ajk77

Put off watching this for ages cringing at the idea, but the film is actually hilarious in that rather cruel French way.

The naming of the 'con' in hommage to the famous Jacques Brel role with Lino Ventura in the not dissimilar film 'L'Emmerdeur' adds to the joy. See l'Emmerdeur if you liked this.

This film proved inadvertedly funny through basic improbabilities, eg the whole Morgan Freeman role, Robin riding from Dover to Nottingham in a day, and managing to get ambushed en route at what is obviously Hadrian's wall. The UK half of the cast respond by sending up the whole thing on a grand scale, with Alan Rickman outstaging Kevin Costner so greatly that you actually hope the Sheriff will win for once.

The result is a funny film, but not the one Kevin Costner intended. See only if you are keen on Alan Rickman.

This film gives the look and feel of Elizabethan England wonderfully: the darkness of castles, the pageantry, etc. All this side was great. The costumes are perfect. Cate Blanchett looked the part wonderfully. Much of the characterisation is convincing too. And the end comes to roughly the right conclusion for completely the wrong reasons. Though the casting of Attenborough as Cecil is ludicrous. Cecil would have been late 30s at the time. BUT the plotlines along the way are infuriatingly silly and historically rubbish... Elizabeth knew Dudley was married: she attended the wedding. It was the scandalous death of Amy - widely believed to be for the purpose of marrying the Queen - that ruled out any closer relationship. Elizabeth was never going to risk her crown for love. The only time she and Dudley were anywhere near each other in Mary's reign was when both were imprisoned in the Tower. The Duke of Norfolk was protestant and his plot was to free Mary Queen of Scots twenty odd years later. ETC ETC