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Robin Hood: Men in Tights


Keyser Corleone's Robin Hood Week, Review Four

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

"Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent."



Well, I guess the 1991 Kevin Costner film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves had a parody coming since there was a lot to make fun of. And leave it to Mel Brooks of all people to get behind the wheel (and play a rabbi who gives bargain circumcisions). This is what we get from him, folks. For better or for worse, there's no stopping him.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights, as the name suggests, is a humorous take on Robin Hood's incarnations with Kevin Costner and Errol Flynn as he returns from England to find his home destroyed, with the only survivor being a blind servant. Now aided with the medieval version of Dave Chappelle, Robin exacts his revenge by annoying the tyrannical Prince John and his spoonerism-spouting Sheriff of Rottingham as he gathers a new band of thieves to take from the rich and give to the poor: the Men in Tights.

Are we to take this Robin Hood movie that seriously? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.. excuse me... HAHAHAHA. This is a parody. While it forgets itself as a parody to tell a story a couple of times, there are some things that are quite well made and done here.

For the best example: the acting. Cary Elwes of The Princess Bride fame shines as one of the best Robin Hoods since Errol Flynn, and makes a few shots at Kevin Costner. His cheesy heroic demeanor is perfectly suitable for the tights. And his sidekick Blinkin' is quite a sight to behold as his blind humor is far from dull. He's got some of the best lines in the movie. Amy Yasbeck was a perfect casting choice for Marian because her acting bears the right kind of "cheesy romance" delivery without overdoing it. And of course, we have the Sheriff spewing spoonerisms. Why spoonerisms? Because they're not DULL! You'll LAUGH more.

Of course, some of the actors are hardly utilized. Dave Chappelle is hilarious, and he hardly has any of the funnylines throughout the movie. He was severely underdone in comparison to his parody counter-actor, Morgan Freeman who played Azeem from Prince of Thieves. And Prince John, while he has some funny moments, is nothing but nothing when compared to other Mel Brooks villains like Dark Helmet or Hedy Lamarr (Sorry, that's Hedley).

Aside from that, there are a lot of funny moments, usually about Marian's chastity or about Blinkin the blind man, and Cary Elwes delivers every line of his with vigor, like he was born to be a Robin Hood parody in his own right. But a lot of the jokes have been done before. Sometimes, Mel Brooks just wants to make a funny movie. It's like an Eagles album. usually there are a few good songs, but there's also a lot of filler.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights is memorable in its own way (usually because of the cast), if not a passable parody in other ways. I'd say it's worth watching and revisiting if Mel Brooks is your kind of comedian. And classic Cary Elwes can be found left and right. Otherwise, it's an alright movie.