Robin Hood (2010)

One of my favorite movies of all time is Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe, and directly by Ridley Scott. It's such a great story, with some amazing performances from Crowe, and Joaquin Phoenix. When I first heard that Scott would be directing Crowe in a retelling of Robin Hood, I thought there was no way they could mess it up. Unfortunately, they did.


Now, to be fair, I don't just blame Scott, or Crowe. I also blame the editor, Pietro Scalia. His past work includes Born on the Fourth of July, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Black Hawk Down, and my beloved Gladiator. I really think that Robin Hood is one of the worst editing jobs ever released into theaters. The pacing is all over the place. Scenes do not flow. Not much makes sense, and there are no character introductions, which is very confusing. Whether this is Scott failure as a director, or the studio's pressure to trim the time down remains to be seen.


With all the bad out of the way, I'll talk about the good. The premise is fresh, and interesting. Robin Longstride (Crowe) is an archer in the army of King Richard, who decides to return home after a 10 year absence when Richard is killed. When Robin, along with Will Scarlett (Scott Grimes), Little John (Kevin Durand), and Alan A'Dale (Alan Doyle) discover the Royal Guard has been ambushed, they take their armor, and assume they identities as knights. Robin promises a dying knight, Robert Loxley, to return  his sword to his elderly father (Max von Sydow) in Nottingham.


Upon returning to England, Robin, as Loxley, is chosen to deliver the news of King Richards death to the royal family. When Richard's brother, the newly crowned King John, decides to raise taxes, the elderly father of Robert Loxley, asks Robin to continue his charade so their land will not be taken. Robin also has to win over the approval of Loxley's widow, Marian (Cate Balnchett), while keeping King John's men from discovering his true identity.



Sounds interesting, right? It is. On paper, I'm sure this sounded like a great idea. All the acting is great, and the action sequences were fun. It came down to the editing, which turned a promising idea in a boring mess, that will make you angry, and want your 2 hours back.

Rated PG13, Runtime 140mns