Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

tomgillespie2002 There is a line from Alexander Payne's 2004 masterpiece Sideways, in which Paul Giamatti's lonely and depressed Miles describes his lack of purpose in the world as feeling like "a smudge of excrement on a tissue, surging out to sea with a million tons of raw sewage," that has always stuck with me. It's a beautiful, poetic line he attributes to the work of Charles Bukowski, although I don't think it was, which perfectly encapsulates his feelings of emptiness. During my viewing of Black Knight, it occurred to me that this line also sums up the cinematic career of Martin Lawrence, black stereotype extraordinaire.His belief-beggaringly successful TV career made graduated into movies in the late 1990's, and cinema was forced to endure his mixture of prat-falling and tough-guy gun-totin', to which he was convincing at neither. But perhaps I'm being unfair to Lawrence as, after all, Black Knight was written, financed, cast, produced and directed by a whole host of people. all of whom should hang their heads in shame. It is a generic time-travel, culture-clash story in which theme-park layabout Jamal (Lawrence) is transported back to Medieval England, where he faces a corrupt king (Kevin Conway) and his douchebag enforcer (Vincent Regan).Never mind the complete disregard for anything resembling historical accuracy, offensively stereotypical black characters, the dirt-cheap production design, and the baffling sight of Tom Wilkinson (who, to quote my step-dad, must have been short of a few bob), it's the comedy void that we are thrown head first into that makes Black Knight a truly torturous experience. Clearly the writers think that a shout of "holler!" or the sight of a bunch of white people trying to dance is an acceptable substitute for comedy. An unforgivable experience.

donnyx With apologies to Nick (see his previous 1-star review), I myself was tempted to big this film up with a 10 (whereas I think that it deserves at least a solid 8), simply because its current dismal rating of 4.6 makes me think that reviewers have been going out of their way to trash it. Of course, it's hard to argue that there's a conspiracy afoot given that the IMDb rating is apparently based on over 24,000 honest opinions, but, as with all polling, we can question whether the verdict is based on an appropriate sample group. This film, after all, was released just two months after 9/11, making it possible that it has yet to be seen by the majority of its target audience.And who is this target audience? In my opinion, it consists of nothing less than the same rainbow-colored mainstream American moviegoers who enjoyed "Airplane!" to the tune of $83 million in box office receipts. Speaking of which, I found the "Dance to the Music" set with Martin Lawrence every bit as funny as the "Stayin' Alive" sequence with Robert Hayes. Lawrence deserves an award from the Society for Creative Anachronism for his participatory demonstration of "Norman" dancing, in which he generously welcomed the court's one obligatory wizened old crone to shake her hoary locks like she meant it -- after inspiring the sleepy lutenist to come alive (to his own hilarious surprise) with a guitar riff worthy of Jimi Hendrix, until even King Leo himself, index fingers in the air, was out on the dance floor getting his 21st-century groove on.Not that "Black Knight" is another "Airplane!", of course, but then it doesn't try to be. The movie doesn't need to rely on hundreds of one-liners and sight gags for comic effect, since the comedy stems directly from the absurd but fertile premise: a premise involving a culture clash (did anyone else notice this?) that had never been exploited on film before in one sustained cinematographic effort (not even by Mel Brooks himself): namely, the philosophically revealing collision of excessively hip South Central L.A. with excessively clueless medieval England.I, for one, found it hilarious to follow the idiosyncratic Jamal -- this demonstrative champion of 21st-century inclusive humanism -- as he brazenly confronted the liberalism-challenged court with his modern Western world view that was at once so reasonable (to us) and yet so unimaginable (to them) that you could almost hear the modern-day concepts "whooshing" right over the clueless heads of the dumbstruck royalty -- played with such hilarious verisimilitude by the lordly trio of Tom Wilkinson, Vincent Regan, and Kevin Conway that I almost wish there were an Oscar awarded for "Best Facetious Portrayal of British Royalty by a Male Co-Star" -- in which case the female award for 2001 could have gone to Helen Carey, who was unexpectedly hilarious as the rhetoric-challenged Queen.So, begging Sir Nick's pardon, but I give this film two royal index fingers up and would fain that it were viewed by a larger and more appropriate audience in the years to come, in which case methinks that its current dismal ratings should riseth dramatically.

Jackson Booth-Millard After seeing Big Momma's House and of course Bad Boys, I was keen to see quite a few of the black leading actor's films, even the ones that are not highly rated by the critics, but this one sounded worth a go at least. Basically at Castle World, the shabby and low profit medieval themed amusement park, is low level worker Jamal Walker (Martin Lawrence), who is magically transported back to England in the 14th Century by a special medallion in the moat. He explores the woods and eventually the kingdom, he believes for a while that everyone around him is acting like they are in the medieval times, even after seeing the old way of using the toilet, a beheading confirms the time he is in though. While there, Jamal is mistaken as a messenger from Normandy, and trying to fit in as best as he can, i.e. getting on with King Leo (Kevin Conway) and all the other people around him, of course his modern day ghetto attitude doesn't always fit. He also has many encounters with the beautiful Victoria the Chambermaid (The Haunted Mansion's Marsha Thomason), who reveals there is a plot to kill the king, she is part of it, because he has been hated by many people for quite some time. Jamal, claiming himself as both a messenger and a jester, and donning the name "Sir Skywalker", has also gained an enemy with the mean Sir Percival, Leo's Chief Henchman (Vincent Regan). There is a legend of the Black Knight, it may in fact be Jamal who that legend refers too, as he does gain bravery to get Victoria and Sir Knolte of Marlborough (Tom Wilkinson) on side to make armour and go against the bad guys and return the rightful Queen to the throne. Eventually Jamal decides it is best to return to the present day, via the way he came, he is sad to leave Victoria behind, but he may have in fact found her again with modern reincarnation Nicole (still Thomason), before falling back in the moat again and transported into a Gliator themed arena. Also starring Jeannette Weegar as Princess Regina - Leo's Daughter, Daryl Mitchell as Steve and Michael Burgess as Ernie. Lawrence with his cheeky-chappy persona is quite funny most of the time in this film, and the modern day mixing with the olden days format is amusing in many moments, so it's a reasonable comedy. Okay!

cimroxy The previous comments seem to expect Shakespearean quality out of this movie, perhaps because the title includes the word 'knight'. This movie is, as many others before it, a parody of films set in medieval England. Others of this kind include Robin Hood Men in Tights, Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, A Knight's Tale, A Kid in King Arthur's Court, and so on. So many movies have used medieval England as a basis for their humorous story lines that to comment that Black Knight's use of the period is an insult to English history is monstrously foolish. On the contrary, Black Knight is a true parody not only of real English history, but of many previously told stories about medieval England, such as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.The most glaring difference between those titles listed above and Black Knight is the type of comedy exhibited. The comedy in Black Knight comes mostly from its main character, played by Martin Lawrence, who this movie could be considered an exclusive vehicle for. It seems that, as in the movies of Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and the like, Martin Lawrence was given a script, but allowed to ad lib quite a bit. This adds his own particular style of comedy to the film. Therefore, if you don't like the comedy of Martin Lawrence, you may not like this movie. It looks like the idea was for everyone in the movie to play the part of the 'straight man' to Martin Lawrence, as very serious people dealing with a fool. But that is not to say that all of the jokes in the movie come from Martin Lawrence. For instance, Jeannette Weegar who plays King Leo's daughter has some funny parts, as does Helen Carey, who plays the queen.As for those incredibly nonsensical comments referring to a failure on the part of the NAACP to boycott this film, I have to say that the ignorance of those commentators is appalling. Not only do they exhibit a lack of understanding of what the NAACP actually does, but they clearly did not watch the whole film. Martin Lawrence plays a fool, granted, but he plays one with heart. He displays an understanding of what is right and wrong (his interaction with the thief), cleverness, courage under fire, and an openness to learn from his experiences. He later uses that knowledge in applicable circumstances and shows nobleness. His love interest, Victoria the chambermaid, played by Marsha Thomason, is a strong, fearless warrior, determined to fight the good fight, regardless of the lowness of her birth. She is smart, beautiful, and shrewd. When examined objectively, these characters would hardly be the cause of a boycott. And, contrary to what other commentators have said, Martin Lawrence and his love interest are not the only African Americans in the picture. That much can be seen from the character list. Jamal's (Martin Lawrence) African American friends and co-workers later benefit from his knowledge gained through experience, and show a willingness to change for the better.Addressing the production values, they were very good. In fact I'd say they were on par with Robin Hood Men in Tights, Princess Bride, or even Shakespeare in Love. Jamal's clothing was not as good as those of the other characters, which follows the story line that he was not from the area and was either wearing borrowed clothes or his clothes from the amusement park.Also, it must be mentioned that Vincent Regan plays a dashing villainous Percival, and Tom Wilkinson, who plays Sir Knolte of Marlborough, is very believable as Jamal's best medieval friend.All in all, this movie is not as bad as some say, but it is definitely no Shakespeare. Rent only if you want something really silly.