Rating: Summary: Bizarre fun Review: This audaciously insane fusion of medieval story and contemporary music in pursuit of a teen market actually works if you suspend your disbelief from the outset. Fortunately, the sight of peasants clapping, stomping and singing along to Queen's "We Will Rock You" in the opening scene immediately sets the tone. The rest of the film is a fast, fun and occasionally moving joyride, borrowing the structure of every loser-sports-team-makes-good comedy you've ever seen and overlaying it with the requisite teen romance and even a tearjerker father-son-reunion scene. Heath Ledger is appealing as Sir William, and Rufus Sewell manages to stifle a laugh long enough to make Count Adhemar threatening. But it's Paul Bettany as Chaucer, and Mark Addy and Alan Tudyk as Sir William's harried offsiders, Roland and Wat, who steal the show. This isn't a serious period piece, and it isn't meant to be. It could have flopped, but it's actually, strangely, enormous fun. Congratulations to Brian Helgeland for having the nerve to roll the dice.
Rating: Summary: Bad Dialogue Review: Although Heath Ledger is never a disappointment to the eyes, the writers did him a great injustice by supplying him with a script full of dialogue that had no relevence to the time....most writers will at least attempt to use the language of the day, in a period piece such as this! These writers didn't seem to make even the slightest attempt. No fault of Heath's. I was immediately disappointed by the dialogue and never recovered...so I give it only a 3 star rating.
Rating: Summary: funny Review: not everybody can catch those funny things in this movie. i respect those who could.
Rating: Summary: Pretty good, but could have been great! Review: A Knight's Tale is the inspiring story of a young squire's dream of becoming more than he was born into. As a boy, William's father, a humble Thatcher, brought his boy to Sir Ector, a knight who could provide the child with a better, or at least more interesting life. Years later, on their way to a jousting tournament, Sir Ector dies, leaving William and his partners, Roland and Wat, without a provider. Knowing there will be money and food waiting for them at the tournament, the starving group decides to go anyway, with William disguising himself as Sir Ector. But they are soon surprised to find that William has a talent for jousting, and there's much money to be had in the sport. Along the road they meet the one and only Chaucer, who agrees to act as Herald for the would-be knight, William. Together, the gang sweeps the Jousting tournaments, and William, competing under a pseudonym since he is not of noble birth and therefore breaking the law by competing, becomes a famous sports hero. He continues to make friends and enemies along the way, particularly a sassy, young noble woman (though I thought the blacksmith girl who joined his band was more attractive and had a better personality), and a mean-spirited, arrogant bully of a knight who also has his sights set on the lady. With the help of his friends, William must win the heart of his dream-girl, deal with his competition, and somehow win the Grand Championship without getting busted for pretending to be a real knight. A Knight's Tale is a great story and great fun, but makes a less than successful attempt at times to be Disney's Hercules. Most of the film is just a great, inspirational, historical tale, but there are times when the film tries to be modern, with the characters singing along to classic rock, and dancing in modern styles. Had this been something that was carried on throughout the film, it might have worked, but since it only happened a few times, it just seemed so odd and out of place. The theme of having classic rock running throughout the film worked fine as background music, it's when the characters seem aware of the "modern" music that it throws off the viewer. This was a wonderful film, and I'm sorry to say that the couple of times that they took this approach I became a bit embarrassed to be watching it. It's still well worth owning, it's just a shame that they couldn't decide what sort of movie they wanted to be with the 20th century mixings.
Rating: Summary: EXTRA scene on DVD! Review: I love this movie! It is awesome. The DVD is the best. It has so much good stuff on it, it is really a pleasure to watch. It has the trailer, lots of good deleted scenes, and best of all, the commentary with Paul Bettany (Chaucer) and Brian Helgeland (Writer, Producer, and Director). That commentary is absolutely hilarious! Those guys are really funny. They are very tongue-in-cheek about their own movie. It really gives you a new understanding of the movie to listen to these guys bash it like they do. It really offsets all the negative reviews on this post. After all, if the producer isn't even taking the movie that seriously, why should anybody else?There are some great lines in the commentary. They explain to us what "I will FONG you" means. It is also hilarious to hear about "Paul's Pimp Jacket" and the explanation behind his nakedness at the beginning. Plus all the other interesting information they give. It is really good. Now, about the EXTRA SCENE. This is so hilarious, I had to stop the movie and just laugh out loud for a while! It was so funny, because it was totally unexpected. After you watch the commentary, let the movie keep playing. Let it go all the way past the credits. When it gets to the end of the credits, you will see an extra scene with the main actors sitting around. You also get to hear the classic line by Brian Helgeland, "No one can ever say I'm not an artist!" Man, it is so funny! I don't want to describe what happens here because it will ruin it. Just go watch it and you will see what I mean.
Rating: Summary: SCFI-Funny, But WRONG Review: It was definitely a funny look at the medieval life of a Knight's Squires and their dreams of the living the Knight's life. The Jousting Terminates are compared to modern Football, Basketball, and Baseball games. The royal court balls dance to modern age music. This is a fun movie to watch and you will root for the hero. If children are watching this movie, they need to know that it fiction.
Rating: Summary: Horrible. Review: This movie was just straight out horrible. It was so unrealistic that I thought that Star wars was way more realistic. This movie [was bad]. Heres the reasons why below: 1. They combined hard rock. C'mone, QUEEN PLAYING WE WILL ROCK YOU IN MEDIEVIL DAYS?!?!?! ARE THESE PEOPLE INSANE?!?!?! 2. The hairstyles, (Such as the queen whatever her name is) Had a weird style which could ONLY BE DONE WITH HAIRSPRAY OR MOOSE! They didn't have that back in the old days. 3. The actors were horrible. I think all of them were each talentless. 4. Everybody was clean shaven. Oh yeah, a lot of people were clean shaven back in those days. I'm being sarcastic here. Nobody was clean shaven in those days. 5. The blacksmith created a Nike symbol. Oh yeah, nike. Listen, Nike was considered a god in the mythological days, and the swoosh symbol of Nike was in there too. Then, the shoe company took up the symbol and the name and the shoes became a bestseller. No blacksmith created the nike symbol. 6. The characters were so unrealistic that It's unbelievable. 7. The main actor, Keith whatever, is no talent and he is a pretty boy. He has no acting skills and the parts where he's trying to be dramatic is just laughable! 8. The story was predictable, and not to mention shallow. 9. I think that whoever made this movie, what company or what not, was probably just desperate for money. The props were cheap and the acters were horrible, the story was, by all means, easy to reject and to hate. 10. The chances of seeing this movie? NEVER. It was boring beyond belief. 11. It's a movie that's really embarrasing to own, I'm sure, and I'm thankful I don't have it. 12. The parts that are supposed to be comedic are just dull and not in any way laughable. 13. This is not a good romantic swashbuckling adventure. I expected some good stuff in a fantasy, much like the old conan movies with Arnold. They didn't do that, cuz whoever wrote the script can't write for dirt and plus the entire movie was just horrible. ... I can't imagine who would like it. Wanna hear the GOOD Thing about this movie? ...BR> The goods of this movie: It'll put you to sleep if you're having trouble sleeping. It's so boring that you'll get good nap time! THAT'S THE ONLY GOOD PART, PLUS THIS MOVIE IS UNREALISTIC!! DID I POINT OUT IT'S UNREALISTIC?
Rating: Summary: Ugh! Review: This is a movie that could have been extremely entertaining, but all its potential is totally destroyed by the lousy choice of female actors. No, let me rephrase: by the choice of Shannyn Sossamon as Lady Jocelyn. Whoever it was who cast her--be it the director or producer or some moronic professional casting person--should be put into stocks and pelted with vegetables. Why would any audience in their right mind cheer for her when all she does is wax poetical, go through several costume changes, and be generally snotty? Especially when her own maid and the hero's personal blacksmith are both: a) Prettier, and b) Nicer? The character of Lady Jocelyn gets zero character treatment, resulting in a totally insincere, ridiculous love affair. And the film is sooooo overlong... *yawn*. Another sticking point: shaky accents. Both hero and his love interest have glaringly fake, shabby accents. Shame, shame! Now to the movie's redeeming factors, the Things That Earned It Its Two Measly Stars: Two things: 1. Cute historical and literary jokes and the odd odd mix of medieval and modern reality. 2. Great secondary characters. Take away Geoffrey Chaucer and the Prince of Wales, and this movie would've stunk. Take away the cute female blacksmith, the carrot-topped sidekick and Rufus Sewell, and it would've stunk even more. The rest of the cast were totally disposable. Heck, even Heath Ledger's cute little grin wouldn't have saved him. The Verdict: It has its nice little moments and is generally watchable, but what an awful pity that Lady Jocelyn spoils everything. She makes the audience realize how much nicer it would be if our Hero got with her maid or his blacksmith, and it also makes them wonder about his judgement and clarity of thought. ("Hmm, perhaps he DOES deserve to be whacked on the head a few more times...") Oh, the tragedy of it all. *puke*
Rating: Summary: A Knight to Remember Review: Aussie hearthrob Heath Ledger proves he's more than just another pretty face in this rollicking tribute to Medieval times and chivalry. Graced with a first rate supporting cast/ensemble, this sleeper surprise is chock full of chuckles, romance, adventure and a soundtrack that rocks! Clever scripting, a first-rate cast, beautiful scenery and those awesome jousting scenes will leave you cheering for this Knight, day or night!
Rating: Summary: Fun family movie Review: Fun movie with a more modern soundtrack. Medieval times with people singing songs like WE WILL ROCK YOU! Good story line with jokes thrown in to keep it less serious. Fun to watch and goog for the whole family. Some violance but nothing graphic.
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