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!

A brand new trailer for Ridley Scott‘s new vision of the tale of Robin Hood has been released online by Yahoo! Movies.

The movie will be released on May 14, 2010, and has a brilliant cast that features Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Mark Addy, Oscar Isaac, Danny Huston, Eileen Atkins, and Max von Sydow.

The only thing about this new trailer that has me a little sad, is the newly anointed PG-13 rating. This isn’t at all one of those movies I expected to be rated R, but I did have a glimmer of hope that this new Robin Hood adventure would be a graphic, Gladiator-esque action-drama. None-the-less, this is a great trailer and the movie continues to look like a great new title for those of us who are into period battle films. I’ll tell you one thing, I can’t wait for Scott’s sure-to-be-better Director’s Cut!

NOTE: For structural reasons and to ensure that this list is super-duper pretty at all times, we’ll be posting this same intro for all sections of The Decade List. If you’ve already read all of this, you can just head down to the continuation of our list!

Let’s just get it out of the way right off the ol’ bat: yes, we know it’s been month since we left the decade. Most folks undertook this heavy task pre-2010, but we decided that it would be a little bit better to let the new year settle in a bit before hitting you with something of this magnitude.

So here we are, geeks: we’ve officially arrived in FUTURE *cue retro ’50s sci-fi music* and still we have no freakin’ flying cars yet. What’s the deal with that? While it is pretty exciting to be inside of the year 2010 — a year that always seemed unreachable to us mere mortals — we are also exiting another entire decade that leaves us staring at one majorly epic task. That task? To search, dig, locate, retrieve, organize, polish, and present the very best films of the past ten years!

An official trailer has been officially released for Ridley Scott‘s upcoming new take on the classic tale of Robin Hood. The first thing to note is of course the title. Long has the question stood strong as to what exactly the title would be. At first it was the seemingly-preferred Nottingham, before we eventually heard it being called Robin Hood. It sounded like that title was only a working title for the time being (even the synopsis included below that came with the trailer announcement still claims it as “untitled,” but now, judging by this new trailer, it looks like it will indeed just be sticking with the title Robin Hood, so there’s that.

The trailer is just the kind of first trailer you can expect from a Ridley Scott film. It features a lot of action, some great period setting shots, and even some modern rock music playing in the background in very similar fashion to Gladiator. Once they win people over with these ingredients, then we’ll see a trailer that focuses on story and speaking.

The movie has a fantastic cast that includes Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Mark Addy, Oscar Isaac, Danny Huston, Eileen Atkins, and Max von Sydow.

I don’t know about you, but I was sold on this one as soon as I heard “Ridley Scott. Russell Crowe. Robin Hood.” If you’re one of the few who are still not sure, click on over now to watch the trailer. As always, head to Apple for some pretty HD options.