If your swash is in need of buckling this fine spring morn, have we got a treat for you. Rid 'n' Russ' medieval epic Robin Hood, their fifth collaboration and the - count 'em - 22nd cinematic take on the outlaw of legend - is galloping towards our screens, and there are three new clips to give a flavour of what to expect.
By the looks of things, a lot less of the 'dark and gritty' and a lot more of the 'fun and knowing'. There's enough self-awareness, wit and vibrancy about the clips to reassure anyone fearing the Ridley Scott take of the Sherwood legend would disappear up its own leather jerkin. There's badinage aplenty too. Particularly in this scene from Moviefone showing Robin and Cate Blanchett's Maid Marion verbally jousting as the pair resort to reluctant subterfuge to confuse the servants.
The second clip from Yahoo Movies! shows Robin and the English yeomanry eschewing protracted negotiation and Trojan Rabbits to storm a French castle the old fashion way. With exploding luggage.
Lastly, courtesy of MSN Movies, there's a helping of Merry Men, complete with Friar Tuck wielding twin crossbows like a portly, Bible-reading Terminator. Unsurprisingly, Robin and his men have the robbing-from-the-rich-giving-to-the-poor schtick down to a fine art, aided and abetted by a handy Sherwood mist.
**Robin Hood **will open the Cannes film festival on May 12, with a UK release on the same day.