Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Blu-ray)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

It also disappointed me not to find the celebrated archery contest included in the story, the one where Robin splits his opponent's arrow. But never mind; almost everything and everyone else is here, including the bellicose Little John (Nick Brimble), the jolly Friar Tuck (Michael McShane), the shifty Guy of Gisborne (Michael Wincott), the old family retainer, Duncan (Walter Sparrow), an uncredited cameo visit by Sean Connery, and a whole lot of Costner swinging from the trees and rafters.

Although "Robin's Hood Is Full of Thieves" provides more pomp and show than it does characterization, logic, or common sense, it's enough to keep one occupied for most of the film's duration. It plods along through the first hour but picks up a little more energy in its later stages. The battle with the Celts is a high point of the action, as is the finale, and the film's location shots in France and England are quite lovely. If one has the patience, "Robin Hood: Prints of Thieves" has its rewards, few as they may be.

Video:
Like its standard-definition counterpart, the picture quality in this 1.85:1 ratio, BD50, VC-1 encoded Blu-ray transfer is curiously soft and murky most of the time, indoors and out. Since the movie begins in the relative gloom of a dungeon cell, we can understand the dim, shadowy images. Yet when things open up into broad daylight and objects are still a little fuzzy and veiled, it's rather disappointing. However, since things are pretty much as I remember them from a movie theater, I'm going to assume the softness is a condition of the original print. In any case, Warner Brothers' BD transfer captures most of the hues realistically enough, never too bright, though a touch glossy, with a fair amount of detail in some but not all of the close-ups. You'll notice some oddities in facial colorations, though, which is not particularly good; and a fair amount of natural film grain, which is good.

Audio:
The available audio options in English are Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1. More important from my perspective, Warner Bros. have finally made TrueHD the default; maybe they've been reading what many others and I have been saying for a long time. In TrueHD one gets the expected results, only firmer and smoother, with a wide left-to-right stereo spread and a decent, if not spectacular, amount of rear-channel activity. There is particularly good musical ambience reinforcement in the surrounds, plus the usual variety of bird and forest noises, wind, dripping water, crackling fires, and explosions. The frequency range and dynamics are only about average for a big-budget movie, though, meaning they are adequate but may not impress one as anything special.

Extras:
This Blu-ray edition contains many but not all of the extras found on WB's two-disc DVD release. Things begin with the extended, widescreen presentation of the movie, along with two audio commentaries, the first with star Kevin Costner and director Kevin Reynolds and the second with co-stars Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater and co-writers and producers Pen Desham and John Watson.

Next, we get the usual assortment of behind-the-scenes featurettes and movie music. The bonuses start with a thirty-one minute featurette, "Robin Hood: The Man, The Myth, The Legend," narrated by Pierce Brosnan and made mostly at the time of the film's production as a promotional item. But it does contain some good bits of information on the origins of the Robin Hood tradition, and it reminds us how much better Brosnan would have been in the starring role. Then, there are vintage interviews with the film's stars, "One on One," with Costner, Freeman, Mastrantonio, Rickman, and Slater. Following those, there is a music video, "Bryan Adams Live at Slane Castle, Ireland," the singer performing the movie's closing-credits tune, "(Everything I Do) I Do For You." And a segment I liked a lot was Michael Kamen's soundtrack score that you can play all at once or in separate movements.

In addition, there are a number of TV spots and a widescreen theatrical trailer; a generous forty-six scene selections; English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian spoken languages; French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, and Swedish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Shots:
"Robin Hood: The Movie Formerly Known as Prince" is not a terrible film, mind you, but it's not the poetic, idyllic, world-beating adventure epic it could have been. The Wife-O-Meter gave it a 5/10 rating, leaving at the halfway mark, which seems fair enough.

I suspect that too many people involved in the film's creation were going in too many different directions wanting too many different things for them to produce a cohesive result. Individually, Morgan Freeman stands out, as usual, for his dramatic eloquence; Alan Rickman for his sympathetically amusing villain; and Costner for his down-home, good ol' boy. Together, however, you take your chances.