This Had Oscar Buzz - 392 – Robin Hood (2010)

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

We’re back to discussing the filmography of director Ridley Scott this week, though this episode was recorded… before the news of his Honorary Oscar. Nope, there is also a new riff on a Robin Hood this week, so we’re talking his ongoing collaboration with Russell Crowe and their 2010 take on the fable. Arriving at … Continue reading "392 – Robin Hood (2010)"

No, the right house. I didn't get that! I'm from Canada water. Dick Poop. King John. Hey! Oh, burn. Many wrongs to be righted in the country of King John. And I pray for a miracle.

That's something that we need to do. We're coming to archers' rob. The laws of this land enslave people to its king. A king who offers nothing in return. was nothing in return. Robin Longstride, also known as Robin of the Hood. For the crimes of incitement to cause unrest, I declare him to be an outlaw. Hello and welcome to the This Head Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast serving up cold, disgusting, snoskumber, crudite.

Every week on This Head Oscar Buzz, we'll be talking about a different movie that once upon a time had Lofty Academy Award aspirations, but for some reason or another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died, and we are here to perform the Oscar. autopsy. I'm your host, Joe Reed. I'm here, as always, with my historically reinterpreted damsel in distress. Chris Fial. Hello, Chris. You're historically... Do you mean the history that is 2001? Because Kate Blanchett as Maid Marian, aka Lady Marian, is quite literally dressed and styled like Princess Fiona. That's funny. She's wearing Princess Fiona's dress. Which is the Shrek where Fiona and the other princesses all do like matrix style like bullet time fighting against uh i don't know various

she strikes a matrix pose in the first one okay but i feel like one of the sequels she has like a group of like her in snow white and sleeping beauty and all of them and they become like girl posse or something like that i don't know man i don't remember i don't know probably not of my business anyway Was there a particular time? Oh, well, yeah. We've got a new Robin Hood movie coming out soon. The death of Robin Hood. The death of Robin Hood.

So this will be about the life of Robin Hood and how he became Robin Hood. How he now... Because we haven't had enough of those. Well, no. Listen, by the time this movie had gotten made, we had gotten Errol Flynn Robin Hood. cartoon sexy Robin Hood Kevin Costner sexy Robin Hood

Mel Brooks Silly Robin Hood And it's not quite as many as Peter Pan But like so already we're on like five, right? So There are like two Robin Hoods back to back Including There's a Charlie Hunnam one And then there is a Tarrant Egerton one

One of those is a King Arthur movie Got it. I think the King... But weren't there also multiple King Arthur's? Well, yes, but the one before that was the Clive Owen one several many years before. Yes, but there was also, I think, one in the past decade. Really? Oh, my God, that's too many.

Okay, Taryn Edgerton did... Is it really Egerton or Edgerton? I don't want to mispronounce it for poor Taryn. I thought I heard someone say Egerton recently. I think I also have to, and I couldn't remember whether it was like also you or somebody else. I want to get it right because he was kind enough to show butt in

his movie this summer or the spring. What was that? Apex. Netflix's Apex? Where he chases Charlize Theron around an island of some sort? Or maybe not an island?

Or maybe not an island. Notches of Netflix and into a real movie again. It's Australian. It's Australian murder nonsense. Yes. He was Robin of Loxley. this is another one of my favorite Robin Hood things. Robin Hood movies are a little bit like vampire movies, and that every time you get a new one,

they're like, you believed that version of the mythology? Boy, are you fucking stupid. Vampires can't get killed by garlic. And Robin's name wasn't Loxley, you silly Rube. Like that kind of a thing. But anyway, Tarynge Tarynx is Robin of Loxley. Jamie Fox as Yahya, who was also Little John, apparently. Ben Mendelsohn's...

I can't ever remember which one Jamie Fox was in. Charlie Hunnam or... Okay. Looking up to see Charlie Hunnam did a Robin Hood and King Arthur, but I'm pretty sure... Let's see. Hunham, Hunham, Honum. Anyway, Ben Mendelsohn was the sheriff from Donningham in that one. And Eve Hewson, future star of Disclosure Day, was made Marion in that one.

Hunham I'm pretty sure I saw both of those movies And remember nothing about King Arthur Legend of the Sword Starts Charlie Hunnam as King Arthur Jaiman Onsu as Sir Bedivir Aidan as goose fat bill Sure

June law as Vordegern Uther Pendragon's brother Arthur's uncle And the tyrannical and ruthless king of Britain Eric Banna as Uthera Penn Dragon Annabel Wallace as Maggie Kingsley Benedier as

Wet Stick Sir Now they're just making things up Now they're just making things up Legend of the Sword is one of the funnier subtitles We should just call things Legend of the Sword I mean yes

It is Legend of the Swords The Owls of Gahul You know that kind of a thing Oh Rise of the Guardians Rise of the Guardians exactly the rise of Robin Hood. So, yes, I had forgotten about that particular, the Teranegerton Robin Hood.

So, yeah, it is. You know what? It's public domain. It's, you know, a legend that is not really affixed to any, you know, one particular. Well, I mean, whatever. But there's...

You know, you say that Robin Hood is like vampire movies where it's constantly correcting the, you know, what is canon for this legend. Yeah, yeah. I also feel like part of the thing that is like, you can't tell a Robin Hood movie from a King Arthur movie, from other types of like 12th century action movies. Right.

Various of them made by Ridley Scott. Well, and also, like, this one, we have Eleanor of Aquitaine, played by Eileen Atkins, who, like, the blending of, obviously there are like historical antecedents to a lot of these figures, but like the Robin Hood story is fictional. And, but like, Eleanor of Aquitaine was a very real historical figure who probably has like embellished tales. You know what I mean about her and whatever. But like, so it's this real melding of like the liable. in winter and Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, or whatever, and so many of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood that we're going to be talking about today has beats in it or like little touches in it that

I'm like, oh, that is also in Prince of Thieves. That is also weirdly in men in tights, like the fact that Max Juan Cino was blind. I'm like, oh, that's a thing that has like stayed consistent through all these things. Like you would think like that would be a thing that maybe might change. You kind of need some of those things in this movie because there's so much going on and it's trying to give so much real estate to so many characters that you need something to anchor you to the version of the legend you at least feel familiar with. Yes, well, and the big thing that this is trying to do, because obviously we'll talk about the production history of this, because it's pretty rich.

For years, it was in development as a share. of Nottingham movie as this idea of like, what if the legend wasn't quite so tidy as you thought? And like, Nottingham. Gritty Robin Hood reboot. Nottingham. Well, we'll get to the gritty of it too, because like that's a whole thing. But like, Nottingham was going to be less outright bad than we've thought. And Robin was going to be less outright good. And it would be like a love triangle with the two of them and Marion and yada, and this was a project that like even when ridley scott signed on people assumed that ridley scott was making ridley scott and russle crow were making the nottingham movie but anyway um

because russell crow signed on before ridley scott too it was that how it was okay because i know grazer was there like first essentially like it was like grazer had gotten the rights to this particular treatment i also think this is how the death of robin Hood coming out the week of this episode is also taking Robin Hood. It's supposed to be a like Robin Hood is not all great as you think it is and there's going to be some penance to be paid, something like that. Well, because this movie, the Ridley's movie ultimately like does away with that element of it entirely. Like Robin is just a full-on hero to the point where he invents Western democracy. So, well done. Well done on that, Robin. We'll get into that. He creates a socialist commune. he writes the Magna Carta He unearths the Magna Carta that his dad wrote and buried in a wall somewhere But the blending of like

You know bringing in like I said like You know Lion and I kept thinking of obviously Catherine Hepburn is an honor of Aquitaine In The Line in Winter One of my favorite performances And of course as I said to somebody It might have been you in our group chat I was like

If I had known that like this movie featured Oscar Isaac being hot and naked and a fuck boy and Eileen Atkins as Eleanor of Aquitaine I wouldn't have waited until 2026 to see this movie for the first time I would have definitely given it a look before Okay, here's where I'll say it This movie is a lot more interesting That I expected it to be

I like this movie It's not I didn't expect it at all but I like this movie It's not fully successful I think the bones of what it is attempting to do are pretty good. I resented it for making me feel like... I resented it because my immediate thought was this would work better as the limited series.

Oh, wow. That's interesting. Okay. So you have all of these characters who are supposed to be significant. Yeah. Where... The interests is in these characters that we're familiar with that have been in other Robin Hood stories before... Yeah.

It feels very much like the political machinations of it in a way that feels very, very modern. I don't want to be like, this is Ridley Scott doing Robin Hood if it was succession. But that kind of gives you the idea of what is fresh or different about this movie. It made me think a lot of Game of Thrones. Like the, there's a, there's, take away the, you know, dragons and magic and sort of the, Targaryeness of Game of Thrones. And a lot of of its

you know, sort of like medieval-coded political intrigue and like, you know, the politics of power and all this sort of stuff felt very familiar to this. And like, obviously,

those books existed before the show. And I wonder if maybe, I mean, I doubt that Ridley Scott is like a secret song of ice and fire fan or something like that.

But, There was stuff about the aesthetics of this movie, the sort of like the balance of, we'll talk about how the reviews at the time sort of made this movie out to be like the grimest thing that ever existed, which is kind of odd watching it now. And I'm like, there's a little zip in it. Like the merry men aren't like, you know, comic relief characters, but they're having a time. Very different take on Little John, I will say, because it took me a while to be. realize that's who it was. What is Kevin Durant doing here? Who is this guy?

And I'm like, oh, yeah. He's little John. Yeah. But like, I'm not going to be too precious about that. And obviously, Mark Addy, as Fryer Tuck, gives you the connective tissue between the... I left when he showed up and it was like, they did not have the audacity to cast Mark Addie as Friar Tuck.

Of course they did. So, yeah, I think there was something to the... this version of Robin Hood that made me think of the version of Game of Thrones before it started sort of like spinning past a point where it could hold the center, that I really enjoyed. And it was interesting that like Game of Thrones essentially starts. I think later this year, I think Game of Thrones began in 2010. But I had a good time with it. Here's the other thing is, and we'll talk about this a little bit more too. The reviews at the time, this movie's Rotten Tomato Score and Metacritic score are shockingly low given how much I think this is like essentially a pretty good movie.

I think there's a lot to be interested. We'll get into the things that I'm like, this does not work. Yeah. Or it doesn't work as it's done. But there's a lot more meat on the bone than this than I was certainly expecting. This was like sub-50% Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic. And like, a lot

of the reviews seemed decently pissed at the movie for being humorless, dark, muddy, sort of like, you know, unappealing. And I was momentarily puzzled until I sort of realized that, like, oh, in 2010, we're just hitting that, like, post-dark night peak. We're like, we're two years past the dark night, and the copycats have started to come out. And now everybody's like, all right, everything's. getting a little too, like, dark and serious. Like, when people would start using the term like grim dark, like one word, like grim dark or

whatever, to, like, this is around that time. And this is part of the reason why Marvel was able to springboard into a different direction. But now, watching Robin Hood 2010 now, all I can think of is real locations. I know. Look at all these horses. Look at all these horses. Look at all these pieces.

Look at all this like coordinated battle. I mean, we're doing this. Look at all this shit they built. Look at all the shit they built. Look at all that like this is. I'm like, you know, I am not a like blind Ridley Scott fanboy or something like that. Like I will criticize. But like this is really good like widescreen Ridley Scott filmmaking.

Like I was that the battle scene at the end I thought was great. All this stuff up leaving up to it, the stuff at the beginning with the castle raid where like Richard the Lionheart gets killed. and like this is a movie this is a real movie which like feels so much more tangible cared for expensive all of this kind of stuff than what we get now and then sometimes it doesn't like hate to be the gay guy that jumps to this but Kate Blanchett's wig

you and the wig yeah yeah I mean listen I'm certainly not going to stick up for the wig I think there's some room for complaints and critique here in terms of the look of the movie yes everything you're saying is true, but there is almost no color palette to it at all. There's no real visual variety in that way that I think adds to the effect of this thing feeling like vegetables in some way. I don't disagree with you, but like I think the point that I was making was just, because I do feel like, and we'll get into your, you know, your complaints, which are definitely, they apply.

But it's just interesting that how the rest of the film landscape that you're watching the movie in plays into how you appreciate a movie. You know what I mean? Whereas like back then it was kind of indicative of a lot of things that people were getting annoyed by at the movies. And now it's indicative of a lot of the things that I wish we could maybe get back to. Yeah, absolutely. I feel like we're probably more primed to appreciate this movie. movie now. And some of that had to be diminished expectations, right? You know, this is just one of those things. I really was not expecting to have a good time of this movie. I guess eventually we'll do this

movie. Yeah, yeah. That everybody has kind of forgotten about. Even I think the real like Ridley Scott people never really talk about this movie. Yeah. And we'll talk about my feelings about Ridley Scott specifically with this movie. But I will say, I also just rewatch Thelman Louise. Yeah, was that for any particular purpose or just like... Vives. I just wanted to. And I, of course, watched a ton of those criteria and special features on it and, like, they talked a lot. Ridley Scott being the director of that movie, obviously, is a somewhat fraught thing for some people.

Sure. But they talked about, you know, he had to kind of be convinced to direct it and then he does. And that movie looks the way it looks. It's so incredible. And the scope of it gives it so much more context as well that he just, he's just someone who knows how to shoot the hell out. of a movie. And I think we've maybe seen some waning of that. He's maybe someone who works so much that, you know,

the expeditiousness of his approach to things is starting to work against him. Well, in the lead-up to this movie, he had made, he was essentially like on a movie a year clip, right? He had done... 2003, he does Matchstick Man,

2005, Kingdom of Heaven, 2006, a good year, 2007, American Gangster, 2008 Body of Lies. Now, Kingdom of Heaven is a movie that has like a whole ecosystem around it, including a director's cut that people like a lot better. That movie has

its fans. I keep meaning to go back and watch the director's cut to give that movie another chance because people I really trust are very positive on it. And I will admit, I am someone who had to warm up to that movie. The first time I saw that movie, I did not like it. Yeah. I mean, I thought it was fairly

I had middling thoughts on it. I think a good year is a little bit of a boondoggle for him. American gangster. Sure, even if that's not like my favorite genre of movie, like, I can admit he does that well. And Body of Lies is another movie that I haven't seen. And now that I've seen Robin Hood and liked it. I'm way more curious to watch Body of Lies. I can't dismiss Body of Lies out of hands now. So now I'm kind of curious.

Yeah, exactly. Because that was one of the ones that was a bomb for Ridley Scott that people didn't really seem to like, even the Ridley Scott people. Yeah. But like the filmmakers who make a movie every year tend to not make movies the size and scope that Ridley does. You know what I mean?

So it's like part of me, like Clint Eastwood isn't making, I mean, well, maybe, I don't know, sometimes Clint Eastwood does make a kind of a big movie. Woody Allen certainly doesn't make big movies. But like, you know, these directors who can just sort of like churn them out. Who've been making movies as long as they've been making them too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, it is, it's interesting.

This movie really was just sort of like kind of kicks to the curb, even in like precursor season when you would have thought that like a Ridley Scott with a lot of technical elements would have at least showed up in a lot of different craft precursors. It only ever really does in the art directors guild. And we'll talk about that. You really at this point kind of can't predict when Ridley Scott is going to. land awards-wise and doesn't, you know, because you have something like the last duel, we will eventually do the last duel, which is pretty great. Yes. And then you have something like Napoleon, which is a mixed bag, but I think there's good stuff

in there, and then it is also vegetables. But it got like two or three nominations, right? It got like four or five. It got four, okay, thank you. Yes. I think it's four. And then Gladiator Two only gets one nomination. and, like, say what you will about Gladiator 2.

But, like, I think of the two flawed movies that are Napoleon and Gladiator 2, I'd rather watch Gladiator 2. I'd rather watch Napoleon. Okay, that's interesting. I think Gladiator 2 looks really bad. There's some, like, I remember some, like, one scene that I was like, this looks like,

this was from, like, these set pieces are from home goods or something. Yeah. Like, it's from T.J. Max. I think the Denzel performance. and the weirdness of the two little, like, gay kings or whatever, gay emperors, um, interest me. So, um... People were unfair to Paul Muskell about that movie.

I thought. I thought so. Um, it's not great, though. But it only got one nomination. Well, yeah, but like you were, like, as you said. Costumes? Yeah. Yes.

It had to have been. It would have had to have been. Um, anyway, we'll talk about Ridley. we'll talk about Russell Crow and Kate Blanchett, who, two Ozies, do they have, like, they hadn't performed together before this, right? I don't think so. I don't think so. Blanchett's Marion and this, because in many ways, because this movie no longer is the

unexpected Sheriff of Nottingham movie, The most sort of like revision in the text element of it is that Marion goes to battle, right? This is the whole. And I think it was sold a little bit on like, this is not your grandmother's made Marion or whatever. And it really doesn't assert itself, like up into the point where she does the like A-O-N, like helmet off, like, I am no man. You know what I mean? Kind of a thing. she doesn't present as all that too terribly different

from Mary Elizabeth Master Antonio's version of the character in Prince of Thieves until the last, you know, the last act, which in Prince of Thieves she spends that last act literally captive in a tower as the Sheriff of Nottingham is trying to comedically sexually assault her, like in the movie's least, like, most bad taste moment Whereas in this movie's final reel, she shows up on the beach, she battles sexy Mark Strong. In a full suit of armor. She and Robin, I did kind of wish they had given us a moment of the two of them sort of like fighting alongside each other for like a real, you know, moment to gender equality.

But instead. You want them to be the two guns poster. Kind of. And instead she just gets sort of like knocked out and like smushed into the surf and he has to drag her out. And because like her armor mask only has like a mail slot in it and he's like got her sword and it looks like she's going to be stabbed through the like mail slot of her mask. Yeah. It's it's fraught. It's fraught.

So I think that to me is a little bit of a writing a check that you're. filmmaking can't cash a little bit. And you have Cape Blanchet. She's, you know, ready and willing to be there. And then ultimately, like, she has grit throughout the movie. She doesn't, like, she's not a wilting, you know, flower or anything like that. But again, no more so

than Mary Elizabeth Master Antonio was in Prince of Thee. There are quite simply better uses of Kate Blanchett's time. I was, I do agree. I just kind of felt... I agree. And I guess it's one of the flaws of the movie. It just, it felt, I don't want to say,

her. And of course, like, she's a major star. She wants to be in large movies that are designed to make a lot of money. She wants to be in Ridley Scott movies. There's a way you can cast that role. You understand why she would say yes to this movie, but also she shouldn't have. There's a way you can cast that role to make the characterization of Marion feel like you are leveling up this actress who you have cast in this role rather than, as you're say she's kind of slumming it a little bit. Because there's just not much going on there with this character. Yeah. It's all about just putting her

in putting her on the battlefield, you know, which feels kind of empty and facile, you know, it feels very 2010 in that way. We're seven years past Return of the King. Like Miranda Otto did this shit. You know what I mean? Like, we really...

And with more character development, you know? Quite a bit more. Yes, yes. Also, the line, what's, is it Walter Loxley? Is that Max Foncito's name? Where she literally goes, this is for you, Walter. I'm like, we know, we get it. We don't need her to say it. We know that this is for Walter.

We know this was why she wants to kill Mark Strong. We saw it. We saw him kill Max Foncito. What are we doing here? It's so cheesy. You mentioned the Oscar nominee Max Foncito. Joe, there are. Probably 20 recognizable name actors in this movie.

Quite a bit, quite a few. As I said to you before we started recording, I am shocked to my bones that none of these people qualified for a five-timer or a perhaps 10-timer. Who are you most surprised to see show up in this movie? Lay us to do. Yeah, I was going to say. Oh, my queen. Would this have been before she was in anything?

I don't remember seeing her in anything before blue is the warmest color, even though I know she had been in things. Yeah, she had. She had. But yes, this is pretty blue as the warmest color. By a few years. I guess is this the same year as Ghost Protocol? No, Ghost Protocol and Midnight and Paris are both the next year. And I think she was even in French movies as like a teenager.

Yes. But like, yeah. But this movie even has like. Oh, you know what? She's also in Glorious Bastards. I didn't realize. Yes. Yes.

Okay. Along with one of the many cameos in this movie, Denny Menacee. You get Ozempic Denny Menoschet in this movie. Who is who? Denny Menichet shows up in the woods at one point, and he's very skinny in this movie. You'll recognize him. Most listeners will recognize him if you don't watch any French cinema. You'll recognize him as the first person that Christoph Waltz interrogates in Inglorious Bastards.

Okay. But, like, Luke Evans is... in like a non-speaking role. Did not catch him. In his in like a non-speaking role in this movie. It's a little wild. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Six-timers.

All those Mark Addie movies. Simon McBurney shows up and I'm like, I don't trust this fucking guy. Like he doesn't amount to anything, but I'm like, Simon McBurney. You've burned too many bridges with me before. I mean, some of these, it's like, they're just very small roles, but there are a lot of recognizable, known acts. being asked to give significant plot, you know, progression and character detail in this movie. It's just so much movie.

And, like, all of the Eleanor of Aquitaine stuff doesn't exist in another version of the movie trying to do this, what this movie is trying to do. But, like, we're supposed to take those Eleanor of Aquitaine scenes along with everyone else incredibly seriously, and it's delivering necessary information. That's the stuff that made me think of Game of Thrones quite a bit. It's like Eleanor of Aquitaine and the William Hurt character, William Marshall, having like back channel conversations about how to like manipulate the king or whatever. I'm like, that's deeply like, that's absolutely Game of Thrones shit.

And like Leicay-Sadu, like Eileen Adkins going to Leicay-Sadu and being like, you have to like stop this war or whatever. And ultimately those things are all in service of, And I think Oscar Isaac is quite good in this movie. Beyond the fact that he's like hot as mouth. The most guyliner Oscar Isaac you have ever seen. Hacha, macha. He's using like eyeliner on his like beard line, on his chin strap.

But he like, but he knows how to play this role correctly. Like he really, I think, nails it. And ultimately all of that like scheming and back channeling kind of dead ends at his character because his character is ultimately just like, oh, right, I'm a shit. Like, I'm just going to like, you know, I'm not going to sign this Magna Carta. Like, fuck you people.

It's his brattiest performance. Yes, it's his brattiest performance. And, but you know what? I appreciated the act of watching this movie, even though by the time we get to the end, I did get that feeling of like, oh, this is like, the end of the first season of a recurring series, I guess. But you know what?

Yeah, because even the end point gives you that vibe. Now he's, well, how many limited series, or not, I keep calling it limited, but it wouldn't be a limited, it would it be a TV series? How many streaming series get to the end of their first season and is like, and now we are the show that we have promised to be? Now Robin is in the woods and is going to start robbing from the rich. giving to the poor. Yeah, the end of this movie is the end of

Act 1 of most Robin Hood movies. Right, right. All that said, I enjoyed myself. So, let's... Oh, you're giving the... I literally got turned around. I was like, how am I about to throw it to myself to give the plot description?

I got so panicked momentarily that, like, fuck, I forgot to prepare a plot description. It's you who's doing it. the plot description. So why don't we... You're also going to, for a moment, tell our listeners why they should join our Patreon. Hey, listener, we have a Patreon. By now, you might have heard us talk about it, but just as a refresher,

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I'm very excited about this, too. My birth year. Oh, well. I know. Be prepared for me to make several jokes about Anne Archer and Southern and Anne Ramsey all being nominated together. I don't know how. I'm going to try to catch up before we do that episode. Catch up to as much of my blind spots from that year. Can't watch Gabby a true story? If I can get a hold of it. Because I'm also trying to get a hold of Anna, obviously. Obviously, yeah. So we'll see if I can do that before.

Would it be worth it to watch The Last Emperor? on my television at home? Is that even like... I mean, that's how I watched it when I... Yeah, I should do it. I should do it. I caught up to hope and glory already. Uh-huh.

Hope and glory, which used to, now, used to be the oldest best picture nominee I hadn't seen. And now that honor belongs to? Soldier Story. Oh, Norman Jerusalem. Right. nominee, yes. Which is 80... It's like 85. It's not said in...

me further back. Oh, okay. Well, still, you're moving along. You're trucking along. Things to look forward to. I believe that excursion drops this week. If I'm remembering the dates correctly, it's very possible. It could already be up as well.

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you, Gary. Regular people. We're all Gary's. In the club, in the club, we all garries. So, did you notice that that was a Jeopardy

two-part category title in the club? We all fam. I don't know. I can't. I can't get into today's Jeopardy controversies, but whatever, we'll get into it. I have been

wrapped, wrapped at PCJ all season. You know, some good people over there on pop culture Jeopardy. We're rooting for all of them. We're rooting for our faves. Absolutely. All right. Robin Hood. It is not the origin story of how he found his hood.

That, if it were a television show, would be an episode. Is how he finally, the origin story of how Robin acquired. He doesn't have a hood yet. you know, his hood would be when he gets, goes from microbangs to regular bangs. Poor Russell Crow has had microbangs in multiple movies at this point, and not even in the same franchise. What's the, what's the, okay, what movie does Russell Crow sport the best hairdo? Because I feel like Russell Crow is kind of tragedy upon tragedy, hairwise. I mean, I'm gonna probably say the nice guys.

That's not a bad answer, I got to say. Plus, I got you to compliment the nice guys. So there we go. I win. There you go. All right. Robin Hood, directed by Ridley Scott, written by Brian Helgeland. Yes, that's right.

An Oscar winning screenwriter? He won. No? Oh, right. He wrote LA Confidential. Yeah, yeah. I believe so for Adapted that year. Oscar winning screenwriter wrote that awful line about this is for you, Walter.

Starring, Russell. Kate Blanchett, Mark Strong, stupid sexy Mark Strong, holy God. How is Mark Strong that sexy to you in this movie? He looks like Mark Strong looks in every movie. Yeah, but he's sinister. I don't know. He does it for me in this. He laughs when he gets an arrow through his neck. He does. Does he ever?

William Hurt. You can't tell me that's what did it for you. Well, no, obviously not. No, he's like a Francophile fuckboy. Like, genuinely, I'm like, oh, this son of a bitch, I hate how attracted to him I am. William Hurt, Max Foncito, stupid sexy Oscar Isaac, stupid sexy Eileen Atkins, Kevin Durand, Scott Grimes, fucking, speaking of fuck boys, that fucking guy from ER is Will Scarlet, Jesus Christ. Alan Doyle, Mark Addie, Leis Seidu, Matthew McFagin,

who again, shows up, clocks in for like seven minutes of screen time, and just knocks out about three scenes. And I'm just like, God damn, he's so good. And they're all crucially important to understanding what is happening. Also, they give him disgusting teeth, and he's still really hot. He's good. Man, he nails it. And Douglas Hodge premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

I forgot to write that down in our notes. We should talk about that. Out of competition, we should say. Out of competition. I want to watch Tiri Fremot watch this movie. premiered at the 2010 Canaan Film Festival on May 12th, 2010, and then a mere two days later opened worldwide in wide release from Universal. Opening weekend, it made $36 million, was not enough by quite a bit to surround the second weekend.

weekend. I don't know what accent that was that I brought it out. Second weekend. Oh, yeah. It's the weekend. Oh, yeah. Iron Man 2. Iron Man 2 pulled in $52 million for Paramount, because this was before Marvel became its own fucking thing. Letters to Juliet, the number three movie that week, was a premiere with $13.5 million.

Then the premiere of Just Wright, W-R-I-G-H-T, from Fox Searchlight, classic Queen Latifah basketball movie. Not the only one. How to Train Your Dragon in its eighth week is still in the top five in the box office. Good movie. Chris, while I make a note

to myself to pull up the 2010 Can Film Festival, there we go. Are you ready to give a 60-second plot description? It's been a minute for you. We've gone through a whole May miniseries and all this sort of stuff. All right. Now I am back to terrorizing our listeners with being bad at our own game.

And ready, begin. It's the Crusades, boo, tomatoes, tomatoes. Russell Crow has Mike or bangs and Kevin Durand is Little John for some reason. Robin Hood is in King Richard's army. He criticizes the king and gets thrown in jail, but escapes when King Richard dies in battle. Robin Hood assumes the identity of Sir Robert of Loxley, and as he's dying and takes on the mission of bringing, take it on the mission of bringing news of the king's death back to ye old-timey London town.

Meanwhile, in between, uh, bouts of Eileen Atkin, Eileen Atkins interrupted sex with lais he do. Prince John assumes the throne. He sends Mark Strong because, of course, Mark Strong is here to tax the countryside, but he really just plots with France to overthrow the new king. Robin Hood, meanwhile, meets his widow, Marion,

aka Kate Blanchett is Princess Viona. She slowly grows to accept him. You're like a 10 seconds, by the way. Sorry, 10 seconds to me. Oh, okay. also meanwhile William Hurt because why the fuck is William Hurt here is rallying the populace against new taxes. The French descent, Mark Strong kills Robert of Loxley's dad, and then there's a huge battle, which climaxes with Robin Hood comically slow-mo arrow shooting straight through Mark Strong's neck.

Fiona Blanchett Marion also fights in that battle because good God, we have to have a woman in all of this, because Robin Hood is the hero in all of this. The new Prince King John declares him an outlaw because he doesn't like it. They went back on each other, whatever. Robin Hood and Fiona Blanchet, Marion Aeroen, live happily ever after in Socialist Commun and the Sherwood Forest, the end. 30 seconds over. All right.

Not too bad. Pretty good for me. It really must be emphasized how much, though, the big climactic scene in the middle of the movie is Russell Crow pitching the Magna Carta to Prince John as like, Like he's pitching a sitcom to like some network heads and just being like, what if I told you there's a way in which all men could have rights and protections and, you know, life and liberty and all this sort of stuff.

And you could still be king, but it would be, you know, you know, people would no longer would be in servitude. But how can we optimize AI by do? Yeah. By the end, he's like, yeah, so about that. We're going to be giving all of your jobs to AI. That's what he says at the end. But I do love that. Of all the people to invent Western democracy, why not Russell Crow in Microbangs? It is one way in which this movie perhaps is overstretching for some sense of modernity. Though, I mean, it's 2010 politics that this is made in the world. of. This movie makes more sense to watch now. Well, no, but it's

Obamacore, though. It is the fact that, like, even in the most brutal medieval times, one good, you know, one man of good conscience could bring democracy to the poor wretches of, you know, of England,

of 12th century England. Um, but the type of, you know, political tyranny and also, you know, backdoor plotting feels much more contemporary than it explicitly did in 2010. Oh, yes, yes, sure, sure. How often did this movie make you think of Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, or is that just me?

Because for me, it was like constantly. All of the Sheriff of Nottingham stuff, and by that, the aforementioned three scenes. Yeah. Um, I guess maybe some of the friar talk stuff, because so much of when I think of Prince of Thieves, I think obviously of Alan Rickman, the late crate. But I think of all that Sherwood Forest stuff that that movie has. Maybe that's just because as a child, I had like, with my action figures, I had like the Sherwood Forest thing. Oh, fun. thing. It had a little elevator. You could send the little, you could send like a rock to fight.

Uh-huh. The bad guys. Uh-huh. This was branded specifically for the 91 Kevin Costner Robin Hood movie? It was. Nice. That's awesome. I'm going to find that on eBay and give that to you. That sounds fun. Please don't. It was too large to put in my home. But yeah, so for whatever reason, I mean whatever, I've watched that movie a billion times. So of course, I keep thinking, of it, but it is interesting. It was the Brian Adams song in this one that did it for you. Yeah, that did it, yeah. It's interesting to me, again, sort of back to the vampire lore thing of like, what gets added, what gets subtracted every time we do a new iteration of this. Whereas like, when I was a little, when I was little, my three pillars of Robin Hood were Disney animated, Kevin Costner, and Mel Brooks.

And so it's like, Prince John is in the Disney. one and the Mel Brooks one. Robin is, you know, like Robin, like, Marion has, like, agency in mostly Prince of Thieves. Like, just like little, you know, little touches, little whatever. Only Prince of Thieves has a

Morgan Freeman type, or like wrangles with, you know, Arabia or whatever. Like, or that, like, that, angle of the Crusades at all. Richard shows up in, at the end of Prince of Thieves, shows up at the end of men in tights, and is at the beginning of this one,

the Ridley Scott one. Alan Adale only shows up in Disney and Ridley Scott as like a, whatever, a balladeer or something like that. And Sir Hiss isn't all of them. man, this movie could have used a Sir Hiss. No, but okay.

Who is the Sir Hiss analog in Prince of Thieves? It's essentially Sir Hiss's role gets, like, separated into Geraldine McEwen as the witch. And, oh, what's his face from Nope? Oh, Michael Wincott. Michael Wincott as... But Michael Wincott is also in Prince of Thieves. No, that's what I mean. Michael Woodcutt is in Prince of

I thought you said men in tights No, Geraldine McEwen in Prince of Thieves is Tracy Allman in Yeah What's your name? Why did you change your name to Latrine? Yeah, it used to be shithouse Funniest joke in the world when I was a kid

That made me laugh more than anything else It's so good So there is no old witch I guess that's I guess that role is given to Eileen Atkins as Eleanor of Aquitaine in this, where she's like the female trying to influence, exert influence.

I guess also maybe Lacey do. Here's a pitch. What if, instead of a witch, a sexy French lady. And they were like, got it. A pouty French princess. So pouty. My God. Like, incredibly pouty. Even after Eleanor

just like whips off the covers as they're like mid-fucking or whatever. Like, fully. It was a... They barely stop. They continue. you for like half a second. Like, they're like,

Eileen Atkins is here? Get in, honey. John, John in Lion in Winter is portrayed as like slow or like innocent,

like it's sort of like developmentally stunted in some way, I feel like. So this recreation. It was a different time. of John, and they're like, again, what if instead

hot and sexy? It's just like, okay. Hot, sexy, and bratty. Yes. Again, all things that kind of enhanced my enjoyment of this movie, how did you feel about the depiction of Robin and his Mary, in scare quotes, men?

Kevin Durand is on drugs. They're essentially like entourage-coded a little bit. Like, they're kind of the squad. It's a little brosky, right? It's very brosky. They're bros-y. It's not the little John that we're used to, to the point that I was confused about who he.

I was also confused about who he was because I was trying to follow who all these fucking people are. Yeah. But yeah, it's a little, I don't want to go so far as to say agro. It's maybe like diet agro. Well, you have the requisite scene where like the boss. Our wench or whatever is like, why I call you little John or whatever? And it's just like, you'll find out, like that kind of a thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. So I don't know. I found a lot of their, again, a lot of their reviews sort of seem to take issue with the fact that they're not so merry or whatever. Like, isn't this supposed, I think the idea is, isn't Robin Hood supposed to be a more lighthearted tale of like archery and mischief? and, you know, it's not without those things.

Like I mentioned in my 60-second plot description, the, like, you can tell that it's one of those things that Ridley Scott storyboarded the shit out of when Robin Hood shoots his arrow across the entire battlefield to land square through Mark Strong's neck. And there is like 20 shots

between Robin being like, I'm going to shoot this arrow until it even hits Marks. Including the like, it's money shot. The money shot that starts racked in on the arrow and then like racks out to his face. And I'm like, that was for the trailer.

It's so campy to the point where I laughed and then I thought to myself, am I those people, am I that person who people get mad at for inappropriately laughing? Yeah, at Roger Moore. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, I mean, I think Ridley Scott knows what he's doing.

I did say out loud, like, no, he fucking didn't. Like, that was just like that was... Because it takes... It does. A full minute for him to do the thing. I would rather that than whatever version of it, Michael Bay would have done. You know what I mean? Oh, sure.

Like, I know that that's like bar on the floor kind of stuff. Well, Michael Bay would have had no women. Well, he would have. But they would have been, like, riding on top of a corvette, like, up and down the surf or whatever. But there was, I will say, speaking of arrows, though, there was that shot in the scene where, no, what scene is it? I can't remember whether it was one of the scenes at the castle at the beginning before Richard gets killed or whatever, where you see the arrows, the like flights of arrows coming down at the regiment or whatever. And again, all I was just thinking was

just like, somebody set up that shot. You know what I mean? Like, somebody set up that shot and, like, executed it practically. I'm fairly certain. Like, I don't think. I wouldn't think that was digital trickery or anything like that. It certainly didn't come across to me like that, but I could be being naive. I was like, this is, like, cared for and, like, kind of bravura in a way that, like, just people don't, like, that's,

not the kind of impressive that filmmakers want to be nowadays with their big action epics. And I don't think even Ridley Scott, unfortunately, is really working quite at this level anymore in terms of just attention to detail to these action scenes, what feels so tangible about them. This definitely felt like It might be one of the last movies before Ridley Scott is really digitally tinkering with things We've talked about Exodus Gods and Kings A movie we both really did not like

Yes And part of that movie's problem is There's a lot of digital And by nature of the story you kind of have to Yeah, that movie coming only a few years after Robin Hood Is kind of telling And I wonder if it was just like after the relative, you know, kind of floppiness of this movie,

this movie ends up clearing $100 million domestic, but is generally viewed as a failure. And like the budget is listed as like as like 230, 240 million. So like not a success. And then the critics seem to hate it. And so maybe Ridley was just like, Why am I busting my ass for, you know, in this way when I could just be, when I could take some shortcuts or whatever? I mean, he's always a little surly. You take a look at his wiki photo and it's quite literally a grumpy cat pose.

But then he has his like haughty photo on his IMDP. I also think Russell Crow has something to do with that where maybe a, especially critics and audiences, we're like, okay, well, here we go again. There's the, you know, Gladiator has such a huge impact that it's like these kind of movies, particularly with Russell Crow in them. And I guess, you know, it is a reunion of Gladiator because that's also a Ridley Scott movie. Yeah. There's parts of even the first Gladiator that I'm like, I don't know about this visually.

Oh, the first Gladiator is not my favorite movie, like, by a good stretch. But so by this point... There's something about this Robin Hood that's almost more. more tangible than even Gladiator is. And I definitely like this movie more than Gladiator. But, you know, that, you know, Russell Crow in particular, I think, was kind of cashing checks on Gladiator for a while. Yeah. And I think audiences probably thought they knew what they were going to get with this movie.

And while I don't know if Crow is, even in the top five things, I would mention first about this movie being interesting. Yeah. You know, I do think it's different. different than what Gladiator is. And I thought, I think people probably thought, well, here's another Gladiator. Well, Gladiator, the whole idea of that character is that, like, he's this hot shot who, like, wraps the entire empire around his, you know, around his finger because he's so, he's such a charismatic warrior in that ring or whatever, in that, in that arena. And it's in the spirit of vengeance, right? Which is really easy to rally around in a movie.

I don't really know what Robin Hood's M.O. is in this movie at really any... He's called upon to almost, like, cosplay nobility, right? Because he's supposed to stand in for Robert Locksley. And at the behest of Max Foncito is essentially just like, nobody remembers anybody's faces. It's $11.99 or whatever. Like, just pretend to be my son. And that way, the king won't, like, take our land or whatever.

And I'm sure my daughter-in-law will go along with it. And Marion's like, what now? But I also wanted to say, like, this is Ridley Scott. Robin Hood is Ridley Scott and Russell Crow's fifth movie together. They're fourth in a row. It's Ridley Scott's fourth movie in a row with Russell Crow as his lead or co-lead. American Gangster and Body of Lies were both sort of like, you know, split bill at the top, right?

And then they don't ever work together in a film. Not in one that Ridley's directed, at least. And yet, I don't think there was anything, and correct me if I'm wrong, about like a falling out or anything like that. No, I mean, it's probably just different interests because I think Ridley Scott has stayed trying to make these very large-scale movies, and Russell Crow hasn't. You know, he's done more intimate stuff since then.

Yeah. It's... So, directly after Robin Hood, I mentioned Exit's Gods and Kings. There's two full movies that happen for Ridley before Exodus Gods and Kings, and that's only a few years later. Prometheus, which I was so excited for,

and I do, I know that, like, the culture of sort of rehab, around that movie is significant, and a lot of people I know and trust really stand by that movie, I was really let down by Prometheus, and I've watched it again, and I still don't quite get what some people see in it. And then we've done our episode on The Counselor, a movie that has its moments for me, but I definitely don't love it as much as you love it. thoughts on that sort of

like mini era of like Prometheus the counselor exodus gods and kings all leading up to the Martian where it's sort of like momentarily it's like Rithi's back I mean

it is kind of a nihilistic era for Sir Ridley I mean especially between the one two bunch of Prometheus and the counselor is like you okay my guy a little yeah

Yeah, yeah. But he's revisiting his great, you know, series with Alien. And then he's teaming up with Cormick McCarthy in the second one. And so. And I don't know what the timeline is for Tony Scott's death and how that might have impacted him at this time. But yes. Yeah.

But you could see how he would not be in a great place. Yeah. you know, and want to be doing these darker things. I want to bop over to 2010 Can Film Festival for a second. This is the opening night film at Cannes, 2010. Oh, boy. Once again, I want to watch Terry Frumot, watch this movie. Other movies, with an asterisk movies,

that screened out of competition at this can, include Woody Allen's, You'll Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Oliver Stone's Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps, Stephen Freer's Tamara Drew, which I think is the what's her name? Gemma Arderton. Gemma Arderton movie.

Gregoraki's Kaboom, which I could talk about for like a half an hour in terms of like my thoughts on that movie. Olivier Aceyaz's Carlos, which is why I said asterisk around movie, because this was presented in the United States

as a mini-series. but regardless of what it was, it sort of introduced me at least to Edgar Ramirez and he's fantastic in that. So like a lot of like Bangor filmmakers doing letdown or like

non-major, a lot of non-major work from major filmmakers with the exception like Asayas is bringing something major. But like a rocky he's sort of like going off the beaten path a little bit. Friars is doing something small and kind of widely ignored. Oliver Stone is going back to Wall Street because, I don't know, he couldn't make any more Vietnam movies. And then, like, this is, you'll meet a Tarled Dark Stranger is not one of Woody Allen's better later era. The film's...

Not well received at all. Yeah. So it's an interesting collection of, and like, out of competition can titles are kind of always a mixed bag. Am I... Am I wrong in saying that? Kind of. And the out-of-competition title, sometimes those are technically play as Midnight movies, as I believe Iraqi's movie did. Iraqi, I think, also won the first queer palm for that movie. But, you know, it can be a lot of different circumstances that lead to something being out of competition.

You know, you have something like Killers of the Flower Moon, where Martin Scorsese explicitly did not want to be in competition, even though they wanted him to be. So it could be filmmaker choice. It could just be you have this large action epic that doesn't really make any sense being in the competition like Robin Hood, but it, you know, is a splashy premiere

where you can get global superstars on a red carpet. Yeah. The competition titles, this is the year that Uncle Boone Me, who can recall his past lives, wins the Palm. So the jury, which was headed by two, Tim Burton, was kind of, I would say, like, intentionally sort of like going for something odd, right?

It's not really a great, considered a great can. Mike Lee's another year went home empty-handed, but was the critical favor of the year. It's so good. That movie's so good. It's one of his masterpiece. But, like, I'm looking at some of these titles. and like these are not movies that I've seen a ton of, but like, Kiarostami's certified copy, which we've done on this podcast, I think is a masterpiece.

Yeah, you have several masterpieces in there. You have the Li, you have the Kiar Astami. I would also add Lee Chang Dong's poetry among that mix. But there's even stuff like Sergei and Las Nizza's My Joy, I feel like, was well received, am I wrong? or Xavier Beauvoir's of Gods and Men, I remember. Of Gods and Men was a foreign language contender that I don't think people really liked. It was like a little mild.

Oh, that's interesting. Oh, okay. All right. See, this is why I turned to you. This is why, much like Christina Aguilera, I turned to you. So I love this little note, too. Two days before the beginning of the festival, the just finished Route Irish by Ken Loach was added to main competition.

So the last minute Ken Loach edition Loach Thank you Thank you forever Monica Belucci But yeah I think if If only for certified copy in another year I'm like just give those two movies all the prizes And they got

Did Certified Copy give anything Benoche one best actress Which was kind of this Some people raised an eyebrow at it But I have to imagine those are only people people who didn't see that movie because wow that performance she was the like poster child for that can oh so it's like she is the can poster that year so people were like this was this orchestrated oh that's interesting even if it was it was orchestrated for uh really a great

performance yeah all right i wanted to pose a little hypothetical or sort of a uh uh you know a pondering So we have just experienced an Oscar season where Paul Thomas Anderson wins a long-awaited first Oscar. Ridley Scott is another director who has been working forever, has made many beloved films, has had one of his films win Best Picture, has never won himself an Oscar of any kind. Because he was not even accredited producer. not even accredited a producer on Gladiere. So he is currently Oscar-less. Do you feel like there is...

I'm not even going to say as much, because I think that answer is obvious. There is not as much of a push in the culture for Ridley Scott to finally win one as there was for Paul Thomas Anderson. Do you think there's much of one at all? I mean, people kind of bandy it around whenever one of his movies is in the conversation. Yeah. But you never really see any rallying around it. I do think there's also just this sense of he makes these somewhat...

I don't think he's a full nihilist, but he does make these darker movies that are harder for people to rally around. You know, there's always pockets of support for him. Maybe less so with something like Gladiator 2. I'm very interested to see how the dog stars is. received in August. Listener, you may not know. Ridley Scott has a movie coming at the end of August called The Dog Stars. So this is Jacob Allorty, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley.

It does make it look like an Apple TV series. Premise per Wikipedia, set after a devastating flu pandemic, heard of it that has almost eradicated humanity. The film centers on Hague. A former civilian pilot and Bangley, a hardened ex-marine as they confront outside threats and hold on to the possibility of a better life beyond where they currently live. So this is based on a book by Peter Heller. Not the finest title in the world. The Dog Stars?

It's, you know, it's at least a little memorable. Yeah. Like, it's not something that's like I'm going to be like, what's that movie? movie, like everywhere now, or you know what I mean? Like, something like that. Like, one of those generic kind of things. I'm interested to see what, like, a Lordy is going to do. Like, he has now attained the level for me of, like,

want to see where things are going with him. Yeah, I mean, I think there's plenty of on-paper things that make it sound interesting. The fact that it's coming out at the end of August doesn't say much, doesn't speak well for that movie. I mean, you know, Ridley Scott movies, even when they're not received well, kind of get Primo placement on the calendar. Yeah. You know, where even like the counselor is dated squarely in the Oscar season. Yeah, yes.

You know, a gladiator opens summer movie season like Robin Hood also did. Yes. Yeah. Um, no, definitely the alarm bells certainly come up, particularly because, um, This is like, and it's like a major studio movie. This isn't like a, you know, indie that they're trying to triangulate something or like a streamer who's like, you know, maybe we can like get in on. It's also a late Labor Day weekend. So this isn't even like late August that we can like parlay into like a early Labor Day kind of extended thing.

This is when you release your Crow remake. Yeah. Yeah. And also there's the fact that like this was originally. going to be Paul Meskell, and then he had, like, scheduling conflicts and whatever. So it's like, is this a movie that, like, people didn't really, you know, fight to stay into and, you know, stuff like that? So, um, I don't know. I wish, I wish the best for this movie in general, for a lot of reasons, but you're not wrong that it has the aura of yikes to it.

Um, I do think Russell Crowe, is in a little bit of a better position in terms of like, I could see Russell Crow having a nice, like, bounce back Oscar nomination, a kind of Pacino in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood kind of a thing soon. Like, just sort of the way things are going for him. Do you agree with you? I mean, that's an interesting string,

because Pacino's only in that one scene, But, like, weird character, weird character performance, supporting performance. I mean, Crow's kind of already done. I mean, like, we both enjoy parts of true history of the Kelly gang, for example. Yes, and I think he's good in it. Yep. Yep. Where he's, like, doing a thing.

Yes. Yes. So he is kind of doing that. He's just kind of quietly gone away slash also playing goring. in Nuremberg, yes. Yeah, a movie that has only been seen by dads in Lazy Boys. Like, you... The human eye cannot watch that movie

if you are not someone's father in a large recliner. He hasn't gone full Redbox either, but he's in a weird kind of, like, halfway space between junkie studio stuff and, like, full-on, like, direct. to streaming, not even direct to screaming, like direct to VOD kind of stuff.

Well, you know what he is going to do? What? The remake of Highlander. He is going to do as our beloved Juan Sanchez Villabos Villobos Ramirez

Russell Crow opposite Henry Cavill, which makes a ton of sense. Wait, Russell Crow, Dave Batista, Henry Cavill, like, where does all the protein powder go on that set? Like that line item has got to be insane. Has just got to be absolutely insane.

That one is... The farts wafting off of that set. I know that set smells crazy. Yeah. He's also in an upcoming movie. He's in a movie called Unabomber. where who plays Ted Kaczynski? I will give you 100 guesses.

Oh my God, I can't believe you knew that. Okay, yes. This is about Ted Kaczynski's Harvard years, and he's played by Jacob Trombly. I give up. I can't. I can't. That's incredible.

You know what? Go for Jacob Trombley. And Russell Crow apparently plays his, like, psych professor at Harvard. I'm so excited. this is a Netflix movie, I don't care. And then he's in something called Billion Dollar Spy that is being directed by Amma Asante,

Russell Crow, Harry Lottie, Vera Farmiga, Tony Goldwyn, a bunch of other folks. A movie with Luke Evans called The Get Out. The Get Out. I don't think you can do that. Well, this is a... I don't think you should be allowed to do that. It's a vertical entertainment.

joint, which makes me sort of... I can file that one away. So, yeah, Russell Crow, I believe in you. There was a time there where I was very anti-Russel Crow. I did not really appreciate the throwing phones at hotel employees. Like, that really... I was anti-backed. And then doing extended award show...

It's making fun of yourself for it, and the joke does not land. Well, and it was also, like, doing that and then just a run of gruff and grumbly sort of, like, tough guy types. We really were robbed of his Jack McCle and Hyde. The Dark Universe will rise again. Well, he signed on to the Dark Universe, and then it didn't happen. He had that cameo at the end of the last. Thor movie that like now that Marvel has completely decided to like turn everything around, I'm fairly certain that thread's never going to get picked up again.

It's, you know, there's some bad luck involved. I'm still going to stick up for the handful of movies I thought he was really good in, including but not limited to true history of Kelly Gang and the nice guys. And I'm just going to say it, Pope's Exorcist, kind of slapped. God, I forgot he was also in Craven the Hunter. Man. Aaron Taylor Johnson, Ariana DeBose, baby boy Fred Heckenger, Alessandra Davola,

step baby boy, Christopher Abbott, and Russell Crow. What a cast. What a time to be alive. I don't know why I'm just sort of like perusing Russell Crow's Wikipedia page at this point. do we want to talk about any of the like precursor stuff that Robin Hood got into it was a SAG nominee for stunts when there were only three nominees for stunts what are the other nominees inception one we talked about inception specifically in our stunt episode and the main miniseries and then the other one was paul greengrass's green zone a movie that like nobody remembers or talks about like I think people remember it, but like, nobody ever brings it up to like, hey, remember this scene or remember

how good this person was? Or like, even like remember how awful this was, it's in the absolute middle ground of like, good enough that I never have to bring it up in conversation ever again. Well, and it's the type of thing that we could do an episode on, but then when it's maybe well-timed, it's always like, is there another option? You know? Yes, we're always sort of like, can't we think of something more interesting to do than green zone? Yeah. There are definitely those movies. We're like, guess what?

There's actually some interesting stuff here. Yes. I'm, and again, sometimes doing the Vegetables movie does result in unexpected, unexpected gains. So that's good. Unexpected gains, the promise that is put on the buckets of protein powder that are at the Russell Crow, Henry Cavill, Dave Matista movie, was nominated for the Art Directors Guild Award for Purexie. For art direction and period film, lost to the King's speech. Again... It's wild to imagine those movies coming out in the same year.

Yeah, it kind of is. I don't recall the King's Speech having that interesting or impressive art direction. The thing about the King's Speech art direction, do you remember this last-minute controversy that... That was like a non-controversy? I love a non-traversy. It was also very late. I think it was either during the voting period or after the voting period.

It came out that the sets for the King's Speech were also used to film gay porn. Oh, I remember that. Yes. Which really, at the end of the day, like, who's going to not vote for the King's Speech because they happen to use some same set that someone else used? That could be anything. Boy, but it was funny. The social network campaign team was tried.

it was trying it, good for them. Other Art Direction Guild nominees for period film, True Grit, Shutter Island, Get Low. So we've done now episodes on all three movies that we could possibly do from this category.

We've done Shutter Island, we've done Get Low, and now we've done Robin Hood. Of those five movies, what would you have given that award to? I'm not not considering Get Low, which is kind of surprising.

Sure. I think I probably give it to true grit because it's sort of like Yeah. It goes a bunch of different places. You've got, you know, it's not like you have this like huge variety

of... The detail is hyper-specific, though. Yeah, yeah. Shutter Island, also good art direction. Yeah, not bad. I can also justice for true grit. Sure.

Yes. What an incredible movie. Yes. a movie I keep meaning to revisit, but now that it's June... Do it, you'll sob your face off. I think I watched it on, like, Christmas Day this year. I forgot to make a plan. And just pride my way through most of the movie.

I forgot to make a spreadsheet for June to watch 30 queer movies, and I don't think I have the time in my schedule to do that anyway. But, like, I want to pick out, like, a handful of queer movies that I've never seen before and been meaning to watch, and watch them this June. So maybe I'll, I'll, you know, pick four. You should watch buddies. It's like 79 minutes. Okay.

What year is that from? I mean, the 80s, because it's built as the first, you know, wide or not wide release because it was an independently made movie, but the first, like, theatrically released and exhibited movie about AIDS. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to watch the celluloid closet, and I'm going to make my determination from, like, watching that and being like, oh, I should. watch this, I should watch that. Three teen choice nominations and three Saturn nominations. Teen choice nominations for this movie are wild.

Teen choice nominations. It's imagining teens of any stripe watching this movie is very funny. And it lost to two of the three that it lost to, it lost to Sherlock Holmes, which I can at least more easily see teens going to see that movie as like a, the whole group

like girls and boys all want to go see something and nobody wants to stick their neck out and like suggest something too interesting. So finally they're like Sherlock Holmes and like the girls are like, oh like I love Rachel McAdams and the guys are like, Robert John and she's fucking funny. And like, they all go and see it and whatever. They enjoy it well enough. Russell Crow loses to Shanning Tatum for G.I. Joe, the Rise of Cobra. Oh God, that's not where I was expecting that to go. 2010 was before Magic Mike though, so yeah, that would have been. Sure.

It loses the Saturn Award for Best Action Adventure Film to Salt. I support that. Salt's a better action-adventure film than this is. Salt's a mess, but, like, as an action movie, the action sequences in that movie go pretty hard. Yes, exactly. Exactly my point. Let me pull up my notes and see if there was anything else. that I have.

I wrote down the line, My lawful wife is as barren as a brick. When that was set on screen, I immediately did the Luscious Massacre. Brick! Max Montsito makes note of Sir Walter Loxley's two messent glow,

basically telling the whole room that he, like, had a boner dream the night before, which go for it, old man. Weird thing to say to a room of people. Yep. Oscar Isaac looking fine as hell. Eileen Atkins is Eleanor of Equitaine.

Why didn't I see this sooner? Someone takes an axe to the face in this movie. Yes. Mark Strong has a half-joker-mouth. We didn't talk about his half-joker-mouth. We didn't talk about that, but he definitely does have a half-joker-mouth. There's the scene where I think it's William Hurt goes to, like, Like, rally.

God, the William Hurd shit is so annoying at this movie, I have to say. I didn't mind it, but I understand your, I understand your. I don't know why he is there and why that actor is William Hurd. Well, that part, for sure. He definitely seems like an odd fit for that role. But I think it's the one where he goes to, like, the northern barons or whatever, and is trying to get them to, like, not secede or whatever. And the one guy's, like, just talking crazy shit about Prince John and why he's not going to, or whatever.

out King John, why he's not going to align with him. And, like, Oscar Isaac, like, rides up with his battalion on horses and, like, is suddenly, like, right there behind him. And in a moment, and the guy's still talking shit. And I'm like, did we really try to do what he's just, he's right behind me, isn't he, moment? But, like, at a time when people, like, came up riding with their, like, hundreds of horses or whatever, I thought that was insane. Um, yeah, this movie kind of, like, traces a gladiator pencil sketch over the Robin Hood myth a little bit with like

the flashbacks to his father and you know the sort of these motivations of personal vengeance and that kind of thing and you know a fuckboy regent

Russell Crow wrote the Magna Carta of course we all know this oh Matthew McFadgeon's delivery of his last I think it's his last line in the movie no, he maybe has one more. But when they're like sacking his house or whatever, and he just goes, I'm rich on my mother's side and trying to get out of it. I love him.

And then the this is for you, Walter, line, which I still find. Abhorrent, anything that you wanted to add? I guess to just kind of close the loop on my thoughts on this movie, because now I'm feeling like I've dunked on it. And I haven't really qualified what I think is working or why it's not or why what isn't working isn't working. I mean, I do think that doing a Robin Hood story that is essentially told through the political intrigue where all of these characters have an active role. Yes. In the like political machinations.

In the real politic of the moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, that Robin Hood existed in. Yeah. I think that is a cool and interesting idea to do with this movie and that stuff I love in this movie. I think it is incredibly hard to follow all of it. Sure. Because it's constant information.

It's constant shifting characters. Yeah. And I feel like if you're just going to do it at a two hour and 20 minute length like Ridley Scott is doing here, you do maybe have to cut one of these characters. or two or condense some roles. Yeah, I see that. But it also, it doesn't feel like that is what Ridley Scott is interested in in this movie. I think he's kind of interested in the, you know, real environment, the action aspect of it. But it's also not maybe his forte, like that thematic, you know, thrust.

I think a lot of the critics at the time resented. that Robin wasn't always the most important part of this movie. And, like, I didn't mind that. If you're going to do a movie, you know, of course, this is, like, my idea to solve it, but it is entirely, like, non-populist, and how do you do a Robin Hood movie like this and get $100 million gross out of it?

Yeah. But it's, like, Robin Hood needs to either be in more of it or not at all. And you do that. And, like, Robin Hood is something that people talk about. that's going on over there, but not right here. Well, that's why a movie called Nottingham might have worked, and not necessarily in that it would be a character-dominated movie about the sheriff of Nottingham, but like Nottingham as in like the place, right?

The area of England that is sort of finding itself at the inflection point of whatever this political strife is going on with between, you know, Crown and France and all this sort of stuff. And you end it with a Batman Begins thing. He goes by a particular calling card. They're calling him Robin Hood. They're calling him Robin Hood. I've always liked that name.

Like, yeah. Does he wear a hood? No. But no, you're not wrong. I'm sort of, I'm reading the, I had dropped a few quotes from critics at the time who, again, to just get a sense of what the, um, tenor of, a lot of the negative stuff. Ebert, who I expected

to me a little bit nicer to this movie, says little by little, title by title, innocence and joy. He's going to talk about all of the Robin Hood movies through the years. Little by little, title by title, innocence and joy is being drained out of the movies. And that to me,

reading that, I was like, oh, right, this movie was catching shit for like, larger trends in what was happening with mainstream movies at this particular moment, the sort of Nolanification. And like, you know, I love Christopher Nolan, but like, this was the thing of, like, everything is getting so serious. Everything is getting so dark. We used to have Errol Flynn, you know, hopping around in tights or whatever. and now we have Russell Crow plotting in chain mail through, you know, through mud or whatever. Right. And he's not even Robin Hood as Robin Hood for most of the thing.

He becomes Robin Hood through the process. And it's not even like the main thrust of this story is someone self-actualizing into becoming the hero that they're supposed to be. Like, I don't even think that's kind of the point, but like that could maybe give you. few more of that gladiator effect. Is that not one of your... All that being said, I still kind of like what this is going for. Is that not one of your favorite genres?

A man from the Crusades self-actualizes? No. I like a woman from the Renaissance. Okay, there we go. That's what I'll take. Anthony Lane at the New Yorker said, what do you get if you makes Gladiator, the return of Martin Gere,

saving Private Ryan, Elizabeth, Troy, the seventh seal, and a hundred buckets of mud. the answer is Robin Hood. It's not that I don't... I don't get the saving private Ryan thing, except that there's a battle on a beach? Yes, I think that's particularly what that is.

A lot of people actually referenced saving private Ryan. Owen Glyberman did it too, called it saving private Robin. And he said, the battles are grainy and existential, but what they aren't is thrilling. Their surging crowd scenes

with streams of arrows and flex of blood, and crow slashing his way through them, is a glorified extra. he's so grimly possessed with purpose that he's a bore and so is the movie. Again, I agree with a couple of these things, but like mostly don't. And also, like, the stuff that these reviews found to be so disqualifying about the movie, I'm much, much, much, finding myself much easier to brush them aside for the things that I do like. Yeah.

Yeah. So, you know, but again, this is why this movie was pretty much dead in the shallow waters off of the coast of Dover, wherever the fuck that they were. Beating back the French, as you do. So, yeah, Robin Hood, a movie, I'm really glad we did. I'm glad. You know who I texted about this? Again, this is probably the second episode in a row. I've mentioned them is our friends, Dan Mecca and Conroe, Donnell, who both really like.

this movie. I'm like, I knew I could count on them to enjoy that movie. So good for them. Yeah. Good movie. Surprisingly so. All right, Chris, do you want to tell the listeners how we do it with the reverse IMDB game? Because we're doing the reverse IMDB game this week. All right. Every week we end our episodes with the IMDB game. But this week, we're bringing back the reverse IMDB game. How this game works is that instead of getting the name of an actor or actress and trying to guess their IMDB known for, we will one at a time, and in the order of the clue givers choosing, name the four films from the unnamed actors known for. After each film, the guesser can try to answer who the actor is.

If they get it right, after one movie is named, they get four points. After two movies, it's three points. After three movies, it's two points. And finally, after all, four movies are revealed, a correct guess is one point. We've only played this a few times before. we keep a running score. As of right now, I am currently in the lead. We tied the last game.

I am leading Joe 13 to 11 points. We do not really have an end game here on where those points are moving forward into something. We have not yet decided yet. To the Great Beyond. Yes, exactly. Well, as Zareem said. So, okay, Chris, you are in the lead. So I'm going to give you the choice of whether you want to give or guess first.

I'll give first then. Okay. So I have chosen someone for you. I will reveal why I've chosen this person after we reveal the actor. All right. Your first film is The Martian. Okay. Ridley.

Well, it's a good thing. There's no actors in the Martian. Yeah. So, again, you have to triangulate. Who has a filmography that would allow for the Martian to be one of their four most known movies? But also, if they're too far down the cast list, they become a lot less likely to have the Martian in their known for. I'm going to guess. Shuital Edgiafore. That is incorrect. Okay. Your second film. Dr. Strange in the multiverse of madness.

And it's still not Shuatel Egyapur. That is diabolical, sir. Not intentional. No, but that's... Nevertheless. That is tricky. Okay. So, who is in the Martian and...

multiverse of madness. Is it Benedict Wong? Damn it, you got it. Sorry. It's Benedict Wong. The other two are television show, three-body problem, and weapons. Weapons. Oh, I'm glad that's already on there. Okay. So I got it after two. Benedict Wong is in the cast of the Dog Stars, by the way. Oh, good for him. So another Ridley movie for him. Good for him. I do like Benedict

Wong. Okay, so I get three points on that. I think that's the best I've ever done. So for you, I don't even think I had a rhyme or reason, so I'm just going to plow right ahead. I'm going to start for you with The Flash. The Motion Picture, The Flash? The Motion Picture the Flash about the superhero The Flash from 2023. Okay. It's not Ezra Miller. I don't think you would come out Guns of Blazing with The Flash for Ezra Miller. Uh-huh.

I really don't think it's Michael Keaton. Now it's a matter of, do I remember who is in the flash? I never saw The Flash. Yeah, nor have I. Is it one of the people that they basically just AI Cgi-I'd? I will tell you, in the interest of fairness. It's not AI, but I know that it also looks like shit. It's not an AI performance.

It's not Nicholas Cage as Superman. It's not a... any of that. I will tell you that straight out. Who might be in that? There's also got to be a lady

who conceivably would have been in that movie. It's probably not any Justice League people who are in Justice League. Of

Of course you lead with the movie I haven't seen. You knew what you were doing here. I feel like it's going to be... Is there someone who plays like a mentor in this movie that isn't Batman? I don't even know who this could possibly be. I will guess a young actress who could conceivably be in that movie. movie. Okay. And I'll say Chase Swee wonders. Now I want to see if she's in it. That is not correct. And she's not in the movie, but that's a good guess. I appreciate that. Okay.

You understand where my mind is headed into trying to figure out who you might give me and then throw out the flash. Yes. Your second title is the Goya Murders. A movie, I do not know what that is. Which is not common for me. I am usually like, oh yeah, that thing that nobody saw, I remember that. I was very much prepared for you to be like, oh, know it, and then I would have wanted to, like, throttle you. But I'm relieved to know. I have no idea what that is. The Coya murders.

I will tell you it's from 2019. That's worse. that somehow works. That was when the world was real. Yeah. Oh, God. See, now that is making me go in a completely different path of, well, maybe this is the, like, mentor role, whoever would have played the mentor to the Flash and wasn't Batman.

And isn't like a Jeffrey Rush that they would have Jeffrey Rush things in there. Right. Um Your thought patterns are all very sound You are going through the progressions It's really hard when you don't know what something is It is Naomi Scott

No But again, I respect the swing Obviously I'm thinking still the lady Yes Your third title Is Pan's Labyrinth Well it has to be the lead of Pan's Labyrinth, who's the kid in Pan's Labyrinth.

Because I don't think it's going to be like Sergei Lopez or Mary Buller Doo. Maybe it is Mary Buller Duh. I don't like this. But I don't remember the name of the actress who's the kid in Pan's Labyrinth, who's the lead. This is so brutal. but I don't think Marable Verdu is in The Flash.

And Sergei Lopez at this point, I think there would be other things. Is it rude and am I allowed to just say the kid star of Pan's Labyrinth? Would you like me to tell you her name? Yes. Okay. Her name is Ivana Baccaro. Ivana Baccaro, of course. It's Ivana Baccaro.

It is not Ivana Baccaro. You are such an asses. Your fourth title, you're gonna yell once you. Your fourth title is It's It too Mama Tome. Yeah, it's Maribel Verde. Yes. She played apparently Barry Allen's mother who gets killed in a flashback in the flash.

I don't know what the Goya murders is. I imagine a Spanish murder mystery where she is the lead as detective, I would imagine something or other. She's a cop as what I'm going to guess. And yes, so this proceeded kind of exactly what I expected was when we got to Pan's Labyrinth that you would like flip a coin between Maribel Verdu and Sergi Lopez.

But you went a secret third way, and that was exciting. Okay, so you get... I'll never forget your name again. You get one point and I get three, which means that now we're tied. Oh, exciting. I'm going to put this in here at show. Tied 14 to 14. Oh, I love this. I love reverse IMDB game.

I get such a kick out of it. Even though I know it's hard, you performed admirably, I will say. You did as well as you could have hoped to do. I guess I got to go watch the Gloria murders. I guess, yes, for everybody out there, Gary's, that's your assignment. Go watch the Goya Murders. That is our episode. If you want more of This Head Oscar Buzz, you can check out the Tumblr at this headoscurbuzz.

Tumblr.com or our Instagram at This Head Oscar Buzz. Chris continues to put up good content on our Instagram. Sorry, I said content, but you're not making movies. I post. I do not put up content. Chris posts. We don't need the C word. Phenomenally.

He does posts and they're super. You're just allowed to say posts. Like, you should just be allowed. Like, I'm not a YouTube content creator. You make YouTube videos. That's what you do. It may not sound as serious if you just say videos, but, like, content sounds less serious to me. Understood.

Chris, where can the listeners find more of you and your posts or thoughts or other things, photos, something. Capsle reviews. On letterboxed and blue sky. Any other work that I do, you can probably find it there. All right, I am on letterbox and blue sky at Joe Reed, read-spelled REID. I'm also at Vulture all out of time. We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork.

Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Mivas for their technical guidance. Please remember you can write. sorry, and also Taylor Cole for our theme music. Taylor Cole, we love you. Please remember to rate, like, and review us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get podcasts. A five-star review in particular really helps us out with Apple Podcast visibility. So, I don't know, take that arrow out of your gullet, friend, and use the blood. Keep laughing about it, though.

Use the blood to scroll out a five-star review before you die, you francophile, hottie. I don't like this. Well, that's all for this week. We're going to be taken down for violent content. That's when you can say content. Fair use. Oh, okay. That's, now we know the rules.

That is all for this week, but we hope you'll be back next week for more bucks.