Classic Movie Review Robin Hood Men in Tights

Robin Hood Men in Tights (1993) 

Directed by Mel Brooks 

Written by Mel Brooks, Evan Chandler, J. David Shapiro 

Starring Cary Elwes, Amy Yasbeck, Mel Brooks, Richard Lewis, Roger Rees, Isaac Hayes 

Release Date July 28th, 1993 

Published July 25th, 2023 

Mel Brooks has a generational impact. For many, their Mel Brooks movie experience began with The Producers and proceeded to Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. My Mel Brooks experience, due to having been born late in the Gen-X generation, was a little different. My Mel Brooks movies were Spaceballs and Robin Hood Men in Tights. The earlier Mel Brooks classics came to me later. Thus, I think I hold both Spaceballs and Robin Hood Men in Tights in high regard because I simply saw them and fell in love with them first. 

This doesn't mean that I believe that Spaceballs and Robin Hood Men in Tights are better than the Brooks 1970s movies. It just means that I have a much softer spot for Brooks 80s period, one that many older Brooks fans do not share. Older fans of Mel Brooks have often stated that Brooks became a bit to reliant on referring to his past glory in the 80s and early 90s. They aren't entirely wrong. Both Spaceballs and Robin Hood Men in Tights rely heavily on referring to gags and characters that Brooks invented in his glorious 60s and 70s peak. 

That said, I still love Robin Hood Men in Tights and looking back on it 30 years after it was released, I was surprised to find that my love for the film is as strong as ever. Brooks' ingenious satire of Kevin Costner's dreary Robin Hood adaptation is also a loving homage to the original telling of Robin Hood on the big screen, that undertaken by the legendary Errol Flynn in the 1930s. Weaving nods to both of those Robin Hood stories, amid references to his own legendary canon, Mel Brooks created Robin Hood Men in Tights, a cocksure, headstrong comedy that stands on its own. Or was that the other way around? 

The brilliance of Mel Brooks is on display immediately in Robin Hood Men in Tights. Within moments of his credits sequence bursting on the screen with heroic music and the visual of fiery arrows being fired into the distance, Brooks begins breaking the fourth wall. The credits arrows have hit a nearby village, lighting the whole thing on fire as residents complain that this happens every time someone makes a Robin Hood movie. The very funny meta gag ends with the extras turning to the camera to tell Mel Brooks to leave them alone. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media

Movie Review Vamps

Vamps (2012) 

Directed by Amy Heckerling 

Written by Amy Heckerling 

Starring Alicia Silverstone, Krysten Ritter, Sigourney Weaver, Dan Stevens, Richard Lewis, Wallace Shawn, Justin Kirk

Release Date November 2nd, 2012 

Published November 5th, 2012 

I could watch Krysten Ritter in just about anything. As the star of ABC's under-appreciated sitcom "Don't Trust the 'B' in Apartment 23" Ritter's acerbic wit sets the series apart from other shows that wish they could be as edgy and funny. Ritter has a fearlessness that never feels like an act. It's the same fearlessness Ritter brings to her role in the modest but pleasant living dead comedy "Vamps."

Don't Trust the Vamp

Goody (Alicia Silverstone) and Stacy (Ritter) seem like any other nightlife loving New Yorkers. The only difference is that they've loved the nightlife for a great deal longer than the kids they party with. Goody and Stacy are vampires; Goody for more than 100 years and Stacy since the 90's. The same 'Stem' Vampire played with devilish wit by Sigourney Weaver turned both.

"Vamps" turns on an unexpected and inconvenient romance. Stacy falls in love with Joey (Dan Stevens), a slightly tragic circumstance because Joey happens to be Joey Van Helsing, heir to the vampire hunting legend currently held by his father, played by the brilliant Wallace Shawn. In the course of events, it is revealed that Stacy could return to human form, thus offering her the chance to be with Joey, if her stem vampire is killed.

Alicia Silverstone and Richard Lewis?

Circumstances are much more complicated for Goody. You see, if the stem vampire were killed the girls would return to their real ages. For Stacy that means her early 40's. Goody however is over 100 years old and thus will herself die. There is also a complex romance for Goody who stumbles on a former lover played by Richard Lewis with a sad tale of his own.

Don't worry fans of director Amy Heckerling, the proceedings of "Vamps" are not nearly as bleak, or dramatic as my last paragraph makes them seem. "Vamps" maintains a lighthearted tone throughout and while I won't say the film is wall to wall laughs, it is as consistently amusing as you would expect from the director of "Clueless."

Hopping the Vampire Bandwagon

Many critics have accused Heckerling of jumping the Vampire bandwagon, citing the popularity of the 'Twilight' franchise as the inspiration for "Vamps." There is an element of truth to that but "Vamps" has enough juice in it's own story to stand well apart from the glum, goofy characters of Stephanie Meyers' money train.

Heckerling may be forcefully attempting to capture the zeitgeist but she also invests in this story, in both the laughs and the difficult choices her characters have to make and the unlikely dramatic circumstances they find themselves in. Also, let's credit Heckerling with her faithfulness to classic vampire lore, unlike the shiny ones of 'Twilight,' these "Vamps" avoid sunlight.

"Vamps doesn't approach the wit or charm of Heckerling's twin teen comedy masterworks, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" or "Clueless," but it has an ease and good humor that many modern comedies can't muster. Add to that a terrifically game cast, especially the radiant Ms. Ritter, and you have a movie more than worth a stop at the Redbox.