Robin Hood: Men in Tights - not a good movie, but I still get the urge to watch it about once a year

Cafe Society
1

There’s certainly no way I would own this movie if not for the fact that it is included in the Mel Brooks Boxed Set.

But, because the Boxed Set exists, Men In Tights - one of Mel Brooks’ great misfires - sits upon my DVD shelf. It’s a horrible movie. A sad entry from a once great filmmaker.

Still, I get the urge to watch it about once a year. The jokes are bad. Not only bad, but entirely predictable- then delivered in the hammiest over-the-top kind of way. I don’t blame the horrible delivery on those speaking the lines- the cast is filled with talent. The hammy delivery is so uniform from one actor to the next, that it feels like every actor had a line-reading imposed upon him by Mr. Brooks. And really, the jokes are so horrible that even this talented cast couldn’t have done much with the material.

What is there to like about it? Really not much, but the likability is sufficient that I fully enjoy my once a year viewing.

Much of it must have to do with Cary Elwes. Cary Elwes is GREAT in this movie. Perfect casting here- unlike some Robin Hoods, he can speak with a British accent.

Also, Roger Rees as the Sheriff of Rottingham is awesome, as he is in everything he does (he turned in performances in one of my all time favorite recurring Guest Star characters on The West Wing).

The actor who played Little John was great. The actor who played Will Scarlet O’Hara was great (who, although he hasn’t done much, curiously just a few years later he played Robin Hood in a TV series that I’ve never seen).

Dave Chappelle wasn’t put to good use. With as funny and talented as he is, something worthwhile could have been done here. Unfortunately, not much came of it.

Richard Lewis gave exactly the performance he was hired to give, but I think Mel Brooks’ entire concept for Prince John was completely misguided.

Still, a once a year viewing always proves entirely enjoyable. Major credit goes to Elwes and Rees.

2

I will watch it occasionally when it comes on cable [I dont like watching movies on broadcast, lot of the time they chop them up and leave stuff out so they can squeeze in more commercials]

I admit, I prefer the old Mel Brooks stuff, I really do not like Spaceballs and pretty much will only watch the scene in the diner with the chest burster =) but I will pretty much always watch Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, the original The Producers, History of the World Pt 1. Well, I also sort of like Dracula:Dead and Loving it, but sometimes I am not in the mood for the style of humor.

3

Some friends of mine are in Men in Tights as extras. When I catch it on cable, I mostly spend the time trying to spot them. :slight_smile:

4

Part of the problem was that they were largely making a pardoy of Robin Hood, Prince of Theives, but the sheriff in Prince of Thieves was more of a spoof of the genre then the one in the parody.

Its like the Scary Movie movies, spoofing movies that were themselves parodies is a bad idea.

5

It’s still better than Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
I laughed once in that whole movie. ONCE!

6

There’s one line in the movie that I’ve always loved, although not quite enough to ever watch the movie a second time. In the scene with Dom Deluise as the mafioso, Dom blows his nose in a kleenex, and hands it to his flunky. The flunky, in a perfect dead-pan parody of Luca Brasi, says, “I take this handkerchief from your hand and put it in my pocket.” That just killed me, although if there had been anything else in the movie that was at all funny, it probably wouldn’t have stayed with me for so long.

7

The jackhammering of Maid Marion brings a smile to my face, but overall it wasn’t one of Brooks’ finer films.

Enjoy,
Steven

8

Wow, I really like that movie. I mean, it’s not my favorite or even in my top 50, but it’s a good movie.

9

I caught part of Men in Tights on TV one weekend a few ago, I wanna say it was the FOX Sunday afternoon movie, and to my astonishment they’d blanked out the word “sissies” in the title song. I couldn’t believe it. I was questioning my memory of the movie and wondering if the line was actually “pussies”, which I could see being considered too vulgar for Sunday afternoon, but I checked online and confirmed that it was indeed “sissies”. So that’s another reason not to watch movies on broadcast, they may be censored in ridiculous ways.

10

Yeah, me too. I almost piss myself when the Sheriff of Rottingham totally mangles the word order (twice!). “King illegal forest to pig wild kill in it a is!”

And yeah, Cary Elwes is awesome in this movie. I never understood why he didn’t become a mega-star. He’s a good actor, handsome, British. Is he just hell to work with or something?

11

Also, the “… Yeeeaaaaaah, okay…” look Dom gives him after he says that line :smiley:

Clearly, this is part of the homosexual agenda, to censor anything that may sound like a homophobic slur.

… what?

Seriously, though, did they censor “pansies”, too?

He’s one of my favorites as well. I wonder if The Princess Bride and Men In Tights typecast him?

12

“A toll’s a toll and a roll’s a roll. And if I don’t get no tolls then I don’t get no rolls.”

Beat.

“I thought of that meself.”
“Fascinating.”

Cracks me up every time. I guess I have a juvenile sense of humor.

13

I like it. Not Brooks’ best work, but his mediocre stuff can still be pretty good, and it’s orders of magnitude better than his Dracula parody. I do agree that Elwes’ performance carried the movie!

14

Definitely sub-par Brooks. By far. Richard Lewis contaminates anything he is in. I could actually turn this into a good movie if I was allowed to recast and direct it myself. The script isn’t that bad. It’s the casting and directing that blow chunks.

15

It’s the only Brooks movie I can tolerate.

16

You people are crazy, Men in Tights is excellent. Especially when you realize its just as much a parody of Mel Brooks’ other movies as it is a parody of Robin Hood.

And Dracula: Dead and Loving It had one great scene that almost makes the whole thing tolerable. When they kill Lucy in the crypt and a geyser of blood shoots out of her, you can see it on Steven Weber’s face that he had no idea it was going to be that big and Mel Brooks did.

17

Yup; in comparison, Love at First Bite was far funnier. (I mean, c’mon, Dracula with a suntan? :smiley: )

18

“I don’t drink…wine. And I don’t smoke…shit.”

Love At First Bite is by far the funnier, superior movie.

19

It was pretty hilarious.

-Maid Marian’s fat housekeeper BroomHilde jumping off the balcony and shattering pavement
-Robin jackhammering Marian’s chastity belt
-Will turning Robin’s arrow into sawdust
-The witch “Latrine” hitting on the sheriff

Not genius by any stretch but good for a cheap laugh

20

Except for Curb Your Enthusiasm, he’s great in that show.

I saw him do stand up in Orlando several years back and he was completely awful, he kept slumping up against the wall behind him and joked that he was having a heart attack, but he really did look like he was about to pass out the entire time. It was very uncomfortable.