Black Knight

Zone's Eye View of "Black Knight"

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Synopsis of movie, courtesy of 20th Century Fox:

The world of the Middle Ages was populated with heroes whose feats and derring-do have captivated multitudes through the centuries. Legends with names like Lancelot, Galahad, Gawain and...Jamal Walker!?

Jamal toils unhappily, at Medieval World, a theme park that looks like it has not been renovated, or had customers, since the Dark Ages. After falling into the park's fetid moat, Jamal crawls out into Fourteenth Century England, a world of knights in shining armor and damsels in distress, not to mention questionable hygiene and really lousy plumbing.

Now a stranger in a very strange land, Jamal falls in with a dissolute knight, a beautiful with some very modern ideas, and a rebellion against an evil King. The middle ages will never be the same, as Jamal uses twenty-first century street smarts and moves to help his new friends. In return, Jamal gets a lot more than just a history lesson.

Now for The Zone's Eye View

By Laura Alber

Black Knight seems to be a pretentious attempt at a comedy. The movie has its few comical moments, but for the most part it was just nonsensical. The acting was completely over the top, and it seemed that Martin Lawrence had to really struggle to make the jokes seem funny. I realize that Hollywood seems to be having a difficult time coming up with original ideas for movies, but this is totally absurd. I guess I should be happy I wasn’t watching yet another sequel, prequel, trilogy or remake. But, still, is this what we’re now reduced to watching instead of those types of films?

Martin Lawrence portrays an employee at a Medieval Times Theme Park. They have just found out that a new park is opening in two weeks, “Castle World”, which will most likely put them out of business. Lawrence (Jamal "Sky"walker) sees this as a perfect opportunity to change jobs and make more money, and tries to convince the owner to sell the place off and move herself to Florida. Basically, take the money and run. She doesn’t like Jamal’s attitude and sends him off to clean the moat, one of the more unwanted duties. As he is cleaning the moat, pulling out old slimy dolls and such, he sees a shiny medallion at the bottom. Hoping it’s worth a lot of money, he sticks his hand in the water only to be pulled into the water by its force and is transported to the 1300’s.

He has a few moments of freaking out, and then wanders around town in search of the “Manager”, believing he is at the new Castle World. No one seems to even notice or acknowledge his attire, or his street talk. He tells the King’s guards that he’s from “South Central…at corner of Normandy”, and they assume he is a messenger from the Duke in France who is due to arrive to marry the Kings daughter. He is well liked by the King and the court, and does a silly (but one of the funny moments I spoke of) dance routine for the King, which turns out to be a medieval version of “Dance to the Music”. He then accidentally saves of the King from an attempted stabbing during this performance, and the King deems him “Lord Skywalker”. He is to be in charge of all security matters.

Lord Skywalker has fallen for one of the Kings chambermaids, Victoria. He later finds out that the amulet he found and now wears is identical to hers. She tells him that they were both meant to kill the King, and reinstate the throne to the Queen, who has been run off and in hiding. The King is not the friendly character we first believed. Skywalker first believes this isn’t his fight, and just wants to find the lake he arrived through, and go back home. But, after seeing how the people are forced to live, and how evil the King truly is, he decides to stay and help Victoria carry out their mission.

With the help of the “old drunk” who helped him out of the water, who turns out to be someone completely different than we thought, the small army heads for the castle with the intention of killing the King.

The plot of the movie is very thin, and the jokes are too few and far between. Actually, the only descent parts of the movie were some of the scenery shots. None of the characters were believable for that time. The Kings daughter was made out to be a silly horny schoolgirl, and Victoria was ‘supposed’ to be a chambermaid, and was called a Nubian, which she obviously was not. She was referred to as Nubian, yet Jamal was called a Moor.

The whole film was a lame attempt at entertainment, which was completely unsuccessful. The few scenes that were actually funny, still does not justify watching it. There was a reason Martin Lawrence’s TV show was cancelled, his overly eager attempt at humor. He’s not the Eddie Murphy he would like to be, and never will be. Black Knight is a waste of money and time. Possibly a good insomnia tic movie when it’s on cable, but I wouldn’t pay for it. The Zone rates this film a 3 out of 10.