Featured Company:

Robin Hood - Season One (5DVD)

Today's shopping tips: "Be wise in purchasing ..... find best value one"

---

Manufacturer: BBC
Brand: Warner Brothers
Starring: Jonas Armstrong, Lucy Griffiths, Richard Armitage, Keith Allen, Sam Troughton

List Price: $79.98
Our Price: $39.50
You Save: $ 40.48 ( 51% )
(prices subject to change)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Average Ratings:

People's hero, war hero, romantic hero and leader of the world's most famous resistance group...Robin Hood is known and loved by millions around the world. His fight against a corrupt government and greedy officials is something we all can connect with. Fun, modern and intelligent, the BBC's Robin Hood is guaranteed to appeal to today's sophisticated viewers and is set to be as popular as the new Doctor Who. Sharp, witty scripts by Dominic Minghella and a striking new look set the tone as the BBC updates this popular legend for all the family.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Audio Commentary
Featurette:Hood Academy Featurette
Other:Character profiles
Audio Commentary
Other:Character profiles
Audio Commentary
Other:Character profiles
Featurette:Robin Hood - The Making of Featurette Dressing Hood Featurette Designing the Hood Featurette

DESCRIPTION:

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0794051400222
Format: Box set
Label: BBC
Manufacturer: BBC
Number Of Items: 5
Publisher: BBC
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-06-05
Running Time: 578
Studio: BBC
Theatrical Release Date: 2006


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• Robin Hood - Season 2
• North & South
• The Vicar of Dibley - A Holy Wholly Happy Ending
• The Tudors - The Complete Second Season
• Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Series
Comment: This series is absolutely delightful. The acting is excellent and the dialogue is priceless. The main title character, Robin Hood, is perfect. His manservant, Munch, is a fantastic character. He is a perfect foil for Robin Hood. And Robin's band of Merry Men are great. Maid Marion is full of fire and independence. Sir Guy of Geius may be a bad guy, but you gotta like him. And the Sheriff is fantastic. The series makes me laugh every time.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Stretches authenticity a bit too far
Comment: This is an enjoyable series, with ample visually pleasing settings, costumes, and slickly choreographed swashbuckling to provide many hours of light entertainment. It is, however, far from being a masterpiece, chiefly on account of mediocre writing and actors struggling valiantly - but not always successfully - to make the extremely implausible plausible.

The series takes substantial liberties with the traditional storyline, being heavily modernized with characters' speech, mannerisms, and attitudes reflecting 21st century norms rather than those of the Middle Ages. This Robin Hood is politically correct and a pacifist. In this series, there is no discrimination: children, women, people of all ages, shades of color, and lifestyle choices are represented. I haven't yet seen a transgender character, but will not be surprised if I eventually find one in this series. In scenes reminiscent of the old 1980's A-Team, arrows fly by the hundreds, yet miraculously, no is ever harmed, at least not by the virtuous Robin Hood or his band of merry men, women, and children. No matter how thoroughly evil the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham and Guy of Gisbourne may be, no matter how many times Robin foils another of their plots and has them in his power, he is far too good a man to ever exploit the situation and unfailingly lets them go on to commit future crimes with a wave, a wink, and a cheery smile. One sometimes wonders whether the character being portrayed is Robin Hood or Santa Claus.

Admittedly, Robin Hood is like Shakespeare in that the story is eternal and may convincingly be transplanted to other settings and periods, so I don't object on principle to modernizing the story. But the story still needs to be believable within the context one chooses. To remake Robin Hood after Mr. Rogers, the setting needs to be similarly altered to one in which the revised character is credible; to re-cast Robin as some sort of modern group therapy leader while leaving him in a Middle Age setting simply makes him appear ludicrous.

Perhaps that was the series producers' intent - to create a comedic version of the tale along the lines of Mel Brooks' "Robin Hood Men in Tights," in the which such ridiculously context-inappropriate spectacles as that of merry men performing rap numbers was used for comedic effect. Yet the BBC Robin Hood seems too patronizingly moralizing to make for an effective comedy.

In sum, this is an entertaining series and provides another fix for Robin Hood junkies like myself, but it could have been better done.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A CLUE......BUY BOTH SEASONS!
Comment: Let me begin by saying that this is NOT a historically accurate, true to the original, retelling of the story of Robin Hood. It is an ADAPTATION, and a good one at that.

Therefore, this series is worth buying. It is expertly cast, (great for Richard Armitage fans!!!!) and has just the right amount of adventure, turmoil, social analysis and good vs. evil conflict. It is often tongue-in-cheek, which is refreshing and surprising, so it doesn't take itself too seriously. Simultaneously, it has profound moments with current relevance that positively contributes to its diversity.

This is a show that can be watched by the entire family, although there are incidents of violence, it is strongly emphasized Robin Hoods anti-killing motto. These instances are mild compared to current video game scenarios.

I can hardly wait for the Third Season to come out on DVD because I will be purchasing that one, also.

Customer Rating:
Summary: For lazy Saturday nights
Comment: Robert of Loxely, Earl of Huntingdon, returns home from the Crusade do discover the town of Nottingham rules by a wicked sheriff who opresses the people. Fleeing into the forest, he forms a band of men to resist the sheriff, and vow to do all they can to help the good people of Nottingham.

Historical Drama this is not, but it is light Saturday night entertianment, for those times when you want to watch something cliched, and a little childish.

The costumes are absurd and rather silly at times, Norman soldiers with yellow plumes on their helmets ans striped sleeves, women in trousers in the twelfth century, cowboy hats and leather trenchcoats. The dialouge, characterisation and style fare little better. A token saracen girl who does little except whine and tie people up, Maid Marion a perfect superwoman, constantly strutting about full of her own self importance, and Gisborne who is about as good with a sword as a one legged dog.
Not forgetting Sheriff Vasey, the delighfully dastardly comic villian, with his far fetched money making schemes.

Last and best of all Nottingham castle, the worst defended fortress in all England, easy to break into and out of, and whose guards have an uncanny ability not a notice a person standing in front of them.

Certainly not one to be taken seriously, but after working all day and kicking off the shoes from your sore feet, it's a good laugh, even if only at the ridiculousness of it.


Customer Rating:
Summary: Uninspired Amature Drivel
Comment: This is the first review I've ever written on Amazon, but I was so moved by how all around horrible this series is, I felt it was my duty to warn others about it.
There are so many bad things about this production of Robin Hood I don't really know where to begin......

The writing is more than exceptionally poor, the fact that the production is being presented as a period piece yet attempts to modernize the image of Robin Hood into a hipster accounts for that.
It seems they wanted to make the production as politically correct as possible, which again, conflicts with a believable and enjoyable portrayal of this time period to everyone except drooling morons of which there apparently are enough of in this world to give this trainwreck a second season.

I mean come on, a Robin Hood who doesn't shoot any of the sheriff's men and who is threatening to kill the sheriff in every episode. Jeez.

There are so many holes in the writing that going into extensive detail would take too much time, and I'm already trying to forget that I ever wasted my time watching this. I have even considered a full on lobotomy to remove it from my mind completely, it seems like it would almost be worth it.

I am generally baffled by the random paper thin motivations of the characters and situations that I truly marvel at how the script got to the screen to begin with.

The Costume designs are another oddity, it's as if they could never really decide on and commit to either doing a period piece or a modern one and tried to please both camps by landing somewhere in the middle.
Marion's are especially bad, as well as Guy Gisborn who is wearing what plays as a futuristic sci-fi leather coat which looks like a reject costume design from Dune.

Fight scenes play out as if they were shot in a film student's backyard with his friends to get an idea of what "staged" combat is like to film.
There seems to always be a lack of extras to play the sheriff's men so Robin and his men are rarely outnumbered but usually run away from the brawl. I suppose if they stayed, fought and took the castle it would mean the end of the series, what a pity and a loss to the artistic world that would be....

The editing is an amature mess, one would probably have better luck getting a better overall presentation if you choose a name from a phone book at random and had them cut the film.

This series is a good example of the trite crap that is turned out by mediocre film school graduates who go to work for the BBC because they either lack real creativity or are simply whoring themselves out for the paycheck. I really do think that the studio hired people to write rave reviews for this on here, or at least I'd like to give people the benefit of the doubt of having good taste.
But alas, the fact that this series has a second season shakes my faith in humankind and reminds me that we truly are living in a dark age.

Don't buy this series, rent it, or even watch it for free, unless you are researching what not to do when making films. If it is viewed in this way, then it is a valuable tool in combating the chance that something like this will ever be made again and it should be studied throughly.

If you already own the series, dig at least a three foot hole, place the box set inside and burn it, then bury the melted mess so we are not embarassed in the eyes of future generations if a copy of this is ever found.

---

NOTE: All online transactions are processed at Amazon.com's secure server, using the latest technology on internet's secure transactions.
| Blocks | Building Sets | Model Toys | Puzzles | Figures & Playsets | Toys by Age Ranges |