Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

VERDICT:
8/10 Deirdre Duffys

Might not be the most obvious story in need of spoofing, but nevertheless, it had me laughing like gangbusters.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights pretty much takes everything that Kevin Costner with his American accent and Bryan Adams with his Canadian power ballads tried to make awesome in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and harpoons it all from top to bottom. You know the story, it’s been done ad nauseum, but this time around it’s actually aware of the fact that the remakes probably should have stopped with Disney, and that, dear viewers, makes all the difference.

So as with most movies that I thought were awesome in third grade (lookin’ at you, The Mask), my expectations upon revisiting this a full 18 years later as a grown-ass man were understandably low. One of those movies that all my friends thought was hilarious and I just played along with fake laughter in the cafeteria because admitting that it had gone clear over my head would inevitably ruin any chance I had at someone trading their Lunchables with me. Not a good first impression to go off of. But it’s not just this movie, it’s actually Mel Brooks movies in general that have unfortunately gotten less and less funny with each new viewing.

Before you write me off completely for that statement, Blazing Saddles is still great, but Spaceballs doesn’t quite do it for me anymore, I don’t think I laughed once the last time I watched Young Frankenstein, and I thought Spamalot was a hell of a lot funnier than The Producers when I saw ’em on Broadway. I don’t know, maybe I need to go through a Mel Brooks marathon one of these days to lay down the final verdict on things, but until I recently revisited Men in Tights, it had been a sad, unfortunate state of affairs. Please don’t hate me for this paragraph.

So there I was a couple weeks ago hanging out with friends, I’ve got a handful of beers in me, I’m feelin’ super, and after trying to settle on a movie in the Netflix Instant catalogue for what always feels like three hours, we start this baby up and I proceed to laugh my knickers off for the next 104 minutes.

The thing that did it for me is that this one just goes way outside the fourth wall. Speeches are interrupted by cameras crashing through stained-glass windows, Teamsters hanging out off-set get cut down by the Sheriff of Rottingham (HI-OH!) in the middle of sword fights, characters pull out scripts to make sure that Robin gets a second shot at the archery contest, and thanks to a time machine that no one seems to mention, references to Nike pumps, Everlast chastity belts, Abe Lincoln, Mark Twain and Don Corleone are there for the taking, too.

Although due to gags that fall flat like Rottingham’s penchant for not being able to structure his sentences properly or even some of the Merry Men’s rap songs, it’s not quite a home run from beginning to end, but some of this shit really is gold. Prince John’s constantly-moving mole, someone yelling “Hey, Abbott!” like Lou Costello when an actual Abbott of the Church walks by, Little John “drowning” in two inches of water – that kinda stuff had me howling and I was not expecting to howl at all here.

And on top of all that we’ve got Isaac Hayes as “The Painted Man”, Asneeze; Dave Chappelle as his son, Ahchoo; Richard Lewis as Prince John; Tracey Ullman as a witch who changed her name from “Shithouse” to Latrine; a cameo from Patrick Stewart as King Richard; a scene-stealing Dom DeLuise as the English version of Don Corleone; Mel Brooks himself as Rabbi Tuckman; Amy Yasbeck who does a fine Maid Marian; and Cary Elwes as Robin who’s just as charming as he was in The Princess Bride, just that he’s funnier this time around. Awesome cast if I do say so myself, too bad it didn’t really do much to launch Chappelle’s and Lewis’ careers though.

Folks, in this day and age where spoofs are equated with Vampires Suck, Meet the Spartans or any of one the shitstorm masterpieces that for some reason have gotten those fuckheads Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer filthy rich instead of blacklisted from planet Earth, it’s nice to see random and irreverent done right for a change. Although I did go through a brief phase in middle school where I thought Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was the bomb, and of all the times I watched it, I never really thought it was unintentionally funny or setting itself up for something like this. Thinking I probably need a refresher course on that one to see if I was just jaded by Costner’s powermullet to notice the flaws, but it wasn’t until Russell Crowe took on the mantle that I thought Robin jumped the shark. Anyway, for a movie that I don’t think anyone was really asking for, it’s a solid spoof and totally achieves what it sets out to do.

Alright, the booze might have helped, but I had a ball with Robin Hood: Men in Tights in a way that I haven’t had with a Mel Brooks movie in ages. Don’t ask me justify the verdict against other Brooks comedies that carry legendary reputations far great than this does, you won’t get the answer you’re looking for and I honestly can’t really explain it myself. All I know is I had fun, I laughed way more than I thought I would and I’m generally a sucker for anything involving Dave Chappelle and/or Richard Lewis. There’s your 8.