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| Tookey's Review |
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| Pro Reviews |
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| Mixed Reviews |
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| Anti Reviews |
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| Cast |
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| Released: |
1991 |
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| Genre: |
ACTION
SWASHBUCKLER
ADVENTURE
SO BAD
ROMANCE
COSTUME
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| Origin: |
GB/ US |
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| Colour: |
c |
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| Length: |
116 |
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Robin Hood (Patrick Bergin, pictured right) takes on all-comers.
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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A misconceived attempt to depict the legend of Robin Hood in social realist terms. More than once, it threatens to turn into agit-prop on the importance of defeating the Poll Tax. Director John Irvin does his best to bridge the conceptual chasm between romantic fantasy and muddy reality, but plunges straight down the abyss. It is symptomatic of the picture's failings that production designer Austen Spriggs went to the trouble of finding locations containing only trees common in mediaeval England, and costume designer Emma Porteous insisted on the use of appropriate vegetable dyes, and yet script and casting are as mediaeval as a plastic bucket.
The one enjoyable aspect of the whole fiasco is the acting. It is hard to say who gives the worst performance: Patrick Bergin as a half-Irish Robin, the most wooden thing in Sherwood Forest; Uma Thurman (pictured left) as a transatlantic Maid Marian, equally treelike and reciting the lines with an icy contempt which would get her drummed out of the average school play; or Jurgen Prochnow's strangely-accented villain, a sort of nazi Inspector Clouseau.
Fortunately for the careers of these actors, all are unmemorable beside a kamikaze cameo appearance from Edward Fox. Shamelessly ham-acting his way through his one scene as Prince John, he adopts an astonishing vocal delivery which is one-third Edward VIII, one-third Vincent Price, and one-third Mr Spock from Star Trek.
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, Uma Thurman 