Article of the Day

For Tottering States, Bankruptcy Could Be the Answer, by Michael Barone, is a very interesting idea. I wonder why I've never heard of that.

Robin Hood Review

Robin Hood (2010 ) was a mess. There were a number of things that made no sense, culminating most notably in the final scene when French soldiers invaded England in what, the 13th century, using Higgins boats (invented specifically for use in WWII), the French soldiers are then pummeled with arrows from mystery archers, and their remaining forces are slaughtered by soldiers on horseback suddenly and inexplicably including Marion Loxley and her ragtag squad of sickly orphan runaways who have inexplicably and miraculously become ninjas over the past week. It was fitting that a movie with so many holes in it ended this way. Why the hell did they show the white horse, incidentally? Just one more anachronism I had to look up after watching the movie.

But it wasn't all bad. I didn't feel like giving up on the movie until only about 30 minutes remained, and I'll tell you why. The symbolism was quite intersting.

General Symbols
•By increasing spending and especially taxes the democratic party is Very Evil, and it gives our enemies a golden opportunity to divide and attack us.
•The French are untrustworthy and devious.

Specifically
•King Richard was George Bush: start a costly war that will supposedly pay for itself, and right before it's over hand your crown over to the next ruler.
•King John: the naive, inexperienced ruler who takes over at the end of a war that has turned from popular to terribly unpopular; raise taxes to the point they can only be collected by force because they're starving people; abandon all previously embraced bipartisan notions once your position's been secured.

I'd say the 6.9 IMBb gives the movie may be a bit too high, but in the vicinity. I should mention that I watched the unrated version, which is I think 10 or 15 minutes longer than what you may have seen in theaters.