Robin Hood

Ridley Scott has done it again. The man knows how to make big movies, and he’s scored with “Robin Hood,” starring the ever-powerful Russell Crowe as Robin Hood, or more accurately Robin Longstride, because this is a prequel to the familiar story, and I liked it.

And with Cate Blanchette as Marion Loxley, we have another marvelous actor.

Both Crow and Blanchette have 12th century faces – hard and good, intense and strong, kindly, with steel!

It’s gritty and it’s 12th Century – life is dark, damp and short.

Be sure to stay for the credits – it’s a million-dollar sequence – the most exciting credits I’ve ever seen.

Acting is superb … great cast ... the cinematography captures the 12th Century – the mud and the warfare. Like was hard, indeed. Music is typical for a movie of this caliber – powerful stuff for a powerful story.

The story is massive, and there are some editing jumps, but the audience can follow along ... and did the French have landing craft?

The relationship between Robin and Marion could have been done a bit more effectively, but it works.

Don’t wait for Netflix – see it now.

Indiana Jones

I loved it.

It was campy throughout … playing itself, if you will … with great music, photography, all the cliff-hanging (literally) suspense one has come to expect from Indiana Jones.

Paramount pulled off a difficult feat – playing to the older audience who loves Harrison Ford, playing him as it should be – an aging professor, still capable of heroic exploits, but a little older. As he’s looking at pictures on his desk of his father and a friend no longer with him, a fellow-faculty member says, “We’re at that point in time when life no longer gives us things, but takes them away.”

I wish I had said that.

But to play to a younger audience, Paramount teamed a young Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf) – you will find out who he really is – who’s a promise for another film. It’s a nice balance, and throw in Karen Allen who plays Marion Ravenwood, an old love interest, adding an interesting twist.

The bad guy, uh, girl (Cate Blanchett), is deliciously and mystically bad … the Russian soldiers are all wonderfully malevolent – a little political commentary on the crazy McCarthy era and the so-called “Red Scare” – then greed, double-crossing friends, combined with Area 51 aliens who visited South America 5 millennia ago – and, of course, the fedora and the bull whip - all the ingredients of a rip-roaring plot and delightfully entertaining film.

Great music, terrific special effects – a finely-tuned script well balanced between thoughtful commentary on aging and family and the comedic.

Great effort – thankfully, Paramount didn’t try to duplicate previous efforts, but building on the theme and feel, created a stand-alone feature.

By the way, in a large warehouse, following a car crash, you catch a brief glimpse of something hidden away a long time ago. Enough said? Enough said.

Go see it – you’ll love it!