My first time actually seeing this movie in a not cut down for TV version... but being PG-13 to begin with, it was amazing that they even needed to cut anything to begin with. Other than the very few dirty, filthy words. And somehow the term pansies. And saying that they're bunched when it came to their tights. Those censors always confused me, especially since I have seen different edits that don't mute them... or mute one but not the other. On the same station.
... Anyway... standard Mel Brooks stuff, this film. Singing pushed into something that normally wouldn't get a musical number, Mel Brooks cameos, some humor elements that make you question why it's a thing to begin with because it falls flat. Sadly, instead of JEWS IN SPACE... or the forests, we instead get a bunch of white guys pretending to be British and Dave Chappelle being not nearly offensive enough to really be funny; but again PG-13. But then, thankfully this film was made in 1993 instead of now, because I assure you the Arabs in this film would have been about a dozen times more offensive than... erm... well, the whole portrayal wasn't offensive at all. Actually I thought the guy who welcomed Robin to the dungeon was likely one of the most humorous characters in the film for how long he appeared. But you know it would have been now.
And Isaac Hayes wouldn't have been in it because of the death thing. Though, considering he was in the film for all of five minutes and wasn't anything special, it wouldn't have been a deal. Kind of the same for Patrick Stewart, except he's not dead. But he didn't do much in the film. At all. Except be an excuse to make a History of the World, Part 1 reference that I'm sure none of the teenagers who saw this movie in theaters at the time would get. Or today, really. Which should be a criminal act.
Where was I going with this? Oh, right, JEWS IN SPACE! No, wait, absurdest Robin Hood. It's one of those difficult things to describe, in all honestly, why I didn't find this film as funny as some other of his earlier works, but then it's hard to really describe any kind of humor that works for you as well. To me, the film simply wasn't up to snuff when compared to Spaceballs or HotWP1, but that's all subjective. There are genuinely funny moments of course, and I honestly think some of the moments I enjoyed the most were ad-libbed. But other moments fell flat, like the constant word mixing of the Sheriff of Rottingham; call me crazy but I simply didn't find that funny after the first time, or the boy who ran home screaming once he was saved in a seemingly obvious Home Alone parody, or the 12th Century Fox who made the Flipper noise when running, or really anything with Blinkin.
Not because I can't laugh at comedy with the disabled, but rather because it simply wasn't funny. I'm not sure what they were thinking with his character, but all attempts at humor involving him fell flat. There was also the fat nanny who was more annoying than some kind of comic relief. If anything, she reminded me too much of Nanny from Voltron, whom I have always hated. I'm sure she was better in Go-Lion though... wait, getting off topic again.
The film has its problems, yes. Many pieces of comedy fall flat, the musical numbers are in no real way as memorable as HotWP1, the inclusion of the rappers at the start and end were not needed at all... but the movie does have strengths as well, and those are worth watching the film for. I don't want to say them because that would be ruining half the fun; let's be honest, the worst thing you can do is recommend a comedy and then tell somebody all the A material. And hey, maybe you'll find some of the stuff to be funny that I didn't.
As a Mel Brooks film, it's no Spaceballs or History of the World, Part 1... but hey, not everything can be gold. It's still a mostly enjoyable film, and that's what counts.
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