English accent included
Having been two years removed from Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Mel Brooks and crew decided to pay homage to two stories at once. The first story was based on the original tale of Robin Hood. The second story was based on the tale that Kevin Reynolds told with Kevin Costner. What came out of Robin Hood: Men in Tights was a series of comedic moments and witty one-liners.
Unlike previous Mel Brooks films, where the ideas were wrapped around stories, but the comedy was completely original, this movie seemed to be stuck on making a parody of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. While certainly understandable, and really easy pickens’ for any comedic writer (because let’s be honest, that 1991 disaster was hilarious), this crutch that Mel Brooks was using to drive the film was not typical of a Mel Brooks made movie.
Most people, especially younger folk, tend to reference this film as their favorite of Brooks’ masterpieces. In reality, it’s very weak. With cheap comedy abound everywhere in the film (Ahchoo? eek) it didn’t seem like the better-cultivated comedies that Mel Brooks is usually associated with. For me, this movie told the story of Robin Hood fine, but it did so in the most shallow of comedic ways. The two scenes that really did me in and made me realize that maybe Brooks should have moved on and started something else was the fight scenes with Little John v. Robin, and the scenes with Ahchoo and Robin. The Little John versus Robin Hood scene, which has the pair squaring off with large sticks on/over water, is just subpar comedy. The sticks break with each hit from the pair until the sticks are no more than knuckle smacking pieces of wood. On top of this, Little John falls into an inch of water and panics that he will drown. As a 17-year old I didn’t find this very funny. As a 34-year old I find it even less. Only rivaling that scene is the scene where Ahchoo and Robin are attacked by the Sheriff’s men. They go into some weird karate type of moves that just seems like forced comedy. It’s not even remotely funny.
Let me wrap this up. Basically, I felt like this was the last Mel Brooks film. I felt like Spaceballs was a solid film, but it had marks of failing comedy in some areas. Robin Hood: Men in Tights was the definitive sign that maybe quality comedy had finally stopped with Brooks. I feel bad saying that because I still adore the man for what he did with films prior to Spaceballs, but my honest side says he should have stopped when it didn’t feel funny anymore.
Regardless, you might want to give Brooks’ previous films a shot before diving into this one. You will be able to see the differences.
As for the Blu-ray portion of the film, it looks just as good as the other Brooks Blu-ray. The picture is really sharp and the audio, which is appropriate for this film, is just as good. Sure it’s not an action film or a drama set in some gorgeous backdrop (such as Alaska), but it’s still a Blu-ray quality film.
As for the features included with the disc, they are as follows:
– Funny Men in Tights: Three Generations of Comedy (HD)
– Robin Hood: Men in Tights – The Legend Had It Coming HBO Special
– Commentary by Mel Brooks
While the first two features are great, the real feature here is the commentary by Brooks. I could listen to this man talk all day about the films he created.