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Black Knight
Fox // PG-13 // April 16, 2002
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
While Martin Lawrence's stand-up routines were funny in an extremely R-rated way, it was in 1995 when Lawrence stared in Michael Bay's actioner "Bad Boys" that I began to appreciate his talent. Reportedly improving most of his dialogue in the Bay picture, it's when Lawrence simply riffs on the situations around him that he's at his best. Since then, Lawrence has only been occasionally as entertaining as he was in that film; nicely paired with Tim Robbins in "Nothing To Lose", he got laughs and occasionally, "Blue Streak" was very funny. Then came "Big Momma's House", a spectacularly unfunny picture that had Lawrence buried under a fat suit. Last year's Lawrence picture "What's the Worst that Could Happen?" also was the answer to its own question.
Now comes "Black Knight", a comedy with an amusing concept (sort of a remake of ""A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court") that, while funnier than "Big Momma's House", still doesn't give Lawrence much to work with. A character in the film actually sums up the situation quite nicely; while watching Lawrence's character still being dragged around by a horse after the last scene focused on that, he states, "you have to admire his commitment, he's no longer funny, but he refuses to give up on the joke."
Lawrence plays Jamal, a theme-park worker in present day who thinks about jumping ship when another, bigger park is about to open up a few miles away. One day, he reaches into the moat for what looks to be a necklace and is transported back in time. Somehow, he doesn't quite comprehend the situation and, instead, believes that he's simply found his way to the new park down the road. Soon enough, he gets a wake-up call that he's not in Los Angeles anymore.
The film, written by "Big Momma's House" writer Darryl Quarles, could have been a sharply funny account of a modern day Lawrence in the midst of Midevil times. Instead, it becomes a Very Expensive sitcom that recycles fish-out-of-water situations that seem as old as Midevil times themselves. Lawrence can deliver lines with terrific timing, but "Black Knight" tries to put too much on the table. Jamal (who is called "Skywalker" by the Midevil folks) never stops with the one-liners. For a far funnier and far more entertaining romp through similar territory, one needs to look no further than Sam Raimi's 1994 "Army Of Darkness".
"Black Knight" isn't without a few chuckles. The sequences where Lawrence's character first observes Midevil times have some funny lines and gags. When he asks a pretty maiden for her number, she's amazed that he can read and write. "Who you been datin?" he asks. "You need to set the bar higher!". Late in the film, Lawrence tells the same character, "I would go to the end of the Earth for you." She responds, "that's only six miles away." The plot is something revolving around an uprising against the current King, but the movie really couldn't care much, as it's more about throwing every joke it can think of at the audience and hoping some will stick. Not enough does.
The DVD
VIDEO: 20th Century Fox presents "Black Knight" in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The film's cinematographer is Ueli Steiger, a cinematographer who, much like Mark Irwin (the Farrelly Brother's usual cinematographer) is skilled at making comedies and look at least somewhat visually interesting. Fox picks up the ball and carries it quite nicely here as the film looks terrific. Sharpness and detail looked wonderful throughout the film, as the picture appeared crisp and well-defined, with no noticable softness.
Flaws were also pretty minor. While some edge enhancement appeared, I didn't find it that distracting. No pixelation was seen and I was also pleased to see the print in perfect condition. No specks, marks or other wear was seen. Colors remained natural and crisp throughout, especially the deep greens of the surrounding forests. Not much to say here, as it's certainly fine work from the studio.
SOUND: "Black Knight" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Most comedies are known for not being agressive when it comes to surround use and while most of "Black Knight" doesn't change that fact, it's a bit more active than I'd expected. The sequences early on when Jamal first finds himself in Midevil times provide some fun sound effects in the rear speakers. While the rest of the movie doesn't use the surrounds so distinctly, their use continues throughout the film for the music and some nice ambience.
MENUS: Animated menus with film themed backgrounds, complete with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Gil Junger, previously known for directing "10 Things I Hate About You" and a lot of television. The track seemed sort of weakly recorded, I had to turn the volume up a bit to clearly hear the director's remarks. As for said remarks, they're as often interesting as they are not so. Junger is clearly pleased with the picture and often heaps praise upon the actors and crew; these moments are a bit dull. On the other hand, Junger discusses how he felt he could best capture an often-improvising Lawrence as well as what it felt like to be directing a picture that's clearly bigger than his prior one. It's a decent track, worth listening to for those who enjoyed the picture.
Martin On Moviemaking: 20th Century Fox has recently started to offer "scene specific" commentary more often (such as recently for "Don't Say A Word"). In this case, two scenes are available with commentary from Lawrence, who appears in a box at the right hand corner of the screen and offers his thoughts.
Outtakes: Unfortunately, there are only a little less than two minutes worth of outtakes, as most of which are quite funny.
Trailers: Two trailers for "Black Knight" as well as trailers for the upcoming Steven Spielberg flick "Minority Report" and the Richard Gere starrer "Unfaithful", from director Adrian Lyne.
Featurettes: "A Timeless Friendship" (8:36) is a mainly character-driven piece that has Lawrence, Junger and others discussing their roles; "Parapits and Pratfalls" (6:40) revolves around discussion of the film's physical comedy and stunts, which Junger was initially worried about handling; "Construction" (4:05) is just that; a featurette with the production designer discussing the sets and other elements that had to be built. Last, but not least, we get a featurette that revolves around the choreography for the dance sequence, which was choreographed by former pop star Paula Abdul.
Also: 3 deleted scenes with optional commentary from director Gil Junger as well as storyboard-to-scene comparisons for two sequences.
Final Thoughts: I found "Black Knight" to be harmless and never really boring, but it never really found much in the way of laughs, either. Still, 20th Century Fox has produced a very nice DVD, complete with fine audio/video quality and a fair amount of mildly interesting supplements.
While Martin Lawrence's stand-up routines were funny in an extremely R-rated way, it was in 1995 when Lawrence stared in Michael Bay's actioner "Bad Boys" that I began to appreciate his talent. Reportedly improving most of his dialogue in the Bay picture, it's when Lawrence simply riffs on the situations around him that he's at his best. Since then, Lawrence has only been occasionally as entertaining as he was in that film; nicely paired with Tim Robbins in "Nothing To Lose", he got laughs and occasionally, "Blue Streak" was very funny. Then came "Big Momma's House", a spectacularly unfunny picture that had Lawrence buried under a fat suit. Last year's Lawrence picture "What's the Worst that Could Happen?" also was the answer to its own question.
Now comes "Black Knight", a comedy with an amusing concept (sort of a remake of ""A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court") that, while funnier than "Big Momma's House", still doesn't give Lawrence much to work with. A character in the film actually sums up the situation quite nicely; while watching Lawrence's character still being dragged around by a horse after the last scene focused on that, he states, "you have to admire his commitment, he's no longer funny, but he refuses to give up on the joke."
Lawrence plays Jamal, a theme-park worker in present day who thinks about jumping ship when another, bigger park is about to open up a few miles away. One day, he reaches into the moat for what looks to be a necklace and is transported back in time. Somehow, he doesn't quite comprehend the situation and, instead, believes that he's simply found his way to the new park down the road. Soon enough, he gets a wake-up call that he's not in Los Angeles anymore.
The film, written by "Big Momma's House" writer Darryl Quarles, could have been a sharply funny account of a modern day Lawrence in the midst of Midevil times. Instead, it becomes a Very Expensive sitcom that recycles fish-out-of-water situations that seem as old as Midevil times themselves. Lawrence can deliver lines with terrific timing, but "Black Knight" tries to put too much on the table. Jamal (who is called "Skywalker" by the Midevil folks) never stops with the one-liners. For a far funnier and far more entertaining romp through similar territory, one needs to look no further than Sam Raimi's 1994 "Army Of Darkness".
"Black Knight" isn't without a few chuckles. The sequences where Lawrence's character first observes Midevil times have some funny lines and gags. When he asks a pretty maiden for her number, she's amazed that he can read and write. "Who you been datin?" he asks. "You need to set the bar higher!". Late in the film, Lawrence tells the same character, "I would go to the end of the Earth for you." She responds, "that's only six miles away." The plot is something revolving around an uprising against the current King, but the movie really couldn't care much, as it's more about throwing every joke it can think of at the audience and hoping some will stick. Not enough does.
The DVD
VIDEO: 20th Century Fox presents "Black Knight" in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The film's cinematographer is Ueli Steiger, a cinematographer who, much like Mark Irwin (the Farrelly Brother's usual cinematographer) is skilled at making comedies and look at least somewhat visually interesting. Fox picks up the ball and carries it quite nicely here as the film looks terrific. Sharpness and detail looked wonderful throughout the film, as the picture appeared crisp and well-defined, with no noticable softness.
Flaws were also pretty minor. While some edge enhancement appeared, I didn't find it that distracting. No pixelation was seen and I was also pleased to see the print in perfect condition. No specks, marks or other wear was seen. Colors remained natural and crisp throughout, especially the deep greens of the surrounding forests. Not much to say here, as it's certainly fine work from the studio.
SOUND: "Black Knight" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Most comedies are known for not being agressive when it comes to surround use and while most of "Black Knight" doesn't change that fact, it's a bit more active than I'd expected. The sequences early on when Jamal first finds himself in Midevil times provide some fun sound effects in the rear speakers. While the rest of the movie doesn't use the surrounds so distinctly, their use continues throughout the film for the music and some nice ambience.
MENUS: Animated menus with film themed backgrounds, complete with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Gil Junger, previously known for directing "10 Things I Hate About You" and a lot of television. The track seemed sort of weakly recorded, I had to turn the volume up a bit to clearly hear the director's remarks. As for said remarks, they're as often interesting as they are not so. Junger is clearly pleased with the picture and often heaps praise upon the actors and crew; these moments are a bit dull. On the other hand, Junger discusses how he felt he could best capture an often-improvising Lawrence as well as what it felt like to be directing a picture that's clearly bigger than his prior one. It's a decent track, worth listening to for those who enjoyed the picture.
Martin On Moviemaking: 20th Century Fox has recently started to offer "scene specific" commentary more often (such as recently for "Don't Say A Word"). In this case, two scenes are available with commentary from Lawrence, who appears in a box at the right hand corner of the screen and offers his thoughts.
Outtakes: Unfortunately, there are only a little less than two minutes worth of outtakes, as most of which are quite funny.
Trailers: Two trailers for "Black Knight" as well as trailers for the upcoming Steven Spielberg flick "Minority Report" and the Richard Gere starrer "Unfaithful", from director Adrian Lyne.
Featurettes: "A Timeless Friendship" (8:36) is a mainly character-driven piece that has Lawrence, Junger and others discussing their roles; "Parapits and Pratfalls" (6:40) revolves around discussion of the film's physical comedy and stunts, which Junger was initially worried about handling; "Construction" (4:05) is just that; a featurette with the production designer discussing the sets and other elements that had to be built. Last, but not least, we get a featurette that revolves around the choreography for the dance sequence, which was choreographed by former pop star Paula Abdul.
Also: 3 deleted scenes with optional commentary from director Gil Junger as well as storyboard-to-scene comparisons for two sequences.
Final Thoughts: I found "Black Knight" to be harmless and never really boring, but it never really found much in the way of laughs, either. Still, 20th Century Fox has produced a very nice DVD, complete with fine audio/video quality and a fair amount of mildly interesting supplements.
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