Robin Hood – JenEric Designs

The Court Jester – JenEric Movie Review

March 31, 2022 by Éric Desmarais

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 1955 film The Court Jester.

Story

The story is quite clever and a lot of the humour is based on it being an amalgam of all the constant Robin Hood remakes; something that hasn’t changed much since this movie came out.

The romance is acceptable but contrived and the pacing is a little off in many places.

Score: 0.5

Characters

Most of the characters are well done. The stereotype use of Little People with ridiculously high voices is annoying, but very much a product of its time.

Despite having a woman who is supposed to be a fighter, Jean is pretty useless in the final fight.

I would have liked to see more than a few seconds at the end dedicated to the princess and Griswold’s love story.

And I’ll be honest, I’m still bitter about poor Fergus. He deserved more.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

Both the language and the delivery of this movie is amazing. “Get it, Got it, Good” is a staple in our house.

The Jester’s monologue song The Maladjusted Jester, along with all the wordplay, cement this as one of the cleverest movies of it’s type.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

The movie is simple and has some nice visuals, but nothing spectacular. It shows that it was a comedy and not given the budget of a bigger movie. That said, they use it quite well and the sets are nice, the fight scenes amazing, and the choreography fantastic.

I truly appreciate the use of colour in the clothing which was probably done more for the fact that it was a comedy, but is more authentic.

The film score is fun and interesting, but the songs are great.

Score: 1

Fun

I saw this movie with my wife on our second or third date. It’s been a staple in our house for nearly two decades. I love watching this and hearing her laugh.

The kids had a little harder a time sitting still, probably because the dialogue was more elevated and quick on top of the pacing issues I mentioned.

Score: 1

Overall

Despite this movie being dated, especially by it’s treatment of woman and Little People, it is extremely clever, witty, and downright hilarious. A classic of musical comedies and parodies.

Final Score: 4 Stars out of 5

Man in Tights

May 17, 2019 by Jen Desmarais

He’s a man…man in tights! The rest of the group is often seen with him, but I guess they weren’t here for this picture.

And this officially ends the OCC 2018 pictures. Stay tuned in a few weeks for OCC 2019!

Why I’m ok with Reboots and Remakes

January 28, 2015 by Éric Desmarais

From Ghostbusters to Fantastic Four this week, we’ve seen plenty of trailers and announcements for Reboots or Remakes.

Definitions

A Remake, if you don’t know, is a new version of the same story. It includes the same characters and often the same plot. Robin Hood and A Christmas Carol are probably two of the most remade stories as movies.

A Reboot/Reimagining keeps the general idea of the original but changes it and moves things around. A reboot would be for a series while a reimagining would be for a standalone movie.

Think of Mickey’s Christmas Carol as a Remake and Scrooged as a Reimagining.

Nothing New

It would seem that Hollywood has run out of ideas and that they are literally ripping stories from books or just remaking the same movies over and over again. It may even seem like this is a new phenomenon.

It isn’t. The Book Captain Blood published in 1922 was made into a movie in 1924, remade in 1935 with Errol Flynn, and then remade another 4 times before 1991. I guess it’s due.

If that isn’t enough of an example let’s go back to Robin Hood. The story is based off of 15^th century ballads and was first written into a book in 1819 by Walter Scott. There have been, according to Wikipedia, 35+ books based off the legend and ballads.

From 1939 to 2013 there have been 67 versions of Robin Hood with at least one confirmed new version coming up.

Taking inspiration from myth’s, plays, and legends is a standard practice in any storytelling medium. Any writer who says they’ve written something completely original is lying.

Why’s it ok

Stories are ways for each of us to think about and see the world differently. There are stories that will always be iconic and why bother trying to dress up your sci-fi “Thief with a heart of gold that steals from the rich and gives to the poor” when you just call it Robin Hood in the 28^th century.

Movies, and to a lesser extent books, are the myths that we tell each other. They are this century’s and the lasts way of exploring what it is to be alive and what it is to be a storyteller.

Whether your childhood Superman is from Action Comics, cartoons, George Reeves, Christopher Reeves, Dean Cain, Brandon Ruth, Tom Welling, Henry Cavill or Kirk Alyn. Having a new version doesn’t lessen the impact it had on you as a child.

I don’t know the percentage but for every crappy Remake/Reboot/Reimagining there is a chance for a great one.

That chance and hope of seeing something you love done well is worth the innumerable bad versions.

Doctor Who

Remember that the longest running Science Fiction show has 813 episodes over 61 years.

A big part of that is due to its ability to regenerate itself every few years.

What Reboot, Reimagining, Remake, Sequel, or Spinoff are you must looking forward to?

Éric