Directed by Ridley Scott
(PG-13)
**
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Ridley Scott’s 140-minute epic about England’s legendary archer is unlike any of its predecessors, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. For one thing, it’s a lot less fun, lacking a single “rousing sword fight” or witty love scene. Robin Hood himself, as played by Russell Crowe, is no longer a lovable “scamp of the woods” but a demobilized Crusader with a chip on his shoulder. Yes, “this ain’t your grandma’s Nottingham,” said Ty Burr in The Boston Globe. Instead, Scott and screenwriter Brian Helgeland have created a gritty, realistic prequel to the familiar Robin Hood fables. “It’s a brawny reimagining of a beloved old myth, a period popcorn movie turned out with professionalism and gusto.” It also, at times, appears to be “a political attack ad paid for by the Tea Party movement—circa 1199,” said Michael O’Sullivan in The Washington Post. In Scott’s telling, England is a nation “being taxed to death by a corrupt government” and a hero is needed to battle King John. Robbing from the rich to give to the poor? Come on—this Robin hasn’t got time for that sort of “socialist stuff.”
