Black Knight

Amazon.com

In Black Knight, Martin Lawrence plays an amusement park employee who is magically transported back to medieval times and helps return a queen to her rightful throne (while learning some valuable lessons along the way). Despite the script's lack of logic and originality, Lawrence is an engaging performer, with a loose-limbed amiability that makes him most enjoyable company, even if he's not necessarily a better actor than most comedians. If Lawrence ever does a movie with a decent script, he might really have something; as it is we'll have to settle right now for the cheesy yet funny sight of Lawrence teaching a medieval band to play some Sly and Family Stone. --Bret Fetzer

Description

When a Medieval World theme park worker (Lawrence) is magically transported back to 14th century England, he must do battle with an evil king, deadly assassins - and really bad plumbing!

Customer Reviews:

No Thought Required-- **1/2 stars.......2006-07-12

Leave your thinking cap off and you'll enjoy this movie. Pure amusement. Martin Lawrence plays an assertive theme park worker with no pride or dedication toward his job, lots of self-respect but little to share in favor of others. With the advertising of a competitive park opening close by in the future, he advises the park owner who also happens to be his mentor, to divest herself of the park and retire. Annoyed, she sends him to clean the moat and he's on his way while telling his coworkers to file their job applications at the new theme park to beat the rush. Dredging the moat, he spies a gold medallion on a heavy gold chain sparkling through the debris-strewn water. He sticks his hand in to retrieve it and gets sucked into the filthy water and time travels back to the 14th century.

So begins Lawrence's journey into medieval England. Foisting himself off as the messenger from Normandy bringing news of the arrival of the Duke to wed the virgin daughter of the mean, usurping King Leo, he falls for one of the chambermaids (Marsha Thomason), who happens to be leading the rebellion against the king to reinstall the ousted queen. The supporting cast makes this movie -- from the drunken, fallen knight, Sir Knolte (Tom Wilkinson) to Princess Regina (Jeannette Wegger), King Leo's not so virginal daughter.

Some critics have poopahed Lawrence's acting abilities, but when I watch him interviewed in person and then watch his movies, I can only draw the conclusion that his acting abilities are top notch. One would almost think that the offscreen Lawrence is his major acting role, compared to the ones he portrays. Offscreen he appears intellectual, quiet mannered, almost shy. Who can say that about his performances on screen? While Black Knight won't win any awards, it's still very entertaining and to repeat, the supporting cast is terrific.

Lots of Laughs, Lots of Fun.......2006-06-04

This is basically a Variation of a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, done as only Martin Lawrence can do it.
The Story speaks for itself, and needs little coverage.
The extras are great, and they show just how good people surround themselves with great support people, and so look even better. The commentary by the director is good, clear and very explanatory; I also wish that Martin Lawrence had talked about more than just the two scenes he spoke about.
Very nice to see the Paula Abdul bit, since she is always soooo gorgeous !!!!
The out-takes are VERY funny, and the deleted scenes are scenes that are soooo not needed, that one wonders why there would be any question about their deletion, but Martin is very good in the Nightclub scene.
Lots of DVD for a nice price.

Even Lawrence couldn't save this movie and he's a comedian.......2005-01-08

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.

That's why you shouldn't drink your own urine........2005-01-08

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 *****

Horrible script, Martin is wasted.......2004-10-18

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.

State of Shock: Knight Chills/'Til Death Do Us Part/Night Train to Terror/Silo Killer

Average customer rating:

Well, it's better than "Mazes and Monsters"
THIS IS JUST STUPID !!!!
YAWN
Knighty Knightmare...
BURN OUTS PROUD & TRUE WILL LOVE THIS FLICK!

State of Shock: Knight Chills/'Til Death Do Us Part/Night Train to Terror/Silo Killer
Starring: DJ Perry , Donald Pleasence , Eugene Amodeo , Marcella Saint-Amant , and Harvey Atkin
Director: Martyn Burke
Manufacturer: Bci / Eclipse Music
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002DB56I
Release Date: 2004-07-13

Customer Reviews:

Well, it's better than "Mazes and Monsters".......2006-12-27

A fantasy-prone geeky kid (so geeky that the other members of his role-playing group taunt him) dies and a BLACK KNIGHT rises up to avenge him. Kind of ho-hum in that there is no nudity (that's actually okay given the cast), the violence is on par with a made-for-TV movie, and the plot is pretty predictable. I liked the effort that they put into it to make RPGs seem sinister and sexy.

THIS IS JUST STUPID !!!!.......2004-12-03

I love my LOW-BUDGET horror movies like "REDNECK ZOMBIES" Dante Tomaselli's "HORROR" & Tobe Hooper's "TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE" & i also love my big budget horror movies like "HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES" "CABIN FEVER" & "ALIEN" & every other good fun horror movie that is in between! BUT THIS MOVIE HAS NOTHING GOING FOR IT! ITS A REDICULOUS WASTE OF TIME! ITS ANNOYING! THE STORY & THE ACTORS JUST DIDN'T PULL OFF WHAT IT SEEMED THEY MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRYING TO PULL OFF!WHAT EVER THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN! ANYWAY IT JUST SUCKED IT WAS STUPID DON'T BOTHER WITH THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!! later on fellow horror fanz!

YAWN.......2004-10-02

An "artsy" attempt at horror that falls flat on its face. Acting and direction are amatuerish, and the movie's score overrides so much of the dialogue, you want to scream. It has a very slow and ill-acted opening, and it takes forever to get to any meaty substance. Role playing games come across even more banal than I had thought. Miss this one--there are no chills here!

Knighty Knightmare..........2004-06-16

A group of role-playing game enthusiasts gather every saturday night in their teacher's basement for swords, sorcery, and beers. One guy (played by Michael Wayne Walton) is a little bit TOO into the game, fantasizing about his knightly role with a girl gamer, who wants nothing to do with him. The bozo winds up driving into a tree and burning up, moments after swearing an oath to the great knight-of-the-rose pantheon. Soon, other saturday night gamers start turning up dead, cut to pieces by a dark knight on a big horse. Police are baffled, but we're not! I liked most of this movie. Not bad for a micro-budget indie...

BURN OUTS PROUD & TRUE WILL LOVE THIS FLICK!.......2003-05-21

I would have to say that the goofy dudes watching the horror movies looking for the bimbos with the...wait! I like that to...anyway...there are some cool characters in this story but I really dug the burnout guy Zac! "We are the burnouts proud and true, we grow our own [stuff] and smoke it too. I know one day that we'll all die but when we go we'll all go HIGH" 10 STARS! These guys were smoking buds and making some low budget horror art! As for the others who didn't get the film, watch it again. Watch it while giving the burnout pledge of alligence. That is soo catchy that me and my buds require that of our comrades. Dude, Zac for president plus he has cool friends and a hot girlfriend. I bet the other dudes slamming this flick has neither the friends or the chicks. Later!

Average customer rating:

Hollywood Vampyr/Knight Chills
Starring: DJ Perry , and Rebecca Holden
Director: Katherine Hicks
Manufacturer: Razor Digital Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000C3H4UE
Release Date: 2006-02-14

Average customer rating:

Knight Chills (Special Edition)
Starring: DJ Perry , and Rebecca Holden
Manufacturer: Brain Damage Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000S6LPAK
Release Date: 2007-09-04

Average customer rating:

Well, it's better than "Mazes and Monsters"
THIS IS JUST STUPID !!!!
YAWN
Knighty Knightmare...
BURN OUTS PROUD & TRUE WILL LOVE THIS FLICK!

Knight Chills
Starring: Tim Jeffrey , DJ Perry , Michael Rene Walton , Laura Tidwell , and Laura Alexander
Director: Katherine Hicks (II)
Manufacturer: Spectrum Entertain
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000633TF
Release Date: 2002-06-11

Customer Reviews:

Well, it's better than "Mazes and Monsters".......2006-12-27

THIS IS JUST STUPID !!!!.......2004-12-03

YAWN.......2004-10-02

Knighty Knightmare..........2004-06-16

BURN OUTS PROUD & TRUE WILL LOVE THIS FLICK!.......2003-05-21

Average customer rating:

Well, it's better than "Mazes and Monsters"
THIS IS JUST STUPID !!!!
YAWN
Knighty Knightmare...
BURN OUTS PROUD & TRUE WILL LOVE THIS FLICK!

Knight Chills
Starring: Tim Jeffrey , DJ Perry , Michael Wayne Walton , Laura Tidwell , and Laura Alexander
Director: Katherine Hicks (II)
Manufacturer: Vision Factory
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( K ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

General | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B00008G94B
Release Date: 2002-04-09

Customer Reviews:

Well, it's better than "Mazes and Monsters".......2006-12-27

THIS IS JUST STUPID !!!!.......2004-12-03

YAWN.......2004-10-02

Knighty Knightmare..........2004-06-16

BURN OUTS PROUD & TRUE WILL LOVE THIS FLICK!.......2003-05-21

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