Robin Hood (2018)

Directed by Otto Bathurst. Starring Taron Egerton, Jamie Foxx, Ben Mendelsohn, Eve Hewson, Tim Minchin, Jamie Dornan, Paul Anderson, F. Murray Abraham, Cornelius Booth. [PG-13]

Another retelling of the Robin Hood legend, this time produced as if trying to appeal to modern action movie fans with its sleek but dismal vintage, arrows flying and exploding like machine-gun bullets, a horse-and-cart escape resembling a car chase, and so on. As such, it’s hugely anachronistic in ways both knowing and stupid (the lavish party scene alone…), but resorts to tired clichés and story beats so often that any chance for it to feel fresh (if still extravagantly silly) is defeated. Ben Chandler and David James Kelly’s screenplay treats the titular outlaw as something of an Olde English Bruce Wayne, and laughably incorporates democratization alongside GOP-style fear-mongering for an unwieldy blend of politics and escapism. Minchin’s flustered technique puts an amusing spin on the Friar Tuck character, but Mendelsohn’s sheriff is gruffly repetitive and an overly made-up Hewson makes for one of the most colorless and unappealing Marian’s to reach the big screen (it doesn’t help that she has no chemistry whatsoever with Egerton). A labored misfire that should have all but the least discriminating viewers constantly thinking, “That’s not how that sort of thing works!”

33/100