Kevin Costner's lousy English accent is a small obstacle in this often exciting version of the Robin Hood fable. That aside, it's refreshing to have a preface to the old story in which we meet the robber hero of Sherwood Forest as a soldier in King Richard's Crusades, coming home to find his people under siege from the cruelties of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman). After Robin and his community of outcasts and fighters take to the trees, director Kevin Reynolds (Fandango, 187) is on more familiar narrative ground, and he goes for the gusto with lots of original action (Robin shoots two arrows simultaneously from his bow in two directions). Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as Marion, makes a convincing damsel in distress and Morgan Freeman brings dignity to his role as Robin's Moor friend. Alan Rickman, however, gets the most attention for his scene-chewing role as the rotten sheriff, an almost campy performance that is highly entertaining but perhaps a little out of sorts with the rest of the film. --Tom Keogh
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves reinvented the legend for contemporary cinema audiences, and in doing so far outstripped at the box office even Kevin Costner's own infinitely superior Dances with Wolves to become the biggest hit of 1991. It's an entertaining enough family adventure film, but plays like a big-budget TV movie with no distinctive flair for action or romance. (Director Kevin Reynolds would reunite with Costner four years later for the equally stodgy Waterworld). If the accents are all over the place, at least Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio makes a Maid Marion of ravishing Pre-Raphaelite beauty. Morgan Freeman is fine as Robin's Moorish sidekick, though, other than to expand the demographic, his character has no business being in the story. Realising that the whole enterprise has the credibility of a pantomime, Alan Rickman outrageously camps up his Sheriff of Nottingham, stealing the film in the process. Costner makes an acceptable hero, though he will never replace Errol Flynn in the definitive The Adventures of Robin Hood. If you can accept explosives in 13th-century England, that the approach to Sherwood Forest is a modern conifer plantation and that the 170 miles from Dover to Nottingham is a matter of a few hours ride via Northumberland, then you may find much to enjoy here. Otherwise an already overlong film has been extended to an excessive 148 minutes in this special edition, making far too much of a not very good thing. On the DVD: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is presented as a two-disc set, with a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer that is generally good looking but with an occasionally soft picture and some evidence of dirt and minor print damage. The Dolby Digital 5.1 remix of the original stereo soundtrack is atmospheric and powerful and shows off Michael Kamen's score to its best. Though presented with 12 minutes of footage not seen in the cinema version, the film still suffers most of the cuts (amounting to 28 seconds) imposed by the BBFC over the years. The main extras are a pair of commentaries: Costner and Reynolds discuss the film in frank and enthusiastic detail, while on a second track Freeman, Slater, writer/producer Pen Densham and cowriter/producer John Watson offer a great deal of insight plus a fair bit of stating the obvious, backslapping and critic bashing. Robin Hood: The Myth, the Man, the Movie (31 mins) is a cut version of a 45-minute TV special originally broadcast in America the night before the premiere, and offers an interesting if brief look at the Robin Hood story plus some routine making-of material. Finally, there is a video of Bryan Adams performing "Everything I Do, I Do It for You" live at Slane Castle and 18 minutes worth of bland electronic presskit-style archive interviews with Costner, Freeman, Mastrantonio, Slater and Alan Rickman, plus the original American trailer, a stills gallery and cast and crew list. --Gary S Dalkin
Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists.
The Breakfast Club (Dir. John Hughes 1985): Without doubt John Hughes' The Breakfast Club is one of the greatest teen movies of all-time if not the best. Without it we might not have witnessed the phenomenal rise of the 'Brat Pack'; the group of actors synonymous with the teen films of the '80s. They were five teenage students with nothing in common faced with spending a Saturday detention together in their High School library. At 7am they had nothing to say but
It was a time of tyrants: the only way to uphold the truth was to break the law. He fought for the good of all men and for the love of just one woman. Kevin Costner brings the epic hero Robin Hood to life in a film filled with pageantry intrigue action and romance. With an outstanding cast record-breaking theme song and film production on a sweeping scale Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves has become a legend in its own right.
Nicole Kidman is Isabel Archer a young woman of daring independence and equally fierce desires. But her headstrong innocence is no match for the manipulations of her duplicitous friend Madame Merle (Barbara Hershey in an Oscar-nominated performance) and the devious Gilbert Osmond (John Malkovich). Adapted from the novel by Henry James.
A collection of classic Shirley Temple films! Heidi (1937) When her aunt tires of caring for her orphan Heidi is taken into the Swiss mountains to live with her gruff grandfather (Jean Hersholt) a hermit who comes to adore her. But the aunt returns to steal Heidi away selling her to a family whose invalid daughter (Marcia Mae Jones) needs a companion. Bullied by an evil governess (Mary Nash) Heidi still charms the entire household and never stops trying to returnito her
Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists.
Last Of The Mohicans: 1757: the war raging between England and France in the American colonies enters its third year. Moving through the dangerous and untamed land is the frontiersman Hawkeye adopted son of the Mohican Chingachgook. En route to a camp in the West he breaks up an ambush and rescues a group of English people including Cora Munro. Hawkeye agrees to guide them to safety and in doing so all their fates become intertwined as they are forced to fight to survive both the war - and the wilderness... The Mission: Set in the quasi-mystical rain forests of South America 'The Mission' presents each man with his greatest challenge. The priest (Irons) has come to spread the word of God amongst the Guarani Indians; the mercenary (De Niro) has come to enslave them. With the passing of time their destinies become entwined... Robin Hood - Prince Of Thieves: It was a time of tyrants: the only way to uphold the truth was to break the law. He fought for the good of all men and for the love of just one woman. Kevin Costner brings the epic hero Robin Hood to life in a film filled with pageantry intrigue action and romance. With an outstanding cast record-breaking theme song and film production on a sweeping scale 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' has become a legend in its own right.
Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists.
Shirley Temple in a role that seems custom-made for her portrays the spirited young heroine of the popular children's novel giving her rich emotional depth and infinite charm. When her Aunt tires of caring for her orphan Heidi is taken into the Swiss mountains to live with her gruff Grandfather (Jean Hersholt) a hermit who comes to adore her. But the Aunt returns to steal Heidi away selling her to a family whose invalid daughter (Marcia Mae Jones) needs a companion. Bullied by an evil governess (Mary Nash) Heidi still charms the entire household and never stops trying to return to her beloved Grandfather.
A poignant and funny portrait of a marriage that undergoes a wrenching examination... After 25 years of a loving marriage in a small midwestern town husband Roy announces to his wife Irma that he is a woman trapped in a man's body and wants to have a sex change operation.
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