Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a Mel Brooks directed spoof of the Robin Hood myth, starring Carey Elwes, Amy Yasbeck, Richard Lewis, Roger Rees, Mark Blankfield, Dave Chappelle, and Eric Allan Kramer. It is not my favorite Mel Brooks movie.
Robin of Locksley (Elwes, in hands down the best casting of the movie) escapes from captivity in a scene parodied from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, returns to England, and meets up with the exchange student son of Asneeze (Isaac Hayes), Achoo (Chappelle). Discovering that Prince John (Lewis) has taxed the peasantry to death, he recruits the usual assortment of Merry Men, including Little John (Kramer) and Will Scarlett O'Hara (Matthew Porretta), and takes on the Prince and his crony, the Sheriff of Rottinghamn (Rees). King Richard (Patrick Stewart, doing his best Connery) returns to regis ex machina everything, and Robin marries Marian (Yasbeck).
The story is familiar, and most closely parodies Prince of Thieves and Adventures of Robin Hood. Elwes does his best manic Errol Flynn grin while fencing, and manages to conjure up some chemistry with Chappelle, Kramer, Porretta, Rees, and Yasbeck (not so much with Brooks, playing Rabbi Tuckman, but you can't have everything). Yasbeck does her best with what she has, but Brooks never really recovered from losing Madeline Khan, in my opinion, and doesn't quite know what to do with his women characters (see also: Daphne Zuniga in Spaceballs). We also have the same "she's a virgin protected by a watchful guardian" (Megan Cavanagh) that we had in Spaceballs, which is a weird trope to cling to. Watching the movie, I was actually enjoying it and got some good laughs, and thinking "maybe this is better than I remember..."
...and then came Richard Lewis. Now, I've never really watched his stand-up, so I really just have this performance to go on, but he just kills the pacing. Whenever he's on screen, it all just comes to a grinding halt so he can sarcasm and mewl his way through his lines. Compare this to the affable menace of Harvey Korman in Blazing Saddles or the wonderful interplay between Rick Moranis and George Wyner in Spaceballs, and despite Roger Rees' best efforts, it just feels awkward.
Rees is a much better villain, but the movie can't decide quite what it wants to do with the Sheriff. The change in name to "Rottingham" isn't necessary; most of the other names are kept the same, so it just kinda feels juvenile. The movie incorporates the "ugly witch" character from Prince of Thieves in the personage of Tracey Ullman as Latrine, but her whole arc is her crush on the Sheriff, which then dilutes his role more. There's a bit in the movie where he jumbles the words in sentences, but the only time that joke really lands is "He deered to kill one of the king's dares," and again, every time he does this he stops, sighs, and corrects himself, which is both unnecessary and pace-killing.
But, the thing that I truly hate about this movie is the scene ripping off Godfather. Dom Deluise shows up as Don Giovanni, a mobster from Jersey with his two flunkies, Dirty Ezio (Joe Dimmick) and Filthy Luca (Steve Tancora), and they spend an entire scene doing completely irrelevant things and riffing on Deluise's Brando impersonation. It's so weird, because normally Brooks spoofs stick pretty close to their source material (which is one thing that makes them vastly superior to the execrable "X Movie" films), so this really sticks out. And, again, it winds up meaning exactly nothing in the context of the story.
Overall, it's cute in places, and there are some genuine laughs, but as a Brooks film goes it's pretty damn disappointing.
My Grade: D+
Rewatch Value: Low
Next up: Robocop
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