In the 12th century, Robin Hood escapes from the Crusades in Jerusalem and returns back to England, where he gathers followers, including Ahchoo, Blinkin and Little John, in order to rebel against evil King John, who usurped the throne from King Richard. Thanks to their bravery, Robin Hood is able to de-throne the villain, marry Maid Marian, while King Richard returns to the country.
Mel Brooks’ penultimate film, “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” is a parody true to his filmmaker style: some gags work, some don’t. Yet since Brooks lost his freshness in the 80s, more of them do not work this time around. In the first 40 minutes, he truly achieves a good comedy film, with several funny sketches that put a smile on your face, but sadly, he seems to run out of ideas after that, and thus the last 60 minutes are just “improvised” until the unsatisfactory ending, with too many empty walks and long stretches between the (good) jokes. The opening act is Brooks at his finest: dozens of archers shoot flamming arrows in the sky at night, creating opening credits with waves of fire. Until it is revealed that some of the arrows fell on the rooftops of houses, setting them on fire, so one of the villagers laments that there should be a better way of creating credits. Other jokes also work in this segment, akin to some Monty Python sketch, from Robin Hood leaving from the Middle East coastline to go into the sea to swim (!) all the way to England; through tax collectors removing a whole castle from its foundation (!); up to Robin’s intervention to save Ahchoo from six attacking guards, so he fights them, and asks Ahchoo to “watch his back”—only for Ahchoo to just watch a guard punching Robin Hood in the back.
Underrated Cary Elwes is very good as the title hero, impeccably mimicking E. Flynn’s performance and flamboyant attitude, amusingly wearing that oversized feather on his hat. On the down side, the inspiration for the cartoonish storyline is lost after 40 minutes, and thus too many bad or weak jokes end up embarrassing, banal, lame or too childish. The iron chastity belt is the worst joke of the entire film, but is done to death. The film has huge pacing problems: the overlong singing sequence in the middle of the film should have been cut to keep the story flowing, or done in a better way, whereas too many supporting characters are underused and unmemorable: by the end of the film, the viewers will probably already forget about Ahchoo, since he got little to do. The camera breaking the window joke still causes a chuckle, even though it was recycled from Brooks early film “High Anxiety”. “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” is one of those guilty pleasures: you like it just enough to wish it had more good jokes and less weak jokes, and not the other way around, as to what we got.
Grade:+
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