Beyond Sherwood Forest (2009) starring Robin Dunne, Erica Durance, Julian Sands, Katharine Isabelle directed by Peter DeLuise Movie Review

Beyond Sherwood Forest (2009)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Robin Dunne and Erica Durance in Beyond Sherwood Forest (2009)

Robin and the Dragon Lady

As a child Robin Hood (Robin Dunne) witnessed the murder of his father at the hands of Malcolm (Julian Sands) who had been hunting a dragon which could change in to the form of a woman. Now many years later and with Robin and his bunch of merry men robbing from the rich to give to the poor he finds himself back in conflict with Malcolm who is now the Sheriff of Nottingham. But things are messy for Robin who has grown close to Maid Marian (Erica Durance) as she is supposed to marry an Austrian Prince to form an alliance between countries whilst Robin also has to deal with the return of the dragon which is now controlled by the Sheriff.

Having sat through many a Robin Hood movie the prospect of watching one which sways from the normal and introduces a girl who can mutate in to a dragon is actually quite appealing. Don't get me wrong as I still expected "Beyond Sherwood Forest" to be ultimately a poor experience with tacky CGI and staged action but the simple mutation of the familiar Robin Hood storyline was enough to make it tempting.

In the end tempting is all that "Beyond Sherwood Forest" was as whilst we have a sort of appealing cast in sort of period costume it is a dialogue heavy movie which drones on and feels a lot longer than it actually is. When it is delivering spurious amounts of exposition it struggles to keep your attention whilst the action and CGI are exactly what you expect from a made for TV fantasy movie as is the acting. In fact at times the acting combined with the dubbing is terrible and borders on the unwatchable.

What this all boils down to is that "Beyond Sherwood Forest" is a curious idea and in truth an idea which has a certain amount of potential. But the final product is everything you expect from a made for TV fantasy movie and so ends up ultimately a disappointing way to spend 90 something minutes.

Tags: Robin Hood Movies


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