BLACK KNIGHT
In this hip-hop cinematic update of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in
King Arthur's Court (a long, long time ago the indomitable Bing Crosby
covered the same territory), Martin Lawrence plays a modern-day hack who falls
through a portal and finds himself in mediæval times. The title is
explained as a reference to a legendary knight in black armor, though there's
an obvious -- and unfortunate -- play on our hero's ethnicity.
Lawrence's Jamal Walker is a theme-park hand going nowhere in 2001, but as Sir
Skywalker in 14th-century England, his Sly and the Family Stone riffs and
streetwise wit ingratiate him with a dubious king (Kevin Conway) and make him a
coveted agent of espionage to an exiled queen. He thwarts an ill-boding
alliance with Normandy by accidentally sleeping with the king's not so virginal
daughter; later he teams up with a drunken knight (Tom Wilkinson of The Full
Monty) -- who nearly gets his face rubbed in shit -- to lead a ragtag mass
of rebels against their oppressive monarchy. The humor is scant yet barbed, be
it the Al Sharpton motivational speech or the contemporary innuendoes about
"getting busy." Lawrence does his best to carry the load, but director Gil
Junger (Ten Things I Hate About You) and a battalion of screenwriters
have catapulted their jive-talking star into a barren fiefdom. At the Apple
Valley, Entertainment, Flagship, Holiday, Hoyts Providence 16, Showcase, and
Tri-Boro cinemas.
Issue Date: November 23 - 29, 2001
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