Killing Robin Hood

When your summer blockbuster has deeply offended Harry Knowles, the nerd-king proprietor of Ain't It Cool News, you know you’re in trouble. Today, Knowles takes a broadsword to Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. He calls the Russell Crowe swashbuckler “embarrassing” and says, “I’ve seen the story told better at Renaissance Fairs.” (We would bet that he has.) What’s the problem? Well, for one thing, Scott jumbles actual British history, or a bastardized version of such, with the soaring Robin Hood myths. The two don’t jibe. Second, Scott’s “amazing cast…is completely and totally wrong for the story.” As Knowles notes, poor Russell Crowe is 47 years old—a little long in the tooth for the 12th century.