Roma and I went to see the new Robin Hood movie in the Savoy Cinema on O'Connell Street. I love watching movies on the big screen - cinema #1 has fantastic sound and vision. While the cinema was, I'd say, about 90% empty, it is still the best place to watch a movie like this. The movie has an 12A cert, but is not suitable for 12 year olds in my opinion - I had heard on a radio review that some scenes were cut to avoid a 15 cert in the US. It's not a family movie.
The movie is 144 minutes long - but it absolutely flies by. The official trailer below gets it right as a taster of the action...
The action scenes are brilliant and very real (not much CGI was used). It is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Russell Crowe - it is impossible not to make comparisons with Gladiator. This type of role is very suited to Crowe, who is excellent in the lead role. Cate Blanchett is also excellent as the Lady Marion, though there is not much magic between her and Crowe on the screen (perhaps some of this "magic" was removed to achieve the 12A cert?). Her arrival on the beach late on in the movie was a bit too far fetched for me.
The story is not familiar to fans of previous Robin Hood TV programmes and films, and is set before Hood became an outlaw. The story is, however, still an old fashioned good vs bad story - with a little bit of a political "dig" at Richard the Lionheart as Robin condemns the massacre by Richard of over 2,000 Muslim prisoners in 1191 (which did happen - see here for an eye-witness account).
All in all - a really enjoyable movie. Roma loved it too!
Hi Eugene, congratulations on keeping the blog up to date. Thanks for the review of my book, which was great. I wasn't giving academics a hard time - will explain sometime over a pint. Thinking of setting up my own blog - you were a great inspiration, particularly the way you keep yours so current.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the kind comments - I really never thought that you would read the post. I have to be more careful in what I write. I really enjoyed your book - it was great fun to read and made me think what a loss to NCI your departure has created.
I see you have your own blog! I'm off over there now to have a look!
Eugene