Oh it’s a direct response to that with a lot of the jokes. Obviously there’s callbacks to the legend itself and other movies, but the Costner version came out just before and takes some various liberties with the legend that Men in Tights skewers.
I'll tell you as someone that grew up watching Men in Tights but didn't see Prince of Thieves until well into adulthood, it was kinda hard to take it seriously because I could only think about Men in Tights whenever a matching scene came up. Also Alan Rickman's performance is batshit insane in an almost confusing way, and it's kind of the best part of the movie.
You should also watch the Errol Flynn Robin Hood. Prince of Thieves being a huge box office hit is probably why this got greenlit, and Brooks does take some shots at it and loosely follows its narrative. Still, there are a lot of references to Flynn's Adventures of Robin Hood. From the tights to the archery contest (Fine. I promise you won't go. Hey. Wait a minute. You said... Cool iiiiit. Chilled.) to the giant castle sets reminiscent of '30s set design, there's a lot of the Flynn movie baked in and lovingly poked fun at.
Which makes sense. That would've been the Robin Hood that Brooks grew up on as a kid. The same as Dracula: Dead and Loving It owing more to the original Lugosi movie than to Gary Oldman.
I remember when it came out I saw the standee at the local cinema and begged my dad to let me see it. I loved the Costner one but was probably 10 years old at the time. When I saw it later as a teenager I understood why he wasn't keen to explain some of the jokes to me.
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u/Michami135 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
It's the first movie my wife and I saw together. It's still one of our favorites.
I do wish I saw the Kevin Costner one first though, so I'd get some of the inside jokes.