Black Knight
Rated PG-13 for language, sexual/crude humor and battle violence.
reviewed by Christopher Lyon
One Hollywood movie formula is called the “fish out of water.” What if we put a white ballet dancer in an inner-city, mostly black school? (“Save the Last Dance”) What if we put a young black comedian in the body of a rich old white guy? (“Down to Earth”) What if we put a middle-ages knight in modern-day Chicago? (“Just Visiting”) And what if we put a modern-day black man from South Central L.A. into the middle ages?
That last one is the idea behind the new Martin Lawrence comedy “Black Knight.” Jamal (Lawrence) works at a run-down amusement park called the Medieval World Family Fun Center. It’s about to be put out of business by a new park opening nearby called “Castle World.” Jamal doesn’t care about anything and encourages the owner to sell the place.
Then he falls into the fake moat around the park and gets sucked into 1300s England. It’s never clear why or how this happens, but Jamal soon finds himself hanging at a real medieval castle with the king and the knights and the peasants and everything else you’d expect to see in a middle ages comedy.
Like all fish-out-of-water comedies, the humor comes from Jamal’s response to his new world. Martin Lawrence is funny. His reactions are great. Like a court jester, his comedy doesn’t come so much from jokes as from funny faces, noises, body movements, slapstick, and “attitude.” And that’s really the only thing that works in the film.
The rest of the movie just doesn’t make any sense at all. The acting, writing, and plotting are all tired. And about halfway through, the movie tries to get semi-serious about a rebellion and honor and taking back the castle. It just doesn’t work. Nothing has been realistic enough to give any support to real emotions or conflict. And even Lawrence’s humor started to wear thin for me.
The whole middle-ages thing got me wishing for some smart, sarcastic jokes in the vein of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” No such luck. Just more of Lawrence clowning his way through the paper-thin story, which includes the required falling in love and finding a way to return home. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Objectionable things include lots of bad language from Lawrence, some crude sexual humor, and a surprising amount of violence for a comedy. There are also some scantily clad ladies of court, one of which has sex with Jamal.
The movie’s message is supposed to be that Jamal learns from the middle ages what it means to be a man of honor instead of a lazy, selfish jerk. But that’s just way too much meaning for the silly, cartoonish plot to bring home. They would have been better off just sticking to the funny.
If you see the movie, questions you can discuss with friends, parents, or just think about yourself:
• What makes a movie really funny to you?
• Who are the funniest people making movies right now?
• If you could travel to any time and place in history, where would you go?
• Have you ever been a “fish out of water”? How did that experience change you?
Let us know what you thought of this review!