Robin Hood

We know the drill—there have been more than 100 versions of the story filmed over the last 100 years, so we’ve all seen at least one. Why bother with yet another one? Well, this version started out different. Originally titled Nottingham, it was a revisionist take from the perspective of the sheriff of Nottingham, a clever man using a medieval variety of forensics to track down that rascally Robin and his merry men. Sort of a CSI: Sherwood Forest. But Ridley Scott was brought in and he decided he didn’t like the script. End result is that the sheriff of Nottingham is on screen for all of five minutes. So there you go. What fills the rest of the running time is Russell Crowe as Robin Hood, mumbling in some unidentifiable accent as the rest of the cast flounces around him, bellowing in their thea-tah voices. There are occasional time-outs for stylishly realized PG-13 mayhem, but mostly it’s just sluggish stretches of actahs making the most of their chance to emote. And, plenty of pandering to the Tea Party movement. Feather River Cinemas, Paradise Cinema 7 and Tinseltown. Rated PG-13