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Black Knight
Black Knight
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gil Junger
Written by	Darryl J. Quarles; Peter Gaulke; Gerry Swallow
Produced by	Arnon Milchan; Darryl J. Quarles; Michael Green; Paul Schiff
Starring	Martin Lawrence
Cinematography	Ueli Steiger
Edited by	Michael R. Miller
Music by	Randy Edelman
Production; companies	Regency Enterprises; New Regency; Runteldat Entertainment; The Firm, Inc.
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	November 21, 2001;
Running time	95 minutes
Countries	United States; Poland
Language	English
Budget	$50 million
Box office	$39.9 million

Black Knight is a 2001 American fantasy adventure buddy comedy film directed by Gil Junger and starring Martin Lawrence with Marsha Thomason, Tom Wilkinson, Vincent Regan, and Kevin Conway in supporting roles. In the film, Lawrence plays Jamal, a theme park employee who is transported through time to medieval England. The film was shot at various locations in North Carolina, mainly Wilmington and Carolina Beach. Black Knight was theatrically released on November 21, 2001 to negative reviews and grossed $39.9 million against a production budget of $50 million.

Plot

Slacker Jamal Walker works at Medieval World theme park, which is about to have big competition from Castle World. Mostly Jamal’s boss is disappointed in him for running away from responsibility. While cleaning the moat, he tries to retrieve a medallion and gets sucked into 1328 England.

Meeting the drunkard Knolte, then finding what he believes is Castle World, he goes to investigate. They believe he is a French Moor, from Normandy, as he says he is from Florence and Normandie, a famous intersection in LA.

Jamal is taken to King Leo, who assumes he is the Normandy messenger he's expecting to unite England and Normandy. He realizes it isn't a theme park after witnessing the beheading of a rebel leader. Introducing himself as Jamal "Sky" Walker, his high school basketball nickname, he gains the king's trust by accidentally preventing his assassination and is made a lord and head of security.

Nubian Chambermaid Victoria tells Jamal the king overthrew the former queen, but he tells her he can't help. Debating with her, she insists his medallion deems him to be a man of honor. However she leaves, frustrated with his cowardice.

Later that night, Princess Regina, the king's daughter who is infatuated with Jamal, sneaks into his bed. He believes she is Victoria, so sleeps with her. The real Norman messenger arrives, seeking Princess Regina's hand in marriage for his liege, so Jamal is exposed as a fraud. The infuriated king throws him into the dungeon to be executed.

In the dungeon, two failed assassins talk of the Black Knight, who could not be bought nor bribed, and fought for justice. He had been swallowed whole with a gold sword by a fierce dragon, so he cut himself from its belly and could then breathe the fire of the dragon.

Brought forth for execution, as a last resort Jamal claims to be a sorcerer and attempts to scare the superstitious onlookers to escape. As the executioner begins to choke on an apple, the crowd believes Jamal cast a spell of death upon him. In the commotion, he saves him with the Heimlich Maneuver.

Using this distraction and flaming arrows fired from outside the walls, Jamal escapes the castle with Victoria and Knolte's aid. He learns that Knolte had been the former queen's knight who was disgraced when she lost her throne. Jamal soon understands he must help overthrow King Leo and help restore the queen.

With some effort, Jamal convinces the decimated rebels and townsfolk to overthrow the king together while noting that King Leo is no King Arthur. Using modern-day tactics from American football and pro wrestling, he gives the peasants the means to fight the armed and armored king's guards. Out of gratitude, Knolte teaches Jamal some basic sword-fighting manoeuvres, and also suggests a way to have an advantage in the upcoming battle.

The next day, Knolte and the rebels storm the castle, only to be surrounded by guards and Leo's bodyguard, Percival. Seemingly outmatched, the rebels are pushed back. The tide turns briefly when the legendary Black Knight charges in, breathing fire and scattering the guards, but he falls from his horse and is revealed to be Jamal.

Using their newfound skills, the peasants overpower the guards. But Percival's longbow severely wounds Knolte, and he takes Victoria hostage. When a scared King Leo asks Percival for safety, seeing Leo as pathetic and weak, Percival kills Leo and he is thrown into the moat. Charging to the rescue, Jamal surprises Percival with his fighting skills, knocking him out and rescuing Victoria. However, Percival comes to and is then shot dead by Knolte before he can kill Jamal. Jubilation abounds when the rebels are victorious.

After the queen's reign is restored, Jamal is knighted. During the dubbing, he awakes back at Medieval World surrounded by his co-workers and a medical team, who saved him from the moat, implying that his entire adventure was a dream. Jamal's whole attitude changes from his experience, and he helps to improve Medieval World, so they won't go out of business.

Later on, walking around the new Medieval World, Jamal meets Nicole, who looks just like Victoria. They talk a little, and he asks her out to lunch. Unfortunately, he forgets to get her number, and when he runs after her, he accidentally falls back into the moat, waking up in the Colosseum of Ancient Rome, where he is about to be devoured by lions, so he runs.

Cast

Martin Lawrence as Jamal Walker/"Sky" Walker, a Medieval World worker who ends up in Medieval times.
Marsha Thomason as:
- Victoria, a chambermaid.
- Nicole, a woman in the present day who resembles Victoria.
Tom Wilkinson as Sir Knolte of Marlborough, a knight who allies with Jamal.
Kevin Conway as King Leo, a tyrannical king.
Vincent Regan as Percival, King Leo's bodyguard.
Daryl Mitchell as Steve
Michael Countryman as Phillip
Jeannette Weegar as Princess Regina, the daughter of King Leo.
Erik Jensen as Derek
Dikran Tulaine as Dennis
Helen Carey as the unnamed Queen who was overthrown by King Leo.
Robert Alan Harris as King Leo's Squire
Richard Fullerton as Will

Production

Development

The film was announced to release on November 21, 2001 by Fox.^[2]

Reception

Box office

The film opened at #4 at the U.S. box office on its opening weekend with $11.2 million.^[3] Black Knight grossed $39.9 million worldwide against a $50 million budget, making it a box office bomb.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 15% of 98 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Black Knight feels like a lazily constructed movie, filled with lame gags and constant mugging from Lawrence."^[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 32 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.^[5] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.^[6]

The film has also drawn attention from scholars. Addressing it as one of the few contemporary films that cast African American characters in medieval settings, Laurie A. Finke and Martin B. Shichtman noted that the film provided commentary on early 21st-century race relations in the United States, noting that despite his triumphs in the medieval setting, by the end, Jamal "continues to live in white America, which requires hybridity, not dominance, from African American men. He may be a better man for his excellent medieval adventure, but he is still black, poor, underemployed, and living in the hood.”^[7]