ROBIN HOOD

IT'S ROBIN HOOD, for chrissakes- dude has a bow and arrow, he takes from the rich and gives to the poor, the end. You'd think that'd be pretty hard to screw up, right? Like, how many Robin Hood movies have there been? Roughly 5,000, from the fruity Errol Flynn ones to the Disney cartoon where he was a singing fox to that Kevin Costner/Morgan Freeman/ Christian Slater/Bryan Adams/Alan Rickman's-gonna-cut-out-your-heartwith- a-spoon business. And yet: Any one of those 5,000 Robin Hoods is better than Ridley Scott's new Robin Hood, and yes, that even includes Robin Hood: Men in Tights. 'Cause here's the thing about Robin Hood's oft-repeated story: It works. Everybody likes Robin Hood, everybody hates the Sheriff of Nottingham, everybody thinks it's cool when Robin Hood does badass archery crap. Well, except for Ridley Scott. With Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, instead of seeing Robin Hood take from the rich and give to the poor, or fight the Sheriff of Nottingham, or do anything cool at all, we get to watch Braveheart again. (ERIK HENRIKSEN)