There is a line from Alexander Payne's 2004 masterpiece Sideways, in which Paul Giamatti's lonely and depressed Miles describes his lack of purpose in the world as feeling like "a smudge of excrement on a tissue, surging out to sea with a million tons of raw sewage," that has always stuck with me. It's a beautiful, poetic line he attributes to the work of Charles Bukowski, although I don't think it was, which perfectly encapsulates his feelings of emptiness. During my viewing of Black Knight, it occurred to me that this line also sums up the cinematic career of Martin Lawrence, black stereotype extraordinaire.His belief-beggaringly successful TV career made graduated into movies in the late 1990's, and cinema was forced to endure his mixture of prat-falling and tough-guy gun-totin', to which he was convincing at neither. But perhaps I'm being unfair to Lawrence as, after all, Black Knight was written, financed, cast, produced and directed by a whole host of people. all of whom should hang their heads in shame. It is a generic time-travel, culture-clash story in which theme-park layabout Jamal (Lawrence) is transported back to Medieval England, where he faces a corrupt king (Kevin Conway) and his douchebag enforcer (Vincent Regan).Never mind the complete disregard for anything resembling historical accuracy, offensively stereotypical black characters, the dirt-cheap production design, and the baffling sight of Tom Wilkinson (who, to quote my step-dad, must have been short of a few bob), it's the comedy void that we are thrown head first into that makes Black Knight a truly torturous experience. Clearly the writers think that a shout of "holler!" or the sight of a bunch of white people trying to dance is an acceptable substitute for comedy. An unforgivable experience.

Jamal Walker (Martin Lawrence) is a selfish slacker medieval park employee. The owner hoped for better for Jamal and her rundown park. Now another park Castle World is opening down the road and Jamal wants to abandon ship before it sinks. He sees a brilliant medallion in the moat and he tries to get it. It pulls him into 14th-century England. Jamal meets disheveled Sir Knolte (Tom Wilkinson). He wanders into the court of the usurper King Leo when he's mistaken for a messenger from Normandy. He meets beautiful Victoria (Marsha Thomason) who is one of the king's chambermaids and the king's viscous henchman Percival (Vincent Regan) . He thinks it's Castle World until somebody gets beheaded.Martin Lawrence is not funny by himself. His idiocy needs another person to bounce off of in a buddy duo. Alone, he's just an annoying jackass. He definitely has a ton of energy but he doesn't have the script. The setting looks like a built up Medieval Times. The King has a funny line early on where Martin Lawrence keeps failing to ride the horse even after everyone has stopped laughing. Even when it is no longer funny. He never gives up on the joke. That's the central core of the movie. It's not funny, but it doesn't stop Martin Lawrence from trying over and over again.

I don't think that this film was even one tenth as bad as many of the reviews I've seen. First, it should be taken in the spirit of which is was obviously made, fun, light comedy. Certainly, it didn't break any "new ground," and I doubt that it will be remembered along with "Some Like It Hot." As much as I initially wanted to HATE this film, I thought it was a noble effort by the star, who was wise enough to surround himself with supremely talented British actors (many from the legitimate stage) who both accurately embodied the realism of the time, and possessed the chops to pull it off. Yes, it used all of the typical ghetto dialogue and Hollywood plots, but it did it with such clever wit and attitude that I wound up being quite charmed by the film. Again, if you're looking for "Malcolm X," don't bother. But for an afternoon's amusement, good, clean fun. I have no qualms about saying that I enjoyed it.

After seeing Big Momma's House and of course Bad Boys, I was keen to see quite a few of the black leading actor's films, even the ones that are not highly rated by the critics, but this one sounded worth a go at least. Basically at Castle World, the shabby and low profit medieval themed amusement park, is low level worker Jamal Walker (Martin Lawrence), who is magically transported back to England in the 14th Century by a special medallion in the moat. He explores the woods and eventually the kingdom, he believes for a while that everyone around him is acting like they are in the medieval times, even after seeing the old way of using the toilet, a beheading confirms the time he is in though. While there, Jamal is mistaken as a messenger from Normandy, and trying to fit in as best as he can, i.e. getting on with King Leo (Kevin Conway) and all the other people around him, of course his modern day ghetto attitude doesn't always fit. He also has many encounters with the beautiful Victoria the Chambermaid (The Haunted Mansion's Marsha Thomason), who reveals there is a plot to kill the king, she is part of it, because he has been hated by many people for quite some time. Jamal, claiming himself as both a messenger and a jester, and donning the name "Sir Skywalker", has also gained an enemy with the mean Sir Percival, Leo's Chief Henchman (Vincent Regan). There is a legend of the Black Knight, it may in fact be Jamal who that legend refers too, as he does gain bravery to get Victoria and Sir Knolte of Marlborough (Tom Wilkinson) on side to make armour and go against the bad guys and return the rightful Queen to the throne. Eventually Jamal decides it is best to return to the present day, via the way he came, he is sad to leave Victoria behind, but he may have in fact found her again with modern reincarnation Nicole (still Thomason), before falling back in the moat again and transported into a Gliator themed arena. Also starring Jeannette Weegar as Princess Regina - Leo's Daughter, Daryl Mitchell as Steve and Michael Burgess as Ernie. Lawrence with his cheeky-chappy persona is quite funny most of the time in this film, and the modern day mixing with the olden days format is amusing in many moments, so it's a reasonable comedy. Okay!