Post by StevePulaski on Dec 31, 2013 13:40:45 GMT -5
Black Knight (2001)
Directed by: Gil Junger
Rating: ★½
Directed by: Gil Junger
Rating: ★½
A loud-mouth urbanite (Martin Lawrence), who is a maintenance worker at a medieval theme park sees a shiny medallion in the park's mote, reaches for it, falls into the water, and is transported to 14th Century England where he must join the rebels and overthrow the corrupt king while getting the girl of his dreams.
This is the premise for Black Knight, a comedy that is just as loud and annoying as its lead character. The film's flaws can be attributed to a remarkably cliche and tired script that somehow took a trio of writers to formulate, but a decent amount of the blame can be put on Martin Lawrence in addition. We've seen actors liven up stale material in the past, but here, Lawrence seems to quiver under the blatant asinine qualities of the film's script, resorting to almost infantile behavior - shouting, running around, and acting like a child. Consider the opening scene, which is a close-up of Lawrence's face as he obnoxiously brushes his teeth and flosses in the mirror, while dancing around his bathroom. I see this as only a desperate attempt at character development.
However, Black Knight shoots for the stars, and while it falls vastly short of its goal, it managed to get me to laugh a few times. However, they were mostly towards the beginning, when Lawrence was first transported to the 14th Century. The idea of this loud-mouth buffoon adjusting to the life of centuries past sounds cute enough, and at first, Lawrence's outbursts and quirky comments are actually kind of funny. However, as the film goes on, Lawrence's face transcends to almost disbelief, as if he realized that this project is doomed financially and comically.
The issue comes from the humor, which is entirely predicated off of the fish-out-of-water cliche of a character being taken out of his typical environment (in this case, the South Central hood) and placed somewhere entirely different either by choice or accident (14th Century England here). The film's formula goes as followed: cherrypick elements from the time period such as executions, the lack of plumbing, and knights and warriors riding horseback and throw Lawrence's sassy urban character into them and have him either shout random one-liners or bouts of disgust while taking part in them.
The film mercilessly plods along at ninety-five minutes, exhausting every possible plot-device and event possible in the story. This may, however, be a good thing because it maybe means that I won't have to sit through another film quite like this for a very long time.
Starring: Martin Lawrence, Marsha Thomason, Tom Wilkinson, and Kevin Conway. Directed by: Gil Junger.