Review: This ain't Errol Flynn's 'Robin Hood'

(CNN) -- The second Australian to play England's most famous outlaw, Russell Crowe might seem unlikely casting. But when you consider that in the 1930s Warner Bros. tapped James Cagney for the part -- until the star walked out in search of an improved deal -- Crowe doesn't seem like such a stretch. He's an improvement on Kevin Costner, surely?
With his graying beard and an accent that sometimes ranges a little too far towards Tyneside, Crowe is beginning to resemble his director, Ridley Scott. This is their fifth film together. With its mixture of manly adventure, populist rhetoric and a digitally enhanced historical canvas, it is evidently meant to capitalize on their biggest success, "Gladiator," (though Cate Blanchett's Marian seems to think she's doing "Thelma and Louise").

A legendary, rather than historical figure, Robin is fair game for revisionists, though audiences may be surprised at how freely Scott and screenwriter Brian Helgeland have strayed. For a start, he's not Robin of Loxley at all, but plain Robin Longstride, a yeoman archer who returns from the Crusades bloodied but unbowed, clutching the dead King Richard's crown to his chest. He agrees to play the murdered Loxley at the request of his father (Max von Sydow) to prevent the widow, Marian, from forfeiting their estate to King John (Oscar Isaac).