Movie Reviews

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves goes wrong in a few important areas, but manages to be fairly entertaining in spite of itself.

The biggest positives of the film are simply the characters and the mythology that it's built around. Everyone is at least partially familiar with Robin Hood, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Friar Tuck, Little John, et al., and it's fun to see them realized fairly nicely onscreen. Alan Rickman really stands out as the Sheriff of Nottingham -- a greasy ruthless arch-villian, played just slightly over-the-top-enough by Rickman to add a touch of humour to the character. Kevin Costner as Robin Hood is fairly lackluster though, as he doesn't really add anything to the character (and his strange accent seems to keep dissappearing and re-appearing).

The directing and editing of the film were pretty unexciting, too. It seemed as though very little thought was given to such things as camera-placement and arrangement. As a director, regardless of how interesting your story and characters are, you should still try to find the best way to actually film them. I got the impression that things must've been shot pretty hastily here.

The fairest way I can sum up Prince of Thieves is to say that it's a great story, but it's not particularly well-told (or well-envisioned).