Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are currently making "Bad Boys 2", but never have two careers diverged so much since they worked together on the 1995 original.
Will has racked up two "Men in Black", an "Independence Day", and an Oscar nod for "Ali". Martin has mixed well-publicised battles with drink and drugs with a string of turkeys which we thought had reached a peak this year with the execrable "What's the Worst That Could Happen?".
But then along comes "Black Knight", 90 minutes of laboured, lumbering
and laugh-free comedy that's desperate to get a laugh out of us but fails on every level.
Lawrence plays Jamal, a disgruntled employee at a medieval theme park in Los Angeles who gets a dose of the real thing when he falls in the moat and wakes up in
the Middle Ages. This attempt to go back in time to bring a touch of earthy ethnic humour to medieval England is a well-worn device that first surfaced in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", but anyone expecting any new twists should look elsewhere.
Quickly falling foul of the King's right hand man, evil Sir Percy (Regan), Jamal
finds himself teaming up with a pretty maid (Thomason) to help her overthrow the tyrannical king. And for some reason, Oscar nominated actor Tom Wilkinson ("In the Bedroom") turns up as an alcoholic knight who assists Jamal in his quest.
Not surprisingly, Lawrence's bumbling antics and references to Al Sharpton
and Rodney King leave the folk of 14th century England stony-faced. But
that's nothing to how you'll feel if you waste your hard-earned on this
clumsy farce.
Black Knight (2002)
