Robin Hood

I pulled out my local newspaper last night wanting to read the reviews for the newly release films. First off I have to inform you how lousy my local paper's movie reviewer can be at times. The idiot gave Spider Man 2 four freaking stars for crying out loud. With that said I quickly turned to the review of "Robin Hood" directed by Ridley Scott and starring (of course since its a Scott film) Russell Crowe.

The guy called it dull and boring. He claimed that all the battle scenes seemed like unused footage from "Gladiator". That was really original seeing as how people have been claiming for months it looks like a sequel to that film. So as me and my girlfried headed off to the theater, i went with expectations being low and ready for a bore.

I was very pleasantly surprised. From the first moments of the film we are given a fast paced story of England in turmoil. King Richard "The Lionheart" has been on a ten year crusade, leaving the country bankrupt, yet the government is still demanding the provinces to pay taxes. Then the King is killed in battle putting the sleazy Prince John played by Oscar Issac on the throne. He quickly puts his close from Godfrey played by Mark Strong (who appears to be playing the villain in just about every movies these days....) in charge of collecting the taxes from provinces. The problem here is that he is secretly working for the French and is helping create inner turmoil in England so the French can easily take the country.

Now that is enough for a single movie, but we haven't even mentioned Robin Hood's (Russell Crowe) part. He is posing as a night in order to help the village of Nottingham stay afloat and alive, pretending to be Marion's (Cate Blanchett) husband. All of this means that their is alot going on, also long pauses between the action and fighting.

That isn't a terrible thing though. Many of the scenes between Crowe and Blanchett are some of the best in the movie, seeing the two act off of each other is excellent. When the battle scenes do come they are all highly intense and exciting, looking nothing like the battles in "Gladiator" but that isn't surprising because almost all the battles in "Gladiator" take place in the arena.

Crowe gives an awesome performance, unsuprising since it seems like he is incapable of a bad one. Blanchett is great as always and the actors playing Little John, Will Scarlett and Friar Tuck (Kevin Durand, Scott Grimes, and Mark Addy) are all entertaining and enjoyable as are the parts played buy William Hurt and Max Von Sydow.

The movie is an origin story and leaves plenty of room for a very welcome sequel. This first installment is anything but dull and boring, while it does drag in some scenes it makes up for in others. I recomend it, especially if you enjoy Scott's work. I give it 3 stars.