SHERRIFF OF NOTTINGHAM MEN IN TIGHTS MOVIE

We get Tracey Ullman's sparkle suffocated under makeup left over from Hocus Pocus and Dom DeLuise in another tiresome spoof of The Godfather.Ībove all, we get the sinking feeling that Brooks has deluded himself into thinking he can amuse the modern world, like Buddy Young Jr. We get Roger Rees as a Sheriff of Nottingham so bland that Alan Rickman's villain in the Costner version looks like Laurel and Hardy rolled into one. We get Richard Lewis mugging as evil King John, but it's the same neurotic urban Jewish humor we see from him on The Tonight Show and other TV venues.

Instead, we get crotch jokes, stupid puns, recycled schoolyard gags and anachronisms. David Shapiro never invest an ounce of charm or inspired lunacy in this tale. Elwes struggles to make this costume party thrive, but Brooks and co-screenwriters Evan Chandler and J. The other prime influence here is Rob Reiner's delightful The Princess Bride, especially the casting of that film's star, Cary Elwes, as Robin Hood. Comedy without surprise simply isn't funny. Anyone who watched Costner's version of Sherwood Forest can trace Brooks' path.

Part of the problem is that he has only one source instead of an entire genre to spoof, as he did with westerns, Hitchcock flicks, science fiction, etc. This time, Brooks sets his sights on Kevin Costner's 1991 hit Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, with all of the medieval mirth he can muster, which isn't much. Now all he can do is imitate himself, without any of the originality he brought to movies 20 years ago. In comedy classics like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and High Anxiety, he turned screen conventions on their ear with satire that was insulting, profane and deliriously funny.

SHERRIFF OF NOTTINGHAM MEN IN TIGHTS MOVIE

Perhaps if I hadn't laughed so hard at a recent revival of Blazing Saddles, then Mel Brooks' new film, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, wouldn't be such a dismal disappointment.īrooks used to be one of America's movie treasures: an impish showboat with an outrageous eye for parody.

Sherriff of nottingham men in tights