Review Tuesday: 'Robin Hood'

Today’s ‘Review Tuesday’. When I was a lad, a big hero of mine was Richard Greene [1]. But to me he wasn’t Richard Greene. Rather he was Robin Hood – star of The Adventures of Robin Hood. This popular British TV series comprising 143 half-hour episodes, aired from 1955 (when I was eight) to 1960 (when I was 13) [2]. I relished its title sequence [3] and also its theme song and music [4]. My only regret was as colour TV didn’t exist back then, I didn’t get to see what lincoln green [5] looked like. Russell Crowe, who plays the eponymous hero of the 2010 big-budget epic film Robin Hood [6, 7], didn’t bother with lincoln green clothing. Crowe’s is a tough and violent Robin who naturally shot arrows enviably straight. He got to rescue Marian, but try as he did he couldn’t rescue the movie (which he co-produced): Apart from Robin no characters were developed; Robin’s band of merry men was merely incidental; the Sheriff was seemingly included because his omission would’ve been noticed; and only once did Robin rob the rich to give to the poor. Phooey. The film ends with him joining his men and Marian in Sherwood Forest – signalling that this 140-minute disappointment was positioned as a prequel to a sequel. But the sequel’s unlikely to happen – ten weeks after the film’s launch it’d grossed only US$105M against its estimated US$200M budget [8]. I rate it two stars. Give me Richard Greene’s Robin Hood any day.

farmdoc's blog post number 485

Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities. Today’s post’s a tale of two films I’ve watched on DVD in the last few days:

Interview (2004) was written and directed by Steve Buscemi who co-stars with the vapid Sienna Miller. It’s among the worst films I’ve ever seen. It lacks even one redeeming feature. Its plot, characters, dialogue and cinematography are forgettable. And it has no story arc. None. It bored me. And irritated me. Until now I’ve loved Buscemi as an actor. In Reservoir Dogs, Pulp fiction and Fargo he was A1. But I hated Trees Lounge which he directed. He should stick to acting. How someone thought Interview a film worth making is beyond me. Totally.

3:10 to Yuma is the 2007 remake of a 1957 film of the same name. Both are based on an Elmore Leonard story. The 2007 version stars Russell Crowe (pictured) and Christian Bale. It’s an archetypal Western. I loved it. It has everything a great Western should have: outlaws, lawmen, an aggrieved rancher/family man, Indians (for a few seconds only), railwaymen, a sexy barmaid (who jumps into bed with our Russ), a stagecoach robbery, a train, a prairie chase, a mesa, a canyon, and violence. Lots of violence. I’ve liked Crowe’s acting ever since Proof (1991). He didn’t disappoint in Yuma.

3:10 to Yuma has everything and Interview has nothing. It’s a shame Russ and his gang didn’t do their dirty work on Buscemi and Miller. Then, instead of Interview, I could’ve watched something quarter decent.