User Reviews

Beyond Sherwood Forest is set during the year 1174 in England as King Richard is way fighting the Crusade, his brother Prince John (David Richmond-Peck) has been left in charge. In order to further international diplomatic relations with Norway the beautiful young Maid Marian (Erica Durance) is to be married of to some Prince, an idea on which Marian is not keen & runs away deep into Sherwood Forest where legendary thief Robin Hood (Robin Dunne) lives with his men who steal from the rich to give to the poor. Prince John is annoyed on both counts & orders Malcolm (Julian Sands) the Sheriff of Nottingham to find & hang Hood in a public display of power, Malcolm uses a cursed girl who can change into a ferocious Dragon to find Hood. Robin sets out on a quest to the Dark Woods to find a cure for the girl & stop her turning into a Dragon while trying to protect his friends & Maid Marian...

Also known under the title Robin Hood: Beyond Sherwood (I saw it under that title) this Canadian production was directed by Peter DeLuise & is watchable Sci-Fi Channel fare but ultimately not that good. The biggest draw about Beyond Sherwood Forest is that it features the fictional British outlaw Robin Hood & gives the story a Lord of the Rings make over with Wizards, Dark Woods (so-called because they are woods & they are always dark...) & a huge Dragon. This whole film is fantasy, Robin Hood is as much fiction as any Dragon in any film & why the character of Robin was used her is a mystery, even more so considering the title was changed to Beyond Sherwood Forest & makes no mention of Robin Hood. At 90 odd minutes it feels longer, there's not much going on here & there's the typical romance between Robin & Marian, there's the bad guy, there's a few sword fights, a few arrows are fired & not that much else happens really. It's all rather bland & forgettable, it's watchable in a silly way but nothing that will stay with you for long. The mixing of adventure & fantasy has no real balance, Robin is seen stealing some money at the start but then doesn't again during the film while the Dragon seems rather random & doesn't quite sit that well alongside Robin Hood. At the end the bad guy is defeated & there's a happy ending for everyone as expected. This is maybe slightly better than the average Sci-Fi Channel creature feature but not by much.

The one thing tat did impress me about Beyond Sherwood Forest were the CGI computer effects, Sci-Fi Channel films are notorious for their awful CGI but the Dragon & growling Wolves effects are rather good all things considered. The fight scenes are bland as are the fantasy elements overall, there's just nothing here we haven't seen before & the novelty of Robin Hood appearing alongside a Dragon can only go so far before it becomes old. There's a few splashes of blood as the Dragon slashes a couple of people & rips one in half along with a ripped out heart but otherwise there's no gore here.

Filmed in Canada one forest looks much like another so it not being shot in England isn't a major problem although some of the accents are poor. I didn't recognise anyone in the cast myself apart from Julian Sands who is slumming it here.

Beyond Sherwood Forest is an OK time waster that has the gimmick of pairing notorious outlaw Robin Hood with Dragons, I've seen worse but I've seen better as well.

This is better than an OK Sci Fi Channel flick. The basic story line is interestingly different, and the CGI dragon is awesome, repeatedly transforming into a naked chick (actress name not listed). Unfortunately for the male audience, since this is "for TV" fare, we have to use our imagination re: the nudity. Another "unfortunate" is casting Robin Dunne (Dr. Will Zimmerman of "Sanctuary") as Robin Hood. Name association is all this bad idea has going for it. Dunne does not look, act nor sound "heroic." Alan Ladd was short, but at least he had a voice. Julian Sands makes a serviceable sheriff -- Alan Rickman he ain't, but he'll do. Richard de Klerk as Will Scarlett and (another unlisted) as Little John both do well.

But there are some notable plot flops. Both good guys and bad guys often have bad guys and good guys at "ropes end" and seldom do anything about it. Robin, despite his rep, apparently can't hit the broad side of a barn with an arrow -- and maybe that's why he seldom tries. He is forever notching an arrow and bending his bow, but there is seldom any release (there may be an embedded gag here). When he does release (rarely) the arrow becomes an error and never hits its target. Near the end when Robin and his Merry Men are at swords point with the sheriff's posse, there are a couple of hangers-on with loaded crossbows standing around, just standing around. Shoot somebody for goodness sakes. Malcolm, the Sheriff of Nottingham, has his sword at Robin's throat for what seems like ages, but never makes the cut. Bad directing and/or scripting, I guess.

What this movie does have going for it is Erica Durance (Lois Lane of "Smallville") as Maid Marian. She's not much of an actress, and her "English" accent, amusingly, comes and goes like the tide, but she gets more beautiful every time we see her. Lovely, lovely to look at. (Did the Sheriff rape her or not?)

I watched this movie for about thirty minutes and had to change the channel. Calling this movie Robin Hood with a dragon is being nice. I have seen bad movies, but this is one of the worst. Perhaps the best part of this movie was the fact that Maid Marion was a strong, independent woman instead of being a helpless damsel in distress. I did not understand the point of putting a shape-shifting dragon in the movie. Robin Hood was a good enough story without the monster. I also did not understand why they made Robin Hood a lousy archer. The whole point is that Robin Hood is supposed to be the world's best archer. Perhaps this movie would be a good cure for insomnia, but I'm not willing to watch it long enough to find out. Too bad "1" is the lowest rating you can give a movie in these reviews, because this movies deserves a much lower review than that. Do not waste your time with this movie. If you can't find anything better on television, read a book.

When it comes to SyFy even a half-baked idea is better than you'll usually get. So we have Beyond Sherwood, Robin Hood vs. Dragons. Robin, Little John, The Sheriff of Nottingham, Maid Marion, Friar Tuck, and Prince John, all well known characters so we're spared a lot of back story. Somewhere along the way, the Evil Sheriff captured a shape changing Dragon who turns into the girl from Ginger Snaps during the night. He decides to sic it on that pesky Robin Hood finally so that he can usurp Prince John and take over the throne, at least, I think that's what the plot was, it IS a SyFy channel flick. The cast knows their lines, the costumes and sets are pretty cool, and the monster CGI is definitely top of the heap for SyFy. My only problem is when the monster finally does intersect with the characters, we're given this plodding sort of back story about the Tree Keepers or somesuch who live behind a Stargate in the middle of the woods that oddly enough no one has stumbled across before. Can't it just be enough that the Sheriff sics a dragon on Robin Hood? All in all the life story of the monster isn't that important. No need to make it sympathetic. Were we sympathetic for Super Gator, or Mega Shark??? Also, the medieval peasantry seems to take dragon attacks in stride. I'd have liked a little more shock from the Merrymen when a freakin' monster drops outta the sky in their midst and takes a chunk outta Friar Tuck. However, if you're at home on Saturday and flipping channels with nothing to do, there are worse ways to spend a couple hours.

Okay, so it's an awful script, poor acting, strange scene changes, bad dialog, and mildly amusing special effects, it was still worth the watch, if only to see how badly done a King Richard's subject could be handled. Agree with all former reviews, but I for one am thankful someone thinks Robin should be updated here. (even if it is to poor fantasy). The robbing the rich to give to the poor is not stated much here, but Robin's chivalry towards Marion is refreshing, (no leering sexual innuendos or sexy talk here), and the poor afflicted dragon-lady does her best to suffer through her malady. Julian Sands over acts and looks too remorseful all the time (maybe about his contract?), Robin Dunne is poorly cast as he appears more ready for 21 Jump Street his director already did. There's nothing wrong with poor, bland, baseless, badly written stories.. do better yourself and sell it. We're dealing with a good idea gone bad here, must've been some political/financial reason behind the attempt. Don't care to know. Still besides Erroll Flynn, Richard Greene, and Kevin Costner, what did you expect from a fresh face and story? Good thing we didn't have to pay at a movie house. I enjoyed microwave popcorn and a moment to relax in fantasy and adventure, albeit little of either...

First off, it was a TV movie so I am easier on it than I would be if this had been a movie movie. Acting was bad among a lot of the cast. Robin as a boy was horrid. His father was horrid. I didn't like how Will Scarlet was portrayed. He wasn't bad acting just his character didn't fit his history. The guy whom portrayed Little John needs to go back to school. That was horrid. Prince John's character was different but interesting, Marian, Robin Hood, and Sheriff and the Dragon/Elena were not badly casted and tried to save a interesting plot with horrible dialogue. Some scenes were bad with those actors. Robin Dunne when he yelled Tuck! was just bad and after he gets stabbed in the shoulder. Now better dialogue may have changed these scenes as perhaps those lines would have been changed. I was impressed Robin Dunne's accent though. A better sub cast, better script with better dialogue and perhaps longer, would have possibly made this a better TV movie. Nonetheless it was not as bad as they say but anybody whom says the movie was excellent needs to see more movies.