After covering the final season of Robin Hood on DVD, it’ s kind of fitting that we’d get a copy of Beyond Sherwood Forest, thanks to the crew out at Anchor Bay.

And at first glance, Beyond Sherwood Forest looks like it might be the worst sort of nonsense.  It was a SyFy channel movie, after all…those very seldom go well.  And this one even more outlandish than most.  Who pitched “it’s Robin Hood, with dragons!” and actually got away with it?

That’s basically–if a bit facetiously–what we’re dealing with here.  This time, the Sheriff of Nottingham has managed to lay hands on a dragon, and not surprisingly AT ALL is using it to dispatch lifetime nemesis Robin Hood.  But this time around, Robin’s not just out stealing stuff and giving it away, he’s also out to find out the truth behind that dragon and protect his longtime love Marian from being married off (no pun intended, at least I don’t think so) as part of a political alliance.

First, I’ve always enjoyed the performances of Julian Sands, starting with the work he did in Warlock and…well…other.  He’s been in several movies, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.  Still though, I know he’s put forth a lot of great performances and it’s always good to see him show up.

Second, this is actually better than you might think it would be, especially on first examination.  I mean, come on–it’s ROBIN HOOD, with DRAGONS.  This should be the CHEESIEST thing ever conceived of by man, but it’s actually pretty good.

Oh, sure, it’s not the best thing I’ve seen lately but it’s still pretty decent.

So how do you grade a movie like this?  Well, the Screenhead Ten Scale and I have been here before, so it’s pretty easy for us to say that this one pulls down a seven out of ten.  Much better than average but nothing hugely special.  Beyond Sherwood Forest is a fun movie, and you should enjoy it, at least as a rental.