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Movie Buzz : Robin Hood

Robin Hood – You would imagine a hero who struts his stuff in green tights,  leaps around with his bow and arrows, robbing the riches for the poor, being cheeky and witty in his speech….Or at least I strolled into the cinema thinking of that ! Will talk about it later but straight to the film first.

Beautiful settings with vast halls, huge castles, deep wandering forest with a great eye for lighting. Robin Hood is your typical film in historical times, think ‘King Arthur’ or ‘Joan of Arc’ with more combat and of course the rain of arrows during those scenes.

Russell Crowe is without a doubt one of the sexiest man around and very suitable for the role, but there were moments when the ‘Gladiator’ side of him surfaces. I find his sidekicks alil more entertaining and they actually reflected the more lively side of Robin Hood’s story with the leaping around etc. Russell Crowe is probably the most serious Robin Hood I’d imagine…he could have passed off as Spartan with more clothes on.

In summary, we see the history of Robin Hood BEFORE he was actually ‘Robin Hood’. It was more like the history lesson of how he became Robin Hood whereby he must push across the countryside to settle score between the King of England and King of France, meet up with comrades, and eventually restore order in the country while discovering his own past. If you’re not a fan of history, you’ll be bored to death. To me, it was just way too draggy – to think it was just a 141 minutes film..I almost thought I sat there for 4 hours !

So back to the story of how my friend and I were questioning nonstop during the movie – ”where is the climax ?’, ‘ Ithink we’re not even half way through the movie !’, ‘ Why is Robin Hood holding a hammer (or whatever that’s called) instead of bow and arrows ?’ – mainly because the images on our minds were based on the cartoon version of Robin Hood that we grew up with. It was until the end of the movie then we realized the words on the top left corner of the banner that says ‘The Untold Story Of The Man Behind The Legend.’  Silly us.

From the movie we had several conclusions :

1) Englishman are really horny bastards.

2) Robin Hood steals basically everything right from the start, mainly from the dead – the horse, his attire, his wife.

3) Everyone (the characters) wants sex in the film but never get to the action so that the film can be rated PG.

Robin Hood breaks zero new ground in terms of film in my opinion but it certainly provides a good back story to Robin Hood 2 (if any, I’m guessing yes).  If you have a couple of hours to kill, this is entertainment but don’t expect your heart to be stolen by Robin Hood.

I’ll give it a 2.5/5.  But the ending credits is worth staying for, stunning graphics so for that I’ll give another 0.5 !

Tags: cartoon, england, france, gladiator, historical settings, history, joan of arc, king, king arthur, legend, ow and arrows, robin hood, russell crowe, spartan, the untold story of the man behind the legend

Bravo,Christian Lacroix the Costumier !

Ping, the boyfriend and I headed over to the National Museum of Singapore to check out the Christian Lacroix the Costumier exhibition.  The museum was rather empty, probably due to the H1N1 outbreak or the fact that the museum closes at 6pm. We got our complimentary tickets at around 5.30pm (on the dot for last entry) and we had the whole exhibition hall to ourselves !

I was really looking forward to immerse myself in this whole charming French fashion history – the amazing costumes and sketches by the genius designer Christian Lacroix (which the boyfriend laughed and called me a “Fake French” because I have no idea how to pronounce his last name properly. haha)  The exhibition was alot smaller than I imagined it would be but the decor sets the mood and I have to admit (randomly) that I really liked the chairs in that display hall. I wish I have one of those at home ! If I’m not wrong, the museum decorated the display to look as though you’re in a theatre blackbox with the red lighting and moving mannequins.

Design wise, you will definitely be impressed by the details and depth of his work. His sketches were stunning to begin with and I love his dramatic use of color and fabric. In case you have no idea, he first began with ready-to-wear designs to the displays you see in National Museum which are his works for operas, theatre and dance.  For example, you will probably know “Carmen” and Shakespeare’s “Othello”. I think it is quite a rare opportunity for Singaporeans to be in touch with this aspect of the Arts since Opera is not a very “hip” thing in town.

It was quite spectacular if you enjoy fashion or you’re someone like me, who thinks “anything French is awesome” (HAHA). I had fun at the hands-on area where the museum provided paper (of really good quality, to my surprise) for sketches and paper dolls for dress-up games. There are 4 wooden dolls for you to place fabric over and create your own masterpieces as well ! The boyfriend and I had a go at it and there’s a reason why we’re both from a management university ! (hur)

So what do you think ? Who do you think have a better sense of fashion (HAHA) ! If you think you can do a better job, go down to the gallery and snap a picture of your magnificent costume for me to see ! 

This gotta be one of the biggest fashion event of the year, so don’t miss it ! The ticket is priced at $8 but you get to enter FREE if you’re wearing RED from 9-10th May !

Tags: arts, blackbox, carmen, christian lacroix, costumes, costumier, dance, Design, designer, fashion, france, french, national museum, national museum of singapore, opera, othello, singapore, sketches, theatre