Black Knight (2001) |
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Black Knight (2001) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Audio Commentary-Gil Junger (Director) Featurette-Martin on Filmmaking: Meet Sir Knolte Featurette-Martin on Filmmaking: Saddle Sores Outtakes Featurette-A Timeless Friendship Featurette-Pratfalls & Parapets Storyboard Comparisons-Rope-A-Dope; The Coliseum Featurette-Construction Deleted Scenes-3 +/- director's commentary Featurette-Choreography Theatrical Trailer-2 |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2001 | ||
| Running Time | 91:42 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (50:08) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Gil Junger |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Twentieth Century Fox |
Starring |
Martin Lawrence Marsha Thomason Tom Wilkinson Vincent Regan |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $31.95 | Music | None Given |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0  (96Kb/s)
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
Croatian Czech Danish English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish English Audio Commentary |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Even though the movie will never win any critical praise, I must say that there were a few moments that had me laughing out loud. These were mainly due to the antics of Martin Lawrence - the way he gets ready for his day in front of a mirror is hilarious. He's obviously very good at comedic improvisation, but the movie as a whole, with its by-the-book script, doesn't dazzle or excite in any major way. It's a formulaic feel-good comedy that should make for an enjoyable Sunday afternoon in front of the TV (give me the footy any day though), but is ultimately forgettable.
The video transfer is very good, which is to be expected for a recently released movie.
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2:35 and is 16x9 enhanced.
The sharpness level throughout is very good, but there are many scenes with a large amount of smoke that tend to make it more difficult to judge the level of sharpness and the black level. It is nice to note that even with a lot of smoke in many scenes, I could not detect any noise or pixelization issues. Many scenes occur in darkly lit areas, but low level noise was minimal. In fact, I have to say that the video quality seems very film-like.
Colours are very good, with no oversaturation. Skin tones and costume colours are normal, and the earthy colours of the old English countryside are handled well.
One great point about the transfer is the lack of edge enhancement and aliasing. I cannot remember finding any instances of these annoying artefacts, and their absence contributed to the nice look of the transfer. A small number of black specks can be seen at various times during the movie, but are only noticeable if specifically looking for them.
Lots of subtitle are provided on this disc. I had a look at the English subtitles and the translation was pretty much spot-on with the spoken dialogue.
This is an RSDL-formatted disc with the layer change occurring at 50:08. The layer change occurs during a dark scene transition, and the pause is only minor and is not distracting.
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An English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is provided for this transfer, as well as an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio commentary track. I listened to both tracks.
The dialogue was always clear and easy to understand. There were no audio synch issues.
The music is also quite good, especially for those R&B fans among you. The score itself supports the on-screen action well. I must say that the token music number in the movie does not pay off too well, but at least the audio transfer makes it enjoyable from a technical point of view.
The soundtrack offers quite an immersive soundfield. The surrounds are very active, with great directional effects on offer during a number of the more exciting scenes in the movie (eg. a helicopter fly-by, and a near-miss car crash at 2:50). Ambient noise is used throughout, especially during forest scenes, with birds chirping away in the surrounds.
The subwoofer was called into action to support the battle scenes, but was mainly used throughout for the great R&B music.
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There are quite a large number of extras on this disc which provide some interesting behind-the-scenes information. Most, though, are not all that interesting.
Director Gil Junger talks fairly candidly about the movie, and describes some fairly interesting behind-the-scenes issues and antics. He is obviously grateful for being given the opportunity to direct the movie, and seems to have had fun making it. There are short pauses during the commentary, but overall he talks fairly continuously throughout the movie and thankfully is not just describing the on-screen action.
This featurette has Lawrence describing the scene where Jamal meets Knolte. Lawrence also discusses working with Tom Wilkinson, with the usual "it was great to work with him" rhetoric. It is not 16x9 enhanced, which is fairly annoying considering most of the featurette is just a repeat of the scene from the movie. The video and audio quality are sufficient and are of normal TV quality.
This featurette has Lawrence describing the comedic scene where Jamal rides the horse for the first time. Lawrence describes the physical nature of the scene, his admiration for the stunt people, and the difficulties encountered acting with animals. Again it is not 16x9 enhanced, but the video and audio quality are sufficient and are of normal TV quality.
These are a number of outtakes from the movie that are mostly quite boring, with a lot of them being staged.
This featurette has the cast and crew describing the major characters in turn and is fairly interesting.
This featurette describes the many action scenes during the movie, and how the stunts were coordinated. It also describes the fighting scenes and choreography.
Shows a comparison between the storyboard and final scene for the fight scene with Knolte and Jamal up against some thugs.
Shows a comparison between the storyboard and final scene for the ending to the movie.
This featurette describes the production design of the large sets in the movie, and how the research, sketches, and models were done.
This featurette describes the choreography of the musical number in the movie.
These are all non-16x9 enhanced, with quite terrible video and audio quality. It does not look like the video and audio have been treated in any way and may be the original dailies during the movie making process. These can be played on their own or with accompanying commentary from director Gil Junger.
This is presumably the international trailer, and is not 16x9 enhanced. Video and audio quality are OK.
This is the US only trailer, and is not 16x9 enhanced. Video and audio quality are OK.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on
The video quality is very good.
The audio quality is excellent, with great R&B music.
The extras are good. Overall they provide a good insight into the movie and its making.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Onkyo DV-SP500, using Component output |
| Display | RK-32HDP81. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Audio Decoder | Onkyo TX-SR600 with DD/DD-EX/DTS/DTS-ES matrix and discrete. |
| Amplification | Onkyo TX-SR600 |
| Speakers | Kef KHT 2005 5.1 Home Theatre System |