Robin Hood: the Ghost of Sherwood just might be the stupidest movie I've ever seen. It's just unrelentingly dumb on so many levels. Not only do character's motivations change at random... the actors actually playing the characters change! They try to cover it up with some magic potion hogwash... although I suspect they changed everything so they could have Tom Savini in their movie. (Suspiciously, the "potioned" characters only appear in scenes with him.) I like Tom Savini just fine, but I don't think he's worth completely scheduling your film around, you know? And also - bad direction, bad script, bad action, bad ADR... and it's WAY too long (at nearly 2 hours). It's poorly done at literally every level.
BUT... I didn't mind watching it. Robin Hood: the Ghost of Sherwood is the kind of stupid that you just kind of have to marvel at. It's the kind of film where I incredulously yelled "what?" a half-dozen times as I was watching it. Alone, mind you. When you have to verbalize your disbelief when no one is even around, you know you're onto something special. Many of the accepted rules of filmmaking (or storytelling in general) are just cast aside for no real reason. I mean, future filmmakers take note - you can do whatever you want if you have a witch or a wizard with an infinite number of magical potions that can do just about anything your movie *needs* them to do. I would never, ever recommend Ghost of Sherwood, but in a stupid way it's one of the more memorable films I've seen recently.
So, I'm going to assume you know the Robin Hood story. And the film *kind* of follows that template for a while. Except it's Nottinghams's cousin (or something) that falls for Robin Hood. (Be advised: in my stupid little head, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is the *real* Robin Hood story.) Robin and his band of merry men decide to break into Nottingham's castle to steal some treasure. They get caught and killed (except for Robin), so Robin gets a witch's help to bring his friends back to life. This involves selling his soul or something to that effect. To be honest it doesn't really matter.
So, I'm going to assume you know the Robin Hood story. And the film *kind* of follows that template for a while. Except it's Nottinghams's cousin (or something) that falls for Robin Hood. (Be advised: in my stupid little head, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is the *real* Robin Hood story.) Robin and his band of merry men decide to break into Nottingham's castle to steal some treasure. They get caught and killed (except for Robin), so Robin gets a witch's help to bring his friends back to life. This involves selling his soul or something to that effect. To be honest it doesn't really matter.
Once the witch comes into play, you get a decidedly more horror-feeling movie... some zombies and other assorted ghouls appear and go after Nottingham's sister and Kane Hodder. (?) He just shows up about an hour+ into things, and is basically thrust into the hero role. He acts woodenly, fights zombies and throws magic bombs while saying gibberish. It's very stupid, but it's also pretty goddamned funny.
And again, just like getting Savini he may have changed the film (I'm just speculating here), securing Kane Hodder may have done the same. It's weird how he's just all of a sudden treated like the hero, and the actual Robin Hood (you know, the guy the movie is named after) just goes away.
And again, just like getting Savini he may have changed the film (I'm just speculating here), securing Kane Hodder may have done the same. It's weird how he's just all of a sudden treated like the hero, and the actual Robin Hood (you know, the guy the movie is named after) just goes away.
Horror-wise? Robin Hood: the Ghost of Sherwood feels kind of like a SyFy film, and the effects more or less follow suit. Think a SyFy film with a higher budget... that's pretty much what you get in terms of effects/production value. Although, there isn't a giant monster to be aggravatingly CGI'd into things - most of the bad guys are stunt people in honest-to-goodness practical makeup. It's not inspired or well shot or anything, but there is a refreshing lack of CGI here. Not a total absence... you just expect a movie of this caliber to depend on it a lot more. But it's not an overly violent film... sure, a lot of people get shot with arrows or whatever, but the goofy (or incompetent, if you're feeling snarky) tone pretty much renders the whole thing toothless. And of course, it follows suit that there isn't much by way of creepy atmosphere/tension in the film, because (a) you don't care about any of the characters, and (b) the film just can't do anything right. You never feel that there are any stakes - The Ghost of Sherwood is a film where death doesn't really matter. It's just bad news from top to bottom.
But it's a vaguely fun bad news. I still wouldn't recommend it... At nearly 2 hours it's way too long. Generally I like my crappy movies under 90, thank you. But still, I have a strange feeling it will stick with me for a while.
I would not recommend this film.
But it's a vaguely fun bad news. I still wouldn't recommend it... At nearly 2 hours it's way too long. Generally I like my crappy movies under 90, thank you. But still, I have a strange feeling it will stick with me for a while.
I would not recommend this film.
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