‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’ (PG-13)

It's hard to forecast these things, but "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" looks like big money. It has the stars, it's based on a classic (and foolproof) story and it's an exhilarating couple of hours. It fills the entertainment megabill utterly.

Like "Batman," it's an epic cartoon with humans. Also like "Batman," it has an over-the-top villain, a father-fixation and a climactic finale in a high tower. As those superlative-happy reviewers might put it, it's a quiverful of high adventure!

Firing the arrows, as you probably know, is Kevin Costner. His noble quest, of course, is to rob the rich, thoroughly annoy the Sheriff of Nottingham and carry England's torch while Richard the Lionheart's out of town. To this end he enlists a band of Merrie Men, including Little John (Nick Brimble), Friar Tuck (Micheal McShane) and Will Scarlet (Christian Slater). Along the way he falls in love with Maid Marian (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio).

Now hold it, you might say. What's the Kevster doing in Merrie Olde England? This is a guy who played a minor-league catcher, built a mythical baseball diamond and whooped it up with Indians. What's next, Roger Moore playing Davy Crockett?

To say "Hood" makes creative departures is an understatement. Notwithstanding Costner's post-Sherwood Forest accent, chances are Robin of Locksley didn't use words like "scum." Perhaps 12th-century Englishmen did utter "tosspots" and "bollocks." But if the Sheriff of Nottingham consulted regularly with a haglike witch called Mortianna, or if Hood had a Moorish buddy called Azeem, then Warner Bros. has uncovered groundbreaking history.

But fair damsels and noble sirs, you must free yourselves of these wearisome observations. This is a state-of-the-art retelling of a classic. It is also summer. Screenwriters Pen Densham and John Watson, with director Kevin Reynolds, have loaded this tale with every modern bell and whistle they can think of. On the popcorn-ready level they work on, "Hood" is a satisfying, involving entertainment.

In a spasm of reality, the cast even has Englishmen. The best of them, in fact the best thing in the entire movie, is Alan Rickman. As the plotting Sheriff, he's a hissy delight. At one point, enraged by Mr. Hood, he threatens to personally gouge the hero's heart out with a spoon. Guy of Gisborne (Michael Wincott), his incredibly dim lieutenant, asks him why. Staring daggers at him, Rickman replies, "Because it's dull, you twit! It'll hurt."

When Rickman hears Costner is robbing the rich to give to the poor, he makes three immediate dictates: no more table scraps for the poor, no more "merciful beheadings" and "Call off Christmas."

As the most obvious anachronism in the movie, Morgan Freeman makes good use of his time. He never met a movie he didn't shine in. A Saracen aristocrat whom Robin Hood has saved from jail, he owes the "Englishman" his life. So he follows Costner around England until he can pay him back.

"How did your uneducated kind ever take Jerusalem?" Freeman asks, when Costner is completely bewildered at the mystic powers of binoculars.

Naturally the movie will not rest until Robin and Marian get it together, and Costner's buns (or stunt versions thereof) are revealed. Also, it saves a big casting surprise for last. Of course Freeman won't get to pay Costner back until that time.

But during the action-packed finale, in which the Sheriff drags Mastrantonio away to a tower, what's with Kevin? He runs to the foot of the building, looks quizzically at a soldier and says, "Where is she?"

In a movie like this, he had to ask?