Crowe plays Robin Longstride, a grizzled veteran archer returning with Marcus Aurelius–sorry, that’s Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston)–after many long years shooting flaming arrows in Germania–I mean the Crusades. Just as their last battle seems won, the Emperor–King, sorry–dies, leaving Crowe a task to complete in the hope of uniting Rome–er, England–but this plan is foiled by Richard’s inexperienced younger brother Commodus–oops, I meant John–who raises taxes on the realm to pay off his predecessor’s war debts. Meanwhile, Robin has assumed the identity of Richard’s fallen lieutenant, Robert Loxley, and travels to Nottingham to return the Loxley family’s sword to Robert’s father (Max von Sydow) and widow Marian (Cate Blanchett). Predictably, he finds the new King’s tax policies a little too severe, and employs a few tactics of dubious legality to redistribute the wealth.

Frankly, this is probably the worst-shot of any of Ridley Scott’s films I can remember. It has too many jittery cuts and bizarre fast zooms. Mark Strong‘s villainous (half-French) Godfrey seems to have gotten some tips from Von Sydow on set on how to play his part as if he were Ming the Merciless. The actual Sheriff of Nottingham, played by Matthew Macfadyen, only gets 3 or 4 lines. The best thing in the movie is easily Blanchett, who feels like the most genuine character in the piece. Her scenes with Crowe have a nice screwball charm to them. In fact, the quieter middle section is the highlight of the film, offering an almost heady glimpse into the agriculture and cottage industries of the Middle Ages. It’s actually rather refreshing to see an action hero planting seeds in a field, an activity probably less familiar to much of today’s audience than, say, archery. At least one part of this film diverges from the popular cinematic notion that human history was just a blur of arrows and impalements. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Adventure/Drama

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 9/21/10

Based on a six-hour British miniseries from 1985, it sees Gibson sporting a Beantown accent as a veteran Boston cop doggedly investigating how the nefarious government-related activities of a major corporation led to his activist daughter (Bojana Novakovic) being murdered right in front of him.

Where the original obviously had more time to develop the characters and such, this one has to make do with two hours. As it is, Gibson’s great at grieving, be it cradling his daughter’s dead body, or forcefully telling a coroner to leave said body alone. Or responding to his dead daughter’s voice telling him he needs to go on. In the film’s most touching scene he remembers showing her how to shave.

Further helping matters is burly Brit Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) who, as a shadowy-but-principled government agent working for the bad guys, expertly exudes intelligent menace. His tense tête-à-têtes with Gibson represent the film’s high points, one of which ends with Gibson telling the assassin, “Thanks for not killing me.”

Unfortunately, the plot suffers by being so streamlined. The original’s probably tried to say something about government injustices, but this one’s is just a tad ridiculous, replete with a slightly psycho corporate baddie (Danny Huston), stereotypically slimy politicians and references to radiation. Not to mention Gibson seemingly being given carte blanche to rough people up for information.

Thankfully, director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale), a true action expert who also helmed the miniseries, nails what little action there is–like Gibson fighting his dead kid’s frightened boyfriend, or Gibson smoothly maneuvering through traffic as he chases Huston–and gives us lots of blood to boot. People get shot in the legs, head, chest and one gets rammed by a car.

A car which Gibson takes out in excellent and exciting fashion. He shoots the driver dead, shoots out the tires so the car doesn’t hit him and then watches it flip over and slam into a raging river. Suffice it to say Gibson with a gun is a good thing here. Together they give this leisurely thriller some edge. – [DVD]

Drama/Thriller

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 5/11/10

A prequel pic, it explains how the mutton-chopped speed-healer’s involvement with his like-powered brother (Liev Schreiber) and one Colonel Stryker (Danny Huston here; Brian Cox in X-Men 2) in creating the ultimate mutant weapon made him into the metal-clawed mutant we know today.

What’s missing here is the intelligence and directorial finesse of the first two installments, not to mention the free-for-all fun of the third, and to compensate director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) amps up everything–themes, emotions, explosions, Jackman’s muscles–to grandiose proportions. You’d think it all would move faster, too, but it actually kind of lumbers along.

I’ve also heard about complaints that the film disregards its predecessors. I don’t think that’s exactly true, and we’re even treated to the youthful appearance of a couple of familiar characters we get to know later on. I will, however, gripe a little about why anything that happens here matters in the least, since the title character ultimately remembers none of it.

Nonetheless, Jackman still owns the part, imbuing it with the same sort of macho man bravado and muscularity that continues to make the character the best reason to watch any of these movies. In playing the sibling who prefers to kill first and ask questions later, the talented Schreiber (Defiance) nearly matches Jackman in the bitter anger department, and so their face-offs carry a bit of weight.

They’re certainly more interesting than the supporting cast, including Huston’s bland military man villain and the various mutants played by Ryan Reynolds, Dominic Monaghan (TV’s Lost) and Taylor Kitsch (TV’s Friday Night Lights). Lynn Collins, as Jackman’s love interest, and Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am, as a mutant who can teleport, are notable exceptions.

But I did enjoy watching the mutants use their abilities. One guy’s a blazingly fast quick-draw, Reynolds can twirl swords like propellers and another guy merely sticks his fist in the business end of a tank as it fires and the thing blows up. The only downside is that we really only get to see them use their powers during big displays of action and not in smaller, throw-away moments like in the first film.

No matter, because the action stuff here really rocks. Watch Jackman tear out of a barn on a motorcycle just as the building gets obliterated, and then get chased by a helicopter before acquiring a pursuing Humvee whose subsequent destruction, in the film’s coolest shot, catapults him up and on to said chopper, which he then takes down. A little later he strolls away from it as it erupts into a fireball.

Topping that is Jackman and Schreiber’s climactic showdown with said mutant weapon on top of a cooling tower at Three Mile Island. It’s a visually fun, super-duper scuffle in which the camera swirls around the heroes as they battle the multi-powered humanoid and the tower ends up demolished.

In the end I guess I wish screenwriters David Benioff and Skip Woods had injected more humor into the thing, a scene in which Jackman slices a bathroom sink in half notwithstanding, and a British sage á la Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellan would have helped balance out all the brooding. But the film is what it is–a $150 million infomercial about the many uses of indestructible metal claws. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Thriller

PG-13

DVD Release Date: 9/15/09