A Knight's Tale

A 14th century jousting adventure set to the tune of guitar rock stadium anthems? Trust me, when the crowd at a tournament starts stomping its feet in time and bellowing "we will, we will, rock you," a mere five minutes into the movie, it's awfully hard not to grin and go along for the ride. Hunk-in-waiting Heath Ledger stars as the lowborn peasant who poses as a knight to become the hero of the jousting world, and while this is basically a transplanted sports-underdog plot, writer-director Brian Helgeland uses this cliché-spawn chassis as a jumping-off point for a jocular, high energy theme-park ride, full of action (the jousting face-offs will knock you off your horse), wisecracks (a hip Geoffrey Chaucer is Ledger's sidekick) and romance (one of his fans is a courtly hottie). A classic? No way. Absurd? Duh. Fun? You bet. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)[DVD Review—Oct. 6, 2005—Sony, 144 min., not rated, $14.95—Making its third appearance on DVD, 2001's A Knight's Tale: Extended Cut sports a nice looking transfer with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. The only new DVD extra on this release is the incorporation of approximately 10 minutes of deleted scenes (which were available separately on the original DVD) into the film. Other DVD extras from the previous release include 11 behind-the-scenes featurettes— such as “The Rock Music Scene in 1370,” “You Never Know What You'll Find in a Czech Prop House,” and “The Rules of Love”—as well as a 36-minute “Heath Ledger Profile,” a 15-minute HBO “making-of” special, and the music video “We Are the Champions” performed by Robbie Williams and Queen. Bottom line: if you own the original, you don't really need this (over)extended cut.]