Robin Hood

While certainly no competition for the 1938 Errol Flynn classic (or the 1973 Disney cartoon, for that matter), Ridley Scott’s much-maligned Robin Hood is better than its toxic reception would have you believe. Several years ago, a very different version of a Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe Robin Hood movie was touted in the press, with Crowe to play both Hood and the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. After numerous delays, that idea went the way of Smokey Is the Bandit, and this more conventional origin story took its place. Here, Crowe is a lowly archer in the Crusades who steals the identity of the deceased Robin of Loxley, then makes nice with Loxley’s tough but vulnerable wife (Cate Blanchett, cornering the market). The film’s greatest asset is its historical chutzpah—Scott even has Robin Hood craft an earlier version of the Magna Carta!