ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS

ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS (Directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, Roger Rees, Amy Yasbeck)

The most interesting thing about Men In Tights (the film, as opposed to the subject of men wearing tights, which is another matter altogether) is that this is the movie at the centre of the Michael Jackson paedophilia allegations.

It came from an idea by young Jordan Chandler, whose father, the dentist, co-wrote the script and got himself a production credit, firing up his ambitions to make it in the movies and tap Mikey for a bit of start-up cash (or, at least, that’s Jackson’s story). For all the good it’s done him. In a PR exercise of Stalinist dimensions, Evan and his son have been entirely excised from the press packages, leaving blank pages and mysterious missing sentences.

I guess there’s not much room for sexual abuse in a comedy. Although with Mel Brooks at the helm, you never know. This is more of the usual: a string of gags of wildly varying quality strung around a satire of a popular hit film, just a few years too late to be described as biting.

Mel pioneered the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker Airplane style of comedy, wherein you toss every bit of shit you can dream up at the screen and hope some of it will stick But his targets tend to be too specific, a movie rather than a genre. An intimate knowledge with Prince Of Thieves is probably essential for enjoyment of Men In Tights.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I have that knowledge, since my kids own the video and subject the household to it at regular intervals. So when Cary Elwes boasted that his credentials for leading the people included a real English accent, I must confess I laughed. But I can’t say I’m proud of it.