Robin Hood
2010
**½
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Matthew Macfadyen, Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac, Kevin Durand, Mark Addy, William Hurt, Danny Huston, Max von Sydow
When Richard the Lionheart dies in the Third Crusade, a common archer named Robin Longstride returns the King’s crown to England and ends up impersonating the late Lord Locksley from Nottingham. When King John's close advisor plots an invasion with the French, Robin develops into a genuine leader of men. Ridley Scott’s film provides a historically authentic backstory for a historically inauthentic character, who by the end becomes a reluctant Robin Hood. This epic is gritty and well-made, but oddly lifeless and joyless. Russell Crowe’s accent is all over the map, apart from England, and he cannot turn Robin into another Maximus. His three sidekicks, on the other hand, are indistinguishable from one another. There are echoes of Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan in the impressive battles scenes, which is to say that they offer very little new.
