Black Knight Review
by Edwin Jahiel (e-jahiel AT uiuc DOT edu)December 7th, 2001
>BY EDWIN JAHIEL
>
>BLACK KNIGHT (2001) * 1/2. Directed by Gil Junger. Written by Darryl >J.Quarles, Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow. Photography, Ueli Steiger. >Editing, Michael R. Miller. Production design, Leslie Dilley. >Costumes, Marie France. Music, Randy Edelman. Producers, Arnon >Milchan plus 7. Cast: Martin Lawrence, Marsha Thomason, Tom >Wilkinson, Vincent Regan, et al. A 20th Century Fox release. 95 >minutes. PG-13.
>
>This umpteenth movie version of Marx Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee >in King Arthur's Court" will not become a footnote in film history. >Not even as what it is, a vehicle for the exuberant Martin Lawrence. >
>He plays Jamal Walker, a streetwise employee at Medieval World, a >Los Angeles theme park. The personnel seem to be almost all black. >The enterprise is certainly in the red and on the brink of folding. >
>The fake castle's moat is a sewage-like affair in whose liquid >debris Jamal plunges (don't ask) and out of which he emerges in 1328 >A.D. England.
>
>Jamal becomes rapidly involved in the affairs of an usurper king >(who does not look a bit like a villain); his main henchman (ditto); >his nympho daughter; and others. He falls for the princess's >housemaid Number 7 -- the pretty, Moorish (sic) Victoria (Marsha >Thomason) who is also an undefined, high-ranking member of the >Resistance against the king. A few assorted types in small parts pad >the cast without fleshing it out.
>
>All this happens because willing Jamal somehow gets mistaken for the >envoy of the Duke (pronounced "Dook") of Normandy. He also (don't >ask) is taken for a court jester. As such he multiplies his >activities, all of them mugging, clowning and Lawrence-centered. >Jamal brings his big city savvy to bear on everything, easily wins >Victoria, teaches hip-hop music and dancing to the court, re-mugs >endlessly, becomes a major factor in the inevitable, successful >revolt against the king and his bad guys.
>
>The last movie I saw Lawrence in was the unambitious, unexciting, >cobbled together yet somehow watchable "Blue Streak" (1999). It was >very mildly redeemed by that special, inimitable, jiving, >wild-acting-and-talking energy and effervescence of many >African-American comedians. Those traits re-emerge in "Black Knight" >but are mostly defeated by a terrible script patched together by >three "writers" plus, I suspect, the irrelevant input of additional >contributors.
>
>There is a small paradox here. The film is bad but no necessarily >dull or boring. Your brain will go on hold so that you probably will >not resent the movie for having wasted 90-plus minutes of your time. >All this in spite of the absence of real humor, inventions or >imagination.There are hardly any solid gags. It looks as though >whenever some scribbler came up with a passable idea it was never >worked on, polished or refined.
>
>I am not talking about vulgarity which is something that can work in >advanced slapstick, but of an indigence of jokes, attitudes, and >ideas in general. Martin Lawrence (who reportedly got 7 million >dollars for this thing) may or may not have his own brand of >abilities, but here he is a sub-sub-Eddie Murphy --and who wants a >bad copy of good originals? And his hyperthyroid brio reminds one >more of bad Jerry Lewis acting than of good Danny Kaye or Eddie >Murphy craziness.
>
>The combination of disorganized, incoherent script plus overdoses of >deja vu gimmickry does not result in anything clever or really >funny, except perhaps for very young audiences. (The PG-13 rating >probably comes from one scene of sexual noises and another when the >king's daughter sneaks into Jamal's bed, and he thinks, all night >long, that he is having sex with Victoria).
>
>I must repeat, however, that this mess of a movie is, oddly, not >sleep-inducing. And there are two positive things about it. One is >the pretty, bucolic landscape around the palace. The other, much >more important, is the tiny scene of Jamal, back in 2001, >re-plunging into the moat. That most (only?) inventive bit of the >film comes at the very last moment, just before the end-credits.
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