- Title: Robin Hood (2018)
- IMDb: link
While marginally more successful than King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, the latest take on Robin Hood suffers from many of the same mistakes such as injecting modern sensibilities into the legend. After a brief introduction to Robin (Taron Egerton) in England, the film races the Lord of Loxley through the Crusades only to return him two-years later after his compassion becomes a problem for his fellow soldiers. Robin returns to find Marian (Eve Hewson) shacked up with another guy (Jamie Dornan) and the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn) taxing the locals into oblivion. With the help of the Arab (Jamie Foxx), Robin becomes an outlaw to restore justice.
Mixing various elements from other Robin Hood films, and stealing the Zorro/Don Diego set-up as Robin tries to both woo the Sheriff while also stealing form under his nose, director Otto Bathurst‘s film is a mishmash of stories we’ve seen done better before. The result is a somewhat entertaining but completely forgettable take on the character that even Egerton’s charm can’t save.
Available on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K, extras include about an hour of featurettes featuring cast and crew promotining the film’s “wholly original” take on the character that transcends filmmaking to an art hitherto unknown in the history of cinema. I know the point of these interviews is to help sell the film, but after even five minutes of watching these two things become abundantly clear: hardly anyone involved has ever seen another Robin Hood film, and apparently many of them never watched this one. Also included are outtakes and a short collection of deleted scenes.
[Lionsgate, DVD $29.95 / Blu-ray $19.96 / 4K $42.99]
