Is Robin Hood the worst movie of 2018? Critics seem to think so

Just when we thought John Travolta's movie, Gotti, was a shoo-in for the worst film of the year, along comes Robin Hood.

The latest take on the classic tale stars Taron Egerton as Robin of Loxley, Jamie Foxx as Little John and features Aussies Ben Mendelsohn as the Sheriff of Nottingham and Tim Minchin as Friar Tuck.

The cast might sound impressive, but the film itself is a red hot mess according to critics.

Released in cinemas last week, Robin Hood has been universally panned and currently has a 13 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Here's what reviewers have had to say.

Rolling Stone— Peter Travers:

"The 2018 take is an origin story geared to millennials and memorable only for its gargantuan god-awfulness; seriously, how hard do you have to work to make a movie without a single redeeming feature?"

Chicago Sun-Times — Richard Roeper:

"From the often anachronistic (and terribly unfunny) dialogue to the insanely over-the-top pyrotechnics to the uneasy blending of practical effects and CGI to the unfortunately overwrought performances to the unintentionally funny plot twists, Robin Hood has all the ingredients of a serious contender for Worst Movie of the Year."

Washington Post — Michael O'Sullivan:

"'This is not gonna end well,' says our hero's sidekick, Friar Tuck (Tim Minchin), early in the film.

"Tuck's prediction turns out to be not only a prophetic review of the film's tedious and bloated plot, which involves collusion between the evil Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn), a larcenous Roman Catholic cardinal (F. Murray Abraham) and unnamed Arabs, but the first of many gratingly anachronistic lines of dialogue."

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The Daily Beast — Kevin Fallon:

"What's confusing is why, despite a decades-long history of not a single one of these movies getting good reviews, this is the tale that keeps getting rebooted time and time again. Outside of Errol Flynn's and the cherished Disney animated musical, the only legitimately good Robin Hood movie is the one that literally makes fun of Robin Hood movies: Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men In Tights."

IndieWire — David Ehrlich:

"Brace yourselves for an 'edgy,' modern (but not modernised) retelling of a really old myth that opens with a voiceover instructing viewers to 'Forget history, forget what you believe, forget what you know,' before launching into a wannabe blockbuster so derivative that other directors should receive its residuals."

Den of Geek — Mike Cecchini:

"There's a similar tragedy in seeing Ben Mendelsohn as the Sheriff of Nottingham, a role that he should be perfect for, yet he's saddled with abysmal dialogue and wears a costume that looks as if he wandered into the wrong trailer during the production of Rogue One before being hurried on to the set of Robin Hood."

The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw:

"This bloated, featureless, CGI-heavy movie is not so much stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, as stealing from Guy Ritchie, Batman, Two-Face and a few others — and not giving back all that much to the audience."