A Knight's Tale

Let's do this thang..

"We will rock you!"
Yeaah.. No..

The first movie I'll be reviewing is Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale featuring the always lovely Heath Ledger. In this film, a cocky squire replaces his knight master in a jousting tournament during the Medieval-est of times. He creates a fake sir-name (see what I did there?) and continues to dominate tournaments throughout the land, only to fall in love with a Lady and make enemies with the Jousting World Champ. Can Heath deceive everyone but still rule the sport and remain happy? Well, no. But, it was entertaining to watch..

.. And I don't mean that in the best of ways.

Smile for me, Heath.

   Everything in this movie is fun and quirky, the latter overcoming the first definitely. A Knight's Tale is a prime example of an averagely good movie; every scene is fine, the jokes are fine, the acting is fine, and even the musical score is sub-par, more on this later. Watching this film alone is fine and dandy, but I do presume that the entire experience will be much more enjoyable with close friends or family. There aren't any mature scenes or any excess of blood loss, which is surprising since this movie focuses around the grueling sport of Jousting. 

God damn! Gimme some blood, raah!

  The beginning sequence alone was enough for me to stand up and leave the room. There was no hook in this movie. Not to mention the awful yellow words that might as well say, "this movie is mediocre." But hell, if Star Wars can do it, why not this? As a movie critic, I had to finish the movie. Luckily, I was surprised to see Queen's "We Will Rock You" being lip-synced by the jousting tourney's audience. Whoopee. 

  Once the actual plot started forming, I felt tempted to continue watching. Heath Ledger with dreads is simply not something one can walk away from. Then, bam! It hit me like a ton of bricks; this film is a comedy that was improperly labelled "action-adventure". Paul Bettany, who is known from such films as Priest and Legion, plays Geoffrey and almost single-handedly rescues A Knight's Tale. His character was the comedic remedy that was completely needed. Though he was genuinely hysterical, a lot of this movie was. But not on purpose.

The only man with a Whispering Eye

  Take for instance the musical score that didn't score at all; whose idea was it to play The Boys are Back when they returned to London? I mean, c'mon. Or even better/worse, the leading lady, Jocelyn. It's none-other than Shannyn Sossamon, who in every aspect, does not resemble someone of English royalty. Worst of all was the apparent antagonist, Count Adhemar (played by Rufus Sewell). Needless to say, he was neither really intimidating nor truly vile.
   Good news though! It's not complete shit poop. I will admit to laughing out loud a couple of times and adoring to the heartfelt moments. Ledger and the cast did impressive jobs as their characters, accompanied by a couple of laughable accents. Even the actions scene when it was jouster against jouster was laced with anticipation, though admittingly enough, there is just something lack-luster about Jousting. That single fault alone could make or break the entire movie experience. IMDB gave this movie a 6.7/10 and Rotten Tomatoes scores it 58% rotten, which is bad. Despite these scores, I will say with confidence that this film is definitely watchable. If one day, you are bored and scanning through your Netflix library or movie rental place, watch it carefully. It just might surprise you.

A Knight's Tale is 132 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for violence, nudity, and brief-sex related dialogue. Thank you.