Black Knight | | Cast : | Martin Lawrence, Marsha Thomason | | Director : | Gil Junger | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | November 21, 2001 | | DVD Released Date : | September 02, 2003 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | March 23, 2005 | | Summary | Screw Lord Of The Rings! This is better | Content
 | Hey if you want a great mid-evil era movie, then this one is it. Its funny, fast-paced, and enjoyable. Martin Lawrence once again shows us how funny he is with his trash talk against the knight who wants him dead and with his goof ball antics back in a time period way before his. Anyone who prefers Lord Of The Rings over this obviously got brain washed by a sour puss like Roger Ebert. This is a comedy classic. Truly another gem in Martin Lawrence's career! |
| Rating | | | Date | January 08, 2005 | | Summary | Even Lawrence couldn't save this movie and he's a comedian | Content
| I was afraid of this movie. I was truly frightened out of my boots. You know why? Because of the premise. Imagine the premise of a modern day man in medieval times. How would that work? I already fear the possibility of a corny incident and I was not let down. You know how the main character got into medieval times? Through a magical necklace. Wow, huh?
Yup, people, that is the beginning of the movie. The movie stars Martin Lawrence as a man named Jamal. He works at this place called "Medieval World" and they are about to receive competition in the form of "CastleWorld". Jamal doesn't really care and believes the boss should just cash out, but his boss doesn't feel the same. She is disappointed, but Jamal doesn't care. Later on, as he is cleaning, he saw a strange necklace in the moat and as he tried to get it, it sucked him in. That begins our magical adventure and it is quite possibly the corniest modern day beginning ever. That can fly with the Wizard of Oz because it is a classic and it was made long ago, but that plot doesn't fly today. As a matter of fact, I may have disgraced the name of "The Wizard of Oz" by mentioning it in the same sentence as Black Knight.
Anyway, after being sucked in, our hero finds himself in medieval times. The movie wasted no time in teaching me that medieval citizens of England spoke modern English quite well by showing Jamal speaking with a citizen perfectly. The guy also ends up dying, but he then wakes up a moment later, and keep in mind that Jamal just finished making a whole scene about the guy not breathing. Later on, he travels around and finally arrives in a village. There, he sees as castle and believes it is the new amusement park, "CastleWorld". Jamal is quite perceptive, isn't he? If I had landed in a place where there is no city or road around, but only a bunch of people dressed in rags, I would guess it is an amusement park too. So after arriving at the castle and informing the guards that he is from Florence and Normandie (which they mistake for Normandy), he is let in. Thus Jamal's adventure begins and we will be introduced to medieval times at the highest possible accuracy, such as how politically correct people were in those times.
Seriously, though, this movie simply has way too many flaws, even for a Martin Lawrence movie. I am watching this after Lawrence's other movie "Nothing To Lose" and I am finding that this movie is actually worse than the other. Unlike other comedies based in medieval times, this movie lacks comedy. Other movies do it by an almost extreme form of exaggeration, but this movie seems like it's aiming for some sort of moderate accuracy, which it fails in every way. If you had ever read a book based in medieval times by an accredited author, then be prepared to shake your head at this movie on every turn. You don't believe me? At many points in this movie, the seventh chambermaid of the king (Victoria) speaks in a way resembling a "feminist". Can you possibly imagine a feminist in that kind of setting? If you can, you're an idiot.
Anyway, needless to say, one of the main problem of a movie like this is inaccuracy. With the feminist scene mentioned above, one of the girls with Victoria asked if she is infected with the plague (i.e. bubonic plague), but the plague did not appear in Europe until 1347, yet Victoria will say later on that the date is 1328. Now you're probably thinking that I'm too nitpicky, but it happens ALL the time in this movie. Hell, you don't even need to know about the medieval age to tell when something inaccurate pops up. It also doesn't help when Martin Lawrence flashes his ass at me in some kind of strange position in preparation for sex. I can tolerate Tom Hanks' ass, I can tolerate Keanu Revees' ass (if you watched the Matrix, you probably tolerated it too), and I can tolerate Leo DiCaprio's ass, but I would rather be pleased NOT to see Lawrence's ass.
Returning back to the several anachronisms, Jamal also somehow managed to get new modern clothing (I'm not sure how) and he also attempted to introduced a fast food center. The problem with this is that there are no machinations designed to make fast food in the medieval period, so how did his design work internally? Didn't Jamal go to a place called school? Why in the blue hell did he think he could introduce a fast food place there?
Moving away from this kind of problems, we come to a new set of problems. What is wrong is that the laughs come rarely, if ever at all. For me, it came sometimes, but not often enough for my taste. What is wrong is that the movie tries to play off situational comedy and it fails miserably. The situational comedy consists of the usual, people being kicked around, Jamal introducing modern culture to the king, him also making a complete ass of himself, etc etc. One of these situations includes him trying to pass himself off as a sorcerer by showing everyone fire through a lighter. For some reason, Jamal thought fire wasn't around despite him being in rooms where there were fireplaces and, for some reason, no one seemed to think it was strange that Jamal was using a modern day lighter. Right after this, they show a scene where the executioner is choking on an apple. Apparently, no one ever saw another person choking before because they all thought Jamal casted a spell on him. Yeah, ha ha.
Anyway, it seems like this movie tries to play too much off the situational comedy and it lacks intelligent comedy. As much as I like laughing at the stupidity of some guy, I would prefer it if all the comedy was based solely on his stupidity because it's simply too unrealistic. When you're not asking yourself "what", "how", or "why", you'll find yourself hoping for something to make you laugh. When that something does appear (if it does at all), then you'll find yourself treasuring it as if it was your last. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 08, 2005 | | Summary | That's why you shouldn't drink your own urine. | Content
| I cannot stress the fact that this film has been overplayed and recycled through Hollywood more times that I can count. While I have read some reviews that claim that this is one of Lawrence's more creative roles yet, I can only laugh and gag simultaneously at these words. Lawrence was a major contributor to the downfall of this film. He provided no character analysis, no development, and definitely no humor to the entire story. It was as if we were watching a dress rehearsal in progress before the final script arrived with all of Lawrence's funny bits. From the quick introduction at the beginning of the film (a mere 7 minutes of character introduction), until the incoherent ending that was trying to monopolize on the popularity of Gladiator, we never see Lawrence's character of "Jamal" or "Skywalker" (depending on the care of the actors) emerge from the film. This was merely Martin Lawrence cashing in on his already overplayed self, stretching no further than his comfortable limits and never exerting anything "fresh". He has fallen into the cracks of the Hollywood recycling bin and Black Knight reinforces that idea.
Sadly, Lawrence isn't backed up with any better acting or story. Tom Wilkinson has done some amazing films during his career, but apparently was looking to buy a new car with this film. It required no "real" acting from him, just sloppy drunkenness with cliched moments near the end that could have been pulled from any other film like this one. I think that was my major problem with this film (beside the lackluster Lawrence) was the story. There wasn't any. It felt like we were forced from the beginning to all of our different places and events just to fill time. There wasn't any redeeming value from the story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that whomever wrote this screenplay may have...gasp...plagiarized from nearly every other film like this one out there. The structure was nothing new, the formula literally had dust on it, and nobody seemed to care. Lawrence obviously didn't from the performance that he gave, but I expected more from Mr. Wilkinson who has impressed me in the past. This was not the best showcase for his talent, or for anyone's talent to say the least. We must always remember that it begins with a story, and if it doesn't sound good on paper than it isn't going to translate well onto the screen. This is a rule to live by for everyone involved with the Black Knight debacle.
Finally, I normally don't mention this in my reviews, but with this film it just stood out more than any other that I have seen, but the production of this film was horrible. The costumes, the sets, and even the way the shots were framed seemed "cheap" in so many ways. The costumes are the first that come to mind because Lawrence always seemed like he was wearing something that was made with haste. How could he have quickly made this garment in the time that he was in this land? Who knows, but it was "cheap" and only lowered this film further into the muck pit. If the story is going to be bad, and the actors are not going to give their full potential by actually doing what they are paid ... to be creative ... than at least give us something to look at Production Team! Unfortunately, there was nothing ravishing to even glance at. The entire Medieval World that Lawrence works at from the beginning is "cheap" and obviously a set. I want a film to take me away from Hollywood and give me my dollar's worth, not rob me blind. The cinematography was done by a two-year old. Nothing spectacular, nothing worth writing about.
Overall, this was a very poor film. Would it have hurt anyone working on this project to use a little something I like to call "imagination"? Creativity was not being used or welcomed in this film. You could tell that the director wanted to make the film, edit out what didn't work, finish, and relax at home while thinking of all the different ways that he could spend his Hollywood money! I blame two major players in this film for the overall poor quality. The first is Mr. Lawrence. If he does not expand his acting potential and bring something new to the screen, I don't think his Hollywood stay will be very long. The second player that I blame for this befuddling mess is the writer. Again, creativity and imagination went backseat to the infamous Hollywood recycling bin. This was a truly disappointing picture.
Grade: * out of ***** |
| Rating | | | Date | October 17, 2004 | | Summary | Horrible script, Martin is wasted | Content
| Very unfunny, script is full of racial cliches. Martin obviously did this for the check since his stock went up after Big Momma's House.
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| Rating | | | Date | October 07, 2004 | | Summary | this should have had a white guy in it. | Content
| the story goes that a amusement park worker falls into a magical water that sends him to this other place in mid evil times.he pretends to be a french guy so he can stay at the castle.he runs into trouble soon enough!martin lawrence who was like the one black guy who didnt talk crap on whites all the time sold out and is now with chris rock and chapelle as hate mongers.the kids can watch it.its not too bad.there is a sex scene but thats it.its not as good as a lot of midevil movies but they arent usualy comedies either.theres a few nasty poop jokes/scenes.thats sick and uncalled for.theres this one hot white chick and a not so hot black chick who is martins ol lady by movies end.there was this joke the racist martin told i thought was pretty funny during his rallying speech to the troops.there was once a great man named rodney king who said"ow ow ooh ugh!"lol ha ha ha!this is his second best movie behind blue streak. |
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