Here's a Yankee in Camelot movie, only instead of Bing Crosby It's Martin Lawrence. They put an awful lot of money and time into this movie just so Martin could run around and react to everything.
Upon re-watching it I think it's okay. It doesn't try to pretend to be this great cinematic story about rebellion in the 13th century and it doesn't try to act realistic.
People are wandering around having fun and dealing with the mysteries of living in a feudal society. Interspaced with Martin Lawrence overly exaggerating every scene and immediately connecting with people because he thinks it's part of some Renaissance Fair attraction.
In that regard it does everything as you would expect.
Man gets dropped into unfamiliar environment, thinks it's fictional, realises its actual and then has a conflict of interest as he wants to leave this world but simultaneously protect the good people within it because he realises that hypocrisy or corrupt nature of the kingdom is currently in.
At the same time he'll learn to grow as a person and have some interconnecting romance with one of the courtiers or royalty of the castle.
In this case that's with Marsha Thomason. A woman who's not actually a royal, she's just a typical servant but still comes off as slightly upper class because of her clothing and mannerisms. And I find it kind of funny that Marsha Thomason is putting in such a decent performance as a Medieval woman having the very Victorian voice when Martin Lawrence is just sitting there spouting off his typical American accent.
I think this is one of those films that several years ago would have been looked down on but at this point it's just a little too quaint to be upset about.
Given how ridiculous films have become over the years. It's kind of nice to see a movie that wants to be a medieval story with a 20th century person plot in just for comedic fun.
They don't try to play up any sort of stupid drama or needless politics about the inter-working of the day.
We don't even get any racial crap in this film. Well I guess there's one exception with some people calling the guy a Moor but that's more out of ignorance and lack of knowledge then some sort of prejudice. Honestly that's been something of a running joke in medieval literature for well over 200 years now.
I'm trying to remember why I owned this movie. This is one of the very first DVDs I ever possessed and I have no idea where it came from. It just kind of popped up one day and I've had it ever since.
Is the film all that great?
No not really but if you just want a fun medieval romp than you can certainly do worse than this. I'd still recommend it over those Lord of the Rings movies.
Yeah they might be big cinematic experiences but they take 9 hours to get through. This movie hits all the same beats and gets done and over with in about an hour and a half. We can get a dramatic moment for one of our main Heroes is shot with an arrow and dies. Just like The Fellowship of the Ring.
I'm surprised we didn't have a scene in this movie where Martin Lawrence's character has to deal with the medieval lack of Dentistry.
The first three minutes of the film is just him brushing his teeth and showing how obsessive he is over cleanliness and his personal image. They do anything with that in the movie. Outside of one scene where the king is dishing out food and then lets a dog eat meat out of his hand before serving them peas with the same hand.
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