Fellman's Movie Reviews

Red = Spoilers 

Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a 1993 comedy by Mel Brooks parodying the story of Robin Hood. Mel Brooks is one of the legends of comedy, and this movie is part of the reason for it. There’s so many different elements to this movie that can be picked apart as well as individual jokes that can be dissected here and there, but like all other Mel Brooks movies, if you just watch it and enjoy it as a whole, you’ll enjoy it much more than you would if you overthink it. Mel Brooks’ kind of comedy isn’t the kind you want to overthink. You really need to take it at face value. That’s what it’s meant for.  

What’s it about? We start with some rapping Merry Men, out in the forest, telling of how Robin got put in jail. This takes us over to the jail where we see Robin being taken into custody and tortured by his jailers. They then chain him next to another prisoner, Asneeze, who tells him that they can escape by kicking the bar out of the wall. Which they do. The jailer comes back in, wondering what the sound was, and they convince him to leave, and all of the prisoners escape the prison. Back in England, Robin meets Asneeze’s son, Achoo, and saves him from some Royal Guards. They then go to Robin’s family home to find it is being repossessed by the evil Prince John, who has taken over power while his brother, King Richard, is away on the Crusades. After they take his families’ castle, Robin and Achoo see Blinkin, Robin’s faithful blind servant who joins them. They soon meet Little John and Will Scarlet, who join them as well. As Robin is training a group of villagers to rise up against Prince John, the Sherriff of Rottingham and Mafioso Don Giovanni make a plan to assassinate Robin at the upcoming archery contest. Maid Marian overhears and goes to warn Robin, but Robin can’t resist the urge of an archery contest. Don Giovanni’s archer and Robin both make it to the final round where the archer splits Robin’s arrow in half. Surprised by the loss, Robin checks the script to see if he gets another shot, which he does. As he’s about to shoot, the archer hits his leg and makes him misfire, causing him to shoot into the crowd. After he wins the contest anyway, the Sherriff has Robin arrested and prepares to execute him. And Maid Marian says that she’ll marry the Sherriff if he’ll spare Robin’s life. At the wedding, the villagers break into the castle and free Robin and the Sherriff escapes to the tower with Maid Marian. Robin goes up to the tower to fight him. The two battle and the Sherriff is run through. Prince John’s cook and adviser, Latrine saves the Sherriff by giving him a magic Life Saver in exchange for marrying her. Robin and Marian are about to consummate their love when Broomhilde arrives and says they have to be married first. They go downstairs to find Rabbi Tuckman to get married in a hurry. The Rabbi is in the middle of the ceremony when King Richard interrupts him to knight Robin and kiss Maid Marian. Robin then makes Achoo the new Sherriff of Rottingham and Rabbi Tuckman marries Robin and Marian.  

What’s good? This is one of Mel Brooks best movies. In my opinion, at any rate. It’s funny all the way through. From the little jokes that you hardly see like the prince’s mole, to the running gags like the Sherriff’s speech impediment. It’s all hilarious.  

What’s bad? There’s hardly anything you could say that’s “bad” about the movie. It’s a parody. It’s a comedy. It checks all the boxes. There’s really nothing wrong with it. 

The actors? All the actors are doing great for the kind of movie they’re in. They’re not taking themselves too seriously. They’re having fun with it. You can see they’re all having a good time while they’re shooting. That’s what comedies are supposed to be.  

The effects? The effects are mostly practical. There’s some CGI. But most of the things that are done the old-fashioned way.  

The rapping merry men? I don’t know if they’d get away with this today. There’s probably some PC people out there who are going “this is racist” or something. Going “this didn’t age well” because they’re black and dancing. Who knows in today’s day and age.  

The camel jockeys. I wonder how many people have seen this movie and never noticed the jockeys on camels in the background and put that together before? I’ll bet there’s more than a few… 

How are they towing that castle? How’d they get the wheels on that castle, anyway? Castles don’t have wheels. That castle was just kinda sitting there. What’d they do? Jack up that castle? 

Choked on the goldfish. I love how Blinkin goes through the list of Robin’s family and how they all died while he was away and it ends on a down-note with the cat, choking to death on the goldfish it was trying to eat… 

The Sherriff’s speech impediment. The strangest speech impediment ever. It’s akin to Yoda, although, not nearly as wise. 

Home Alone reference. 30 years ago, people might’ve gotten a Home Alone reference. But now, I don’t think anybody knows what Home Alone is anymore. That joke would definitely go over the heads of almost anybody that wasn’t born before the year 2000. 

Prince John’s mole. This is one of the best jokes of the entire movie. Nobody talks about it, except for in that one scene, and then it keeps happening throughout the rest of the movie. 

Blinkin VS. The column. I love this scene. Where Blinkin is sword-fighting with the column, and he’s parrying and dodging and jumping and whatnot. And then, when he finally wins, he stops to rest and he’s breathing real hard because he just won an incredibly difficult duel… Because he did. Way to go, Blinkin… Way to go… 

Why did they all walk past Robin? Why did all those guys in suits of armor walk past Robin in equidistant amounts of steps and stand still in a position facing the same way? It kind of seems like they were asking to be knocked over… 

Take the dummies into battle. When Robin’s training the villagers and they go to attack the dummies and the dummies knock the villagers off their horses, Achoo goes “maybe we should take the dummies in battle…” Robin puts his hand on his chin and looks up like he’s thinking about it.  

Why is the Sherrif sitting there? It seems like a bad idea to be sitting in the firing position of a catapult. That’s where things get fired from. As is illustrated from when the Sherriff gets fired from it… 

The “Clapper” candles. When Marian walks into her room from outside she claps and her candles light up. That’s technology, right there.  

Broomhilde breaks the sidewalk. If I were that horse, I wouldn’t have stayed still either. She was so fat she broke that sidewalk. God knows what she would’ve done to that horse. That horse was totally right.  

Blinkin during the song. When the Merry Men are singing their song, Blinkin is constantly facing the wrong way and doing the wrong step. But you know the actor himself isn’t blind. So, he had to learn that all on his own and then he had to practice that while the other guys practiced the regular bit together. That’s kind of impressive when you think about it.  

The Royal Folio Depository. It’s a play on “The Book Depository” that Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy out of. Ezio’s even standing in the window with Robin in his sights.  

They check the script. Mel Brooks is known for breaking the fourth wall. I don’t know if this actually counts as an example of that, because they never really talk to the camera.  

I respect that. Marian says that the Sherriff can have her body, but not her mind, her spirit, or her soul. And the Sherriff politely replies “Oh, yes… I respect that…” As if he didn’t seem to care in the least. Which, as the villain, he probably didn’t.  

Mervyn? Your name is Mervyn? You have to admit, it is a funny sounding name… Mervyn.  

The shadow puppets. The shadow puppet bit is always funny to me. What’s even funnier is that the Sherriff wins it and comes away with the upper “hand”. (I literally had to…) 

The magic pill. The “magic pill” that saves the Sherriff’s life is an actual Life Saver. You can tell. It’s obviously a Life Saver. Therefore, it IS a Life Saver… 

Bagelle and Loxley. When I was younger, I didn’t know Bagels and lox was a thing. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties that I learned what that was. And by that time I had seen this movie a hundred times. Then I finally got that joke. It just goes to show, you don’t know what you don’t know until you don’t know you know it… 

So, yeah. Go and see Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Not only because it’s funny, but because Mel Brooks is a legend that can’t be recreated any time soon. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…