Robin Hood

ROBIN HOOD (2010) - May 15, 2010
Well, that was a bit of a disappointment.  Handsomely made and well acted, the main problem with this film is that it was just kind of dull and lifeless.  Essentially a Robin Hood origin story, the movie feels like setup for a much more interesting film.  I think there's a reason why pretty much every other Robin Hood story skims over (or entirely bypasses) this portion of the man's life.  It's just not all that interesting, or at least not as portrayed in this film.  There's also a lot of stuff with the new King of England and a scheming commander who is working with the French, which just isn't all that interesting.  I couldn't help but compare the film to Gladiator; a comparison in which this film falls quite short.  As much as I like Mark Strong, he doesn't make much of an impact here, and certainly doesn't come close to Joaquin Pheonix's slimy and memorable Commodus.  As for Russell Crowe, he was fine but I never cared about his Robin Hood the way I was really rooting for his Maximus.  I think the movie was just taking itself a bit too seriously.  Meh.  **