Amazon.co.uk Review
Can this one-joke spoof possibly be from the same man who gave us
The Producers,
Blazing Saddles and
Young Frankenstein? Sadly, the answer is yes. Mel Brooks treads water shamelessly with
Robin Hood: Men in Tights and the few laughs to be had depend almost entirely on mocking Kevin Costner's earnest blockbuster
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves from two years earlier ("Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent", boasts Cary Elwes' Robin). Not only is this far too easy a target for a skit, but the single-film parody concept is stretched way too thin over an entire movie (Brooks elected to repeat the trick with 1995's
Dracula: Dead and Loving It). Elwes models his portrayal on Errol Flynn, but only infrequently gets to have fun with the legend: in the climactic sword fight, for example, the shadow play of Flynn and Basil Rathbone's sheriff is affectionately parodied, but such moments are few and far between. Brooks regular Dom DeLuise chips in with a Marlon Brando impersonation, but everyone else is simply taking off characters from the Costner movie: Patrick Stewart even gives us his best Sean Connery impression as a Scottish Richard I. Brooks himself does his stock Jewish act, this time as Rabbi Tuckman; Isaac Hayes has a small cameo in the Morgan Freeman part but seems to think Jerusalem is in Africa; while his on-screen son (David Chappelle) makes the mistake of reminding the audience of what they are missing: "A black sheriff? Why not, it worked in
Blazing Saddles". Indeed it did.
On the DVD: Precious few extras here, just a small behind the scenes feature and trailer. But the anamorphic picture looks good. --Mark Walker
Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
DVD 5
German\Italian
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Surround English German Italian
Dolby Digital Surround
Original Theatrical Trailer
Featurette
Filmographies
Scene Selections
Arabic\Czech\Danish\English\Finnish\German\Greek\Hebrew\Hindi\Hungarian\Icelandic\Italian\Norweigan\Polish\Portuguese\Swedish\Turkish
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