Amazon.com Essentials:
It's not Blazing Saddles,
but there are some chuckles to be found in Mel Brooks's 1993 spoof of
the Robin Hood legend. Cary Elwes is Robin (with a lighthearted jab at
Kevin Costner's bad English accent in Robin Hood: Prince of
Thieves), while Richard Lewis plays an angst-ridden King John,
and Roger Rees a snotty Sheriff of Nottingham. Comic David Chappelle
has some good moments as the only black member of Robins's noble
thieves, and Brooks does his own spin on Friar Tuck: Rabbi
Tuchman. The song-and-dance sequences featuring a chorus line of the
Merry Men ("We're men / men in tights") is vintage Brooks, but
otherwise the film can't get any traction. --Tom Keogh
