Irrelevant But Awesome

This past week, our Netflix movie of the week was Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves from 1991. While we had some differing opinions about the quality of the film itself, one thing that’s stuck with me is how much it’s a product of its time. Robin Hood, it seems, is a story that gets adapted again and again throughout the years, often molding itself to the filmmaking and storytelling styles that are popular at the time. For example, the most recent Robin Hood movie was the Russell Crowe movie Robin Hood from 2010, which was more or less a gritty reboot of the character at a time that gritty reboots are all the rage. But that’s the last time the Robin Hood story has been adapted for theaters. Thinking it might be time for Hollywood to take a look Robin Hood again, I wanted to see if any studios were working on trying again on making a Robin Hood movie. It turns out that everybody is planning on doing something Robin Hood related. At least seven different “Robin Hood” projects are...

Alexa:  I approached this movie with a similar attitude as I did The Jungle Book a few weeks ago. I’ve never been partial to Robin Hood – not even the animated Disney version – but I was willing to give Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves the benefit of the doubt. While Jon Favreau’s adaptation of The Jungle Book gave that story a fresh twist that resonated with me, this movie is just… bad. Like, painfully bad. Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood is wooden at best, and most of the other actors are not much better. The script is about as dimensional as a piece of cardboard, devoid of any sense of fun or adventure. The runtime is at least 45 minutes too long. And don’t even get me started on that out-of-place Bryan Adams song. The one brilliant beacon of light in this mess of a movie is Alan Rickman, who outshines everyone in his path whenever he’s on screen. I get the sense he knew the movie was terrible, but he had fun with his character and made it his own. It’s the mark of a truly talente ...