44
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80VarietyLeonard KladyVarietyLeonard KladyRobin Hood: Men in Tights marks a return to the wild, anarchic scatological comedies that made Mel Brooks a marquee name around the world. It is a film for his diehard fans and for a new generation who only know Mad Mel from legend.
- 70IGNIGNMen in Tights does work more often than not, even if the jokes are a little cheaper than normal.
- 63ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliParodies are hard to do well, as is shown by the mediocrity of so many recent attempts. No matter how ripe a genre is for satirizing, unless you know how to do it, there are no guarantees. Fortunately for Men in Tights, Mel Brooks has been doing this kind of thing for decades.
- 63Slant MagazineChris CabinSlant MagazineChris CabinIt should be said that this negligible absence of Brooks’s boundary hopping wit and untamed performances doesn’t quite render Men in Tights unwatchable. There’s an appropriate, albeit languid merriment to the proceedings kept alive by a few choice cameos (Dick van Patten, Dom DeLouise, Brooks himself) and a handful of gags that land on their feet.
- 60The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyIt hits a couple of ecstatically funny high points, only to plummet into a bog of second-rate gags, emerging a long time later to engage the audience by the sheer, unstoppable force of the Brooks chutzpah.
- 60The DissolveGenevieve KoskiThe DissolveGenevieve KoskiA decent-enough inroad to one of film history’s most respected parodists.
- 40EmpireAngie ErrigoEmpireAngie ErrigoSadly, this will not go down as one of Brooks' classics.
- 40TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineAlthough sporadically funny and not quite the disaster it was initially made out to be, this ROBIN HOOD robs gags from other films while giving the poor viewer far too few laughs.
- 40Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleOne glance at the title shows you just where Brooks's head is these days: in his pants, specifically, in the area immediately below the belt. The one-time master parodist (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein) seems so focused on this universe bounded by the ass on one end, so to speak, and the groin on the other, that he forgets to do anything at all original to spoof Robin Hood or the swashbuckling films Hollywood has made of him.
- 30Time Out LondonTime Out LondonA standard, camp, unapologetic Mel Brooks parody, with digs at Kevin Costner's Prince of Thieves and its multi-racial Merry Men, and an arsenal of throw-away gags. An impressive cast - Stewart, Hayes, Ullman - cannot unfortunately save the day.