more new movies out on dvd Click for more new movies out on dvd
Robin Hood is one of the new movies out on dvd. The action story of Robin Hood is told and retold in many Hollywood motion pictures over the last 4 decades. At least 30 Hollywood versions of Robin Hood has been produced, including some comedy ones. The most recent big-budget take, Kevin Reynolds' horrific blockbuster Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (with a miscast Kevin Costner) was shown 19 years back. So it makes sense to provide the present generation with their own version.
In the summer of 2010, Russell Crowe and the director from his Gladiator film, Ridley Scott, revealed a 2010 edition of Robin Hood. Are we not entertained? If this version resembles the Oscar-winning Gladiator, it is purely not accidental. Scott and Crowe, who also worked jointly on American Gangster, Body of Lies and A Good Year, are determined on setting their origin story in the context of history. Not the simplest task, considering the stories of Robin Hood are mainly fiction than fact.
We initially encounter Crowe's Robin Longstride as a soldier in the army of England's king, Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston). England is bankrupt from the Crusades and the king has left his country prone to assault from France, when he is murdered on his way home. Prince John (Oscar Isaac) is his heir, but he's unfit to be a king since he's under the influence of Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong), a French friend who encourages John to reject his barons, notably William Marshall (William Hurt), by taxing them harshly and leaving the king's people in poverty.
Old Sir Walter Loxley (Max Von Sydow, funny, frail, and moving) thinks this is a marvelous idea, but the real Robert's widow, Marion (Cate Blanchett), is horrified. But love flowers, hesitantly, then hotly. Most of the identifiable characters of Robin Hood tale are found here. We also find Robin's buddies-in-arms from King Richard's Crusade, Little John (Kevin Durand) and Will Scarlet (Scott Grimes); Friar Tuck (Mark Addy), a priest who cares more about equality on Earth than being rewarded in the afterlife; and numerous other "Merry Men." The usual Robin Hood bad guy, the Sheriff of Nottingham (Matthew Macfadyen), is in the movie, but his role is little and he's shown as silly and ineffectual.
This edition of Robin Hood doesn't bring new life into a genre as did Gladiator, Scott's first partnering with Russell Crowe, but it is a smart, stunning entertainment; it's a bold interpretation of a beloved old story, a period popcorn movie turned out with taste and gusto. Yet, in avoiding gimmickry, Scott and company have ignored the greater gimmick at the heart and soul of this lore: the ease and humor that's as vital a part of Robin's rebellion against the crown as his arrows. The movie turns him back into a man. In that respect, of the new movies out on dvd, this film is worth a watch. I'm sure you won't see that in other new movies out on dvd.
