Martin Lawrence, Marsha Thomason
Hollywood can go to the well only so many times before coming up dry, which is why it may be time to give Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court a rest. While already the source for at least four films and several TV movies, Twain's plot is also the uncredited inspiration for Black Knight, a comedy in which even the swords are dull. Knight tries to freshen up Twain by putting a hip-hop spin on the time-travel jokes, but the result is all bad.
Lawrence (Big Momma's House) plays Jamal, a worker at a medieval theme park who, after falling into a moat, surfaces in 14th-century England near a castle. In one of Knight's rare moments of cleverness, Jamal announces he's from Normandie (a street in L.A.), and the courtiers, hearing "Normandy," welcome him as an honored visitor. Director Gil Junger (10 Things I Hate About You) clearly made Knight on the cheap—the extras act and dress as if recruited from a weekend Renaissance fair. Lawrence merely talks trash and jumps around as if he has been given a hotfoot. (PG-13)
Bottom Line: Stinketh
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