"You're just a silly boy with a horse and a stick..."

A KNIGHT'S TALE (PG-13)

Reviewed May 30, 2001 - Check out the A Knight's Tale Website.

Studio Synopsis: Inspired by "The Canterbury Tales," this is the story of William (Heath Ledger), a young squire with a gift for jousting. After his master dies suddenly, the squire hits the road with his cohorts Roland (Mark Addy) and Wat (Alan Tudyk). On the journey, they stumble across an unknown writer, Chaucer (Paul Bettany). William, lacking a proper pedigree, convinces Chaucer to forge genealogy documents that will pass him off as a knight. With his newly-minted history in hand, the young man sets out to prove himself a worthy knight at the country's jousting competition, and finds romance along the way.

Fuzzydog Review: Fun, action-packed, but absolutely lighter than a feather, A Knight's Tale is an odd Gladiator-meets-Rocky-meets-the WWF combination that misses almost as often as it hits. Yes, there are some great action moments here, and Paul Bettany's performance as Chaucer is by itself almost worth the price of admission, but other "artistic choices" made in the production of this film just don't quite pan out. Having a medieval crowd singing to Queen's "We Will Rock You" may have sounded good on paper, but in A Knight's Tale it just comes off as silly. Yup, it's a fine line between hip and stupid. :P

Still, there are enough entertaining moments to at least keep A Knight's Tale from being boring...and for that the film deserves some credit. If you can "leave your brain at the door" (as they say), you might actually like this movie!!