Hey folks, Harry here... Well in combination with the FROM HELL test screening in Las Vegas review we have up today, this test screening review from Thousand Oaks, California has me reflecting my time spent on both sets in Prague last year. A KNIGHT'S TALE has been having wildly divergent opinions, depending entirely upon the acceptance or rejection of Helgeland's modern parallel to Stadium Sporting Events... To some it will taste like a steaming cow patty and to others... it may hit them as being genius... It all depends... Personally I really liked the latest A KNIGHT'S TALE trailer... but I do definitely leave room for the idea that this film could suck like very few films have sucked before if it doesn't all fit. For this one reader... it didn't fit....
Harry-
Longtime reader, first time contributor. I just came back from a test screening in Thousand Oaks, CA of A Knight's Tale written and directed by Brian Helgeland and starring Heath Ledger. The movie is about a peasant (played by Ledger) who cons his way into jousting tournaments and along the way wins the heart of his lady fair and finds the true meaning of courage and honor. I wanted to give you a quick break down of the film and my general impression.
It sucked.
Here's why: The movie opens innocently enough with a pre-credit sequence in some nondescript medieval setting with Heath Ledger as the peasant squire William Thatcher through a small twist of fate and a bit of chicanery replacing his nobleman sire in a jousting tournament. Opening credits as the joust is about to begin. Cut to scene of tournament audience clapping and stomping in unison an all too familiar rhythm: Stomp-stomp-clap! Stomp-stomp-clap! Cue Freddie Mercury vocal. Cue Brian May guitar. And the worst part of all...cut to close-up shots of various people in the crowd actually lip-synching "We will, we will, ROCK YOU!" And so begins the joust and my descent into Dante's 10th circle of Hell. Inside of three minutes what could have been a lighthearted medieval adventure became about as convincing and believable as a high school renaissance fair. And it doesn't stop there, other songs not to be written for at least 500 years featured prominently in the story include "You Shook Me All Night Long" , "The Boys Are Back In Town" , and most inexplicable of all "Golden Years" which turned a quaint banquet into the dance contest from Grease. The only thing missing was Heath Ledger doin' the hand jive. And there were other equally jarring modern references such as the gratuitous use of the Nike symbol, one character actually using the phrase "Give me a shout out London!", another character actually using the term "foxy lady", and the female lead's bizarre glam-rock hairstyles and make-up. All of these elements played a role in completely obliterating the film's credibility and maintaining even a moderate level of suspension of disbelief. I spent most of the film looking for wristwatches and sneakers on the actors.
But it would not be fair to blame the music and overuse of modern references on the utter suckiness of this film. It had many other horrible, horrible problems.
For one: a very weak story which at times was tedious and always cliche. There were several plot threads such as one character's gambling problem that went absolutely nowhere, and the motivation behind Ledger's character was at best vague. There were several points during the movie where I wasn't clear on why William was doing what he was doing. And the ending was so obvious it made Rocky IV look like The Sixth Sense.
Poor character development: I really didn't give a rat's ass about anyone in this film, although Ledger did struggle admirably to give William dimension, he eventually fell victim to a poor script. His love interest was uninteresting and at times unlikable, and all of the supporting cast was woefully underdeveloped. The only bright spot was the character of Geoffrey Chaucer (one and the same) who became William's herald, (he would introduce William to the crowd before he would joust.) He brought to the film its only moments of genuine humor.
Tedious action sequences: The bulk of this film's action sequences were of jousting. And you can only see a guy get knocked off a horse by a big wooden stick so many times. In this movie you see it about 50 times. It ceases to be interesting after the third or fourth time. This movie does for jousting what Over The Top did for arm-wrestling.
All in all I found this movie deeply disappointing not only because I lost two hours of my life I will never get back, but because I liked L.A. Confidential and Payback and know that Brian Helgeland is capable of much better.
-Charlie
