It looks like gritty street-wise characters will make more appearances in films set during medieval times. While that experiment does not work out so well for some films, it looks like Robin Hood will take a crack at it with their own formula by adding some light-hearted levity and charm.

Lionsgate has released the newest trailer for the film starring Taron Egerton, who learns the ways of thieving from Little John (Jamie Foxx). And we get a better look at the high-stakes heist they will pull off against the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn). Check out the full trailer below.

Lionsgate has released a teaser trailer for Robin Hood, the latest cinematic endeavor featuring the iconic character which was previously titled Robin Hood: Origins.

The movie stars Taron Egerton in the title role, as well as Jamie Foxx, Ben Mendelsohn, Eve Hewson, Tim Minchin, and Jamie Dornan. Most people are familiar with the character, so you already have a good idea of the story being told. But unlike some other versions of the character we’ve seen over the years, this one actually wears a hood.

Continue below to for more info, and to check out the trailer and a poster as well.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is out in theaters everywhere this week (read our review here), and in it Ben Mendelsohn plays the villainous Orson Krennic.

Mendelsohn is pretty darn good at taking on the role of a villain, and he continues to capitalize on that talent. It’s being reported that the Australian actor is currently in negotiations to play the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Origins, Lionsgate’s upcoming new take on the classic tale.

Doctor Who
Season 8, Episode 3 “Robot of Sherwood”
Directed by Paul Murphy
Written by Mark Gatiss
Starring Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Tom Riley, Ben Miller
BBC America
Air Date: Saturday, September 6th, 2014

As we move through the third week of Doctor Who season eight, we continue to explore the identity of the Doctor and his relationship to Clara. Is it merely coincidence that William Hartnell’s third serial was a historical adventure about the journey of Marco Polo and episode three of Peter Capaldi‘s first season is a quasi-historical adventure about Robin Hood? It’s hard to know if Steven Moffat really is that much of schemer.

While the serial “Marco Polo” was the first serious attempt by the show to educate its audience about the past, “Robot of Sherwood” is more an examination of our expectations about the reality of the past in both the personal and historical sense. That applies to the history of the show itself, as much as the continuity of its characters or the history of the world they inhabit.

Robin Hood
Blu-ray | DVD | Instant Video
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman
Starring Brian Bedford, Monica Evans Phil Harris, Peter Ustinov, Terry-Thomas, Andy Devine, Roger Miller and Carole Shelley
Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Release Date: August 6, 2013

Robin Hood finally shoots its way onto Blu-ray, but sadly the titular character does not steal the screen in the best way. It’s no Disney classic, at least for those of us who did not grow up with Maid Marian and friends, but the 1973 movie deserves a viewing if you go into it with reasonable expectations.

Film

Fair warning. I did not have any sentimental feelings in watching Robin Hood, namely because I did not watch this film repeatedly during childhood. Thus I found it harder to connect with the oddball assortment of characters and collection of ideas that somehow never seem cohesive. The personalities are cute. The forceful underdog story moves even the most cynical. The humor recalls the tongue-in-cheek intelligence found in many of Disney’s finest. Yet Robin Hood appears to try too hard in representing something remarkable when at its core the film is straightforward minimalism.

Every day, Amazon offers up “Lightning Deals,” limited quantities of various products for a discounted price for a 4-hour window of time. You have to be on the lookout for these deals and once the item runs out within that four hours, the sale is over.

Meaning, if you see something on sale that you want, buy it immediately before it’s gone.

Typically you don’t know what will be on sale until the minute it gets posted, but as a prelude to Black Friday, Amazon has released today’s Lightning Deal schedule for Movies & TV on DVD and Blu-ray. See list of today’s deals here below, along with more information on how these special deals work.

GOLD BOX DEAL OF THE DAY [valid only for today until midnight PST:

Harry Potter Years 1-6 Giftset
DVD for $23.99 | Blu-ray for $39.99.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2010

4:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. PST

The Runaways
DVD – $8.99

Mamma Mia! The Movie
DVD – $3.99

Surf’s Up
DVD – $4.99

Robin Hood
DVD | Blu-ray
DIRECTED BY: Ridley Scott
STARRING: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Scott Grimes, Oscar Isaac, Max von Sydow, Kevin Durand, Mark Strong, Alan Doyle, Danny Huston, Mark Addy, Matthew MacFadyen
Universal Pictures
RELEASE DATE: September 21, 2010

Ever since the very first news that famed director Ridley Scott would be making a realistic and historically accurate new take on the fabled tale of Robin of Loxsley, I’ve been about as excited as you can be. Hearing that a story that I and many, many others have grown up knowing being recreated in the same vein as Scott’s Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven is beautiful music to the ears of those with a love for epic period pieces, and Robin Hood just couldn’t come quickly enough for me.

Instead of using the traditional story — focusing on Robin and his Merry Men feuding with the interim king and the Sheriff of Nottingham as they steal from the wealthy and help the less fortunate — the filmmakers decided to go in a different path. This movie is about Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe), an archer in Richard the the Lionheart’s (Danny Huston) army in the year 1199. While off fighting the French, things take a turn for the worst and Robin and three of his fellow soldiers, Will Scarlett (Scott Grimes), Little John (Kevin Durand), and Alan A’Dale (Alan Doyle, in the musician’s film debut), decide to get out while they still can.

When I hear that Ridley Scott is making a new movie, I know I will have a movie I at least have to give a shot. I mean, Ridley Scott on a bad day is better than most directors on their good day. Tell me that he’s making a new Robin Hood movie and you’ve got my ten dollars, so yeah, I was looking forward to this movie.

Everyone pretty much knows the story of Robin Hood already. There is a reason that his story is such a long lasting and endurable myth. There have been more movies and TV shows made about his exploits than I care to count, so of course one of the questions surrounding this film was “Do we really need another one?” Well, yes, there’s always room for a new interpretation of the characters and situations, and there’s always room for a new creator to put his stamp on the myth.

Does this film succeed? Yes. Not only do you have one of the best directors of the modern era, you get one of the best casts ever assembled to tell this story. But one thing to keep in mind before seeing this is that this is not the same old story that you’ve seen before. The creators seem to have gone out of their way to change a number of the familiar elements of the myth, while keeping all of the usual characters. Some might be disappointed by those changes.

Let’s get into some of those changes. Beware, ye gentlefolk, spoilers abound!

Robin Hood– ***1/2
Directed by Ridley Scott
Starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, Mark Strong, William Hurt
Release date: May 14, 2010

Contemplate all you want. Debate and quarrel with director Ridley Scott’s primitive vision of one of the world’s most celebrated and decadent of men: Robin Hood. Men of charismatic demeanor such as Errol Flynn (1938), Sean Connery (1976), and Kevin Costner (1991) all managed to make evident the unalterably essence of cool that Robin Hood conveyed. Director Scott disrupts that essence, disintegrating it completely and allowing his vision of Robin Hood to be a dynamic mixture of both barbarian and comforter. Some will see this barbarism as an incredulous act when tacked on to such a time-honored icon. But this is exactly Scott’s intention. He wants to depict Robin Hood before he actually earns the name Robin the Hood by responding not to the whimsicality and glorious luster previous manifestations of this character took participation in. This is Scott adapting a scheme from the superhero genre; the prologue enlightening us on how Robin became the man we all know him by now. When he is stripped from all the external charms he comes at you, thanks to Russell Crowe’s wonderful performance, like an irresistible torrent that leaves you mute and silent, but also wild and boisterous.

Robin Hood instills what has been rudely banished from the action epic picture in the last decade, and that is the grandeur, size and, most importantly, the emphasis on humanity. Scott, who has intertwined humanity with the most radical of individuals (non-humans in Blade Runner and drug lords in American Gangster), has an acute eye for that which makes the heart ache and he promulgates this discovery in a robust fashion, slowly developing scenes that are frankly beautiful. He sees the emotional factor that most directors drown out with excessive action scenes.

Summer you say? Already? We thought it was like February still…no?

Yes indeed, that joyous time of year when movie fans can put their brains away to hibernate for a few months (for the most part), and bask in the glory that is the summer movie season. It’s time to re-open the cinematic buffet and, as always, this year will deliver all of the bangs and booms, the violence and sex, and the shocks and laughs that you the moviegoers crave when the sun is at its hottest.

This year is a little different than we’ve been used to — almost like a year off in terms of true spectacle. There’s more than your fair share of big names and sequels being released, but unlike last year and even next year, the summer won’t be dominated by them. Instead, there’s plenty of remakes, adaptations, and a mixture of all genres from the traditional action-packed firework festivals and comedies to less-traditional fare such as historical epics, science fiction horrors, cult classics-in-the-making, and psychological mind-benders.

Allow me not to waste anymore of your time. Grab the biggest, buttery bucket of popcorn and as many liter-o-colas as you can carry, then leap on over to the other side for your biggest and best guide to upcoming movies in our very own Summer Movie Mayhem 2010!