Last week, I had the bane of all people over the age of 18....jury duty. Thankfully I wasn't selected. I took some money for lunch, but I wasn't there that long and also, they had free doughnuts and pop...and coffee for people that wanted it. Because I had the money left over (10 dollars), my dad, the one who drove me there, and I stopped off at Best Buy to look through the dvds. Since they moved the local store to the new location, the movies and games section has really gone downhill. At their last location, you were able to find tons of old Doctor Who dvds. At the new place, not a one. They did have the first season of the most recent Who incarnation, but for some reason, it was 89.95. Everywhere else I've seen it, it was only 60. Oh, well. Since I didn't have the money, I passed. What I did pick up, though, for 9.99, was Robin Hood : Men In Tights. This is, I think, my favourite Mel Blanks movie. Thankfully, I was able to ignore all the facts that the movie got wrong. In real life, Little John was 7 foot 9 inches. In the movie, he was only about 6 foot 5 or so. It was a comedy/parody, so I kept that in mind. Sorry for rambling....on to the review.
Robin Hood : Men In Tights
Video : The movie (thank goodness !) is in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. And anamorphic, too ! This is a big plus if you have a widescreen tv. My mom just bought a 37" widescreen for the main tv and now I can finally see most of my movies (the 16:9 ones, anyways) without the black spaces. Not that I mind having black spaces in my movies, it's just that it's kind of neat having the picture fill the screen.
Video Quality : I didn't see any distracting artifacts to speak of. The picture was clear and sharp. The colour levels were the best I've seen for this
movie. Definately better than the vhs I used to watch. On an HDTV, RH:MIT looks incredible.
Audio : The dvd has 5.1 surround as the only choice. This is just fine, since that's probably what it had or close to what it had in the theaters. I only have a 2.0 setup, and I've noticed that some 5.1 mixes can get distorted because they have to be mixed down to 2.0 for non-surround systems. I didn't notice any audio problems here. Though, the voices in the movie were a little soft compared to the music and effects. But after a while, you get used to it.
Extras : It doesn't have much in the way of extras. A short five minute or so so-called behind the scenes documentary and the theatrical trailer, and a few text pages about several of the main actors.
Equipment : I watched his on a 37" widescreen Sanyo HDTV and a tiny 13" White-Westinghouse television. I'd go for a big widescreen, if you can. The widescreen has just it's own speakers which are plain stereo and sound the best of tv speakers that I've ever heard. The other sound system that I watched the movie with was the 2.0 Aiwa stereo that I've had for a few years. Even on the somewhat small speakers, the movie sounded great. I can only imagine what it would sound like on a 5.1 system. The arrows wizzing around you and from one side of the screen to the other, the clanking of knights in armour,....
All in all, I'd recommend Robin Hood : Men In Tights to any Mel Brooks fan or a fan of Robin Hood or a fan of stupid, over the top comedy/slapstick movies. If only the dvd had a commentary by anyone involved in the movie. The way my luck is, they'll come out with a ultra, superduper, maxi, mega, 2 disc special edition with several commentaries, hour long documentary, deleted scenes, in-depth video profiles of the actors, and Robin Hood themed games. That always seems to happen to me. They come out with a amazingly great special edition a few months or a year after I get what I think is a really solid version. Sometimes, though, it's really worth it to double dip a movie. Like in this case.
