Robin Hood - Beyond Sherwood Forest

I don't have any new Simon Cowell to add, so I'll only go into depth about what was good about this film: not a whole heck of a lot, but it was batting 1.000 when the guy came up with the idea. (I'm really interested in this genre since Origin Systems stopped producing Ultima) That idea was that a young woman who comes from another world (a murky one at that!) is somehow cursed for breaking a law and spends part of her day as a winged monster. A cynical government-actor captures her to use her as a weapon. This story is woven into a Robin Hood one. (How that last part works, I don't know, but I guess someone else does.) Unfortunately, the movie kept putting me to sleep (figuratively) so I missed some of the finer points of the plot.

The acting and English accents have a serious credibility problem, the dialogue isn't exactly chancy, and sometimes the seams show on the CGI. I don't think the plot was executed in a very good way either. There was a romantic dimension, but that looked like they remembered to throw it in at the last minute.

There are a couple of things that I can respect a movie like this for: one is that it didn't have a lot of silly modern slang (the worst was a single "a little help"). Also, while Katharine Isabelle does show a lot of skin, there is no bona fide nudity (possibly because Isabelle refuses to do any). A movie like this should be going for such cheap thrills, but it doesn't. Good for it!

I wish it was Steven Spielberg who'd gotten ahold of this idea. I think it would have made a fine story, but instead what we have is typical Canadian B.

It's 1174 England. There are dragons and magic. Malcolm (Julian Sands) is leading a fight against dragons. He finds Alina (Katharine Isabelle), naked and injured. He tries to kill the obviously magically being but her wounds keep healing. He ends up killing his comrade who wanted to save the girl. Maid Marian (Erica Durance) is preparing reluctantly to marry Prince John who is in charge while King Richard is away with the Crusade. Robin Hood (Robin Dunne) and his men are in Sherwood Forest stealing from Prince John. He runs into Maid Marian in the woods.

This is a B-movie fantasy. The production is a little above cable TV movie. The start is functional but there are obvious issues. Malcolm should be blackmailing Alina with some kind of McGuffin. He could be holding a dragon egg hostage. The plot gets too complicated in the second half. While the production is fine, it's not good enough for anything close to theatrical release. There are a few actual actors in this. Julian Sands is always good to play a villain. Depending on expectations, this is almost watchable.

Once upon a time, in 1174 England, a flying dragon attacked a man before turning into a young woman's belly. As a result, Robin Hood's father is killed near a giant blue circle in Sherwood Forest. Possibly thinking of the blue hole causes handsome Robin Dunne (as Robin Hood) to wake up a few years later. The flying dragon is still causing problems for Mr. Dunne, along with dastardly Julian Sands (as Malcolm). The dragon turns in and out of attractive Katharine Isabelle (as Alina), probably due to a curse. Erica Durance (as Maid Marian) is also pretty...

This story, courtesy of actor-turned-director Peter DeLuise and Syfy Channel fantasy writer Chase Parker, is sometimes difficult to comprehend. The cast is very good looking and adding a dragon to the Robin Hood mythos is an interesting idea. We can't determine much about the giant blue hole. It could be the threshold to dragon world. We do know Dunne keeps the most perfectly trimmed beard in Sherwood Forest. And, everyone has excellent eye make-up. Modern eye make-up really counts for something, especially during the Middle Ages.

**** Robin Hood: Beyond Sherwood (11/24/09) Peter DeLuise ~ Robin Dunne, Erica Durance, Julian Sands, Katharine Isabelle

The SyFy channel go all-out with fantasy nonsense for this virtually unwatchable Robin Hood epic. Like those dodgy Asylum films that came out a few years ago that had Sherlock Holmes fighting octopi and the like, BEYOND SHERWOOD FOREST takes a very loose grasp of the original legend and turns it into something completely unfamiliar - and, unfortunately, very bad indeed.

You know the film's off to a bad start when we're subjected to silly portals in the woods and a lame CGI dragon that looks like it's come from a computer game, but that's just the beginning of the problems. The worst thing about the film by far is the acting; the likes of Robin Dunne (as Robin Hood) and Erica Durance (Maid Marian) are astonishingly poor and some of the supporting cast were even worse. The worst thing about the acting? Those accents, which grated on my ear throughout. It doesn't help that the dialogue is reduced to the level of "Prithee, fair maiden" type nonsense.

The film muddles along, throwing in some half-hearted romance and plenty of scenes that copy the likes of ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES, with Julian Sands delivering another hammy turn as the villain of the piece. Then, thankfully, it's over, and I couldn't be happier because the only thing truly monstrous about this production is that horrible CGI.

This was one of the worst movies I have seen. Must have been first time roles for the actors unless they just grabbed people off the street. The whole movie felt fake and very forced due to the poor acting.

The storyline was definitely usable albeit a twist of many movies such as Stargate etc... I don't even know if that part of the movie was needed. It was like 2 short films put together to make a full length film.

The cgi was average and the fight scenes were very obviously acted and not believable at all.

All in all I would say a huge disappointment. Do not waste your time watching this movie.