Anyhoo, the basic premise is about a peasant boy who wants to be a knight-- anyone who’s seen the preview can tell you that.  Getting into a little more detail, the story begins with Will (Ledger), Roland (Addy), and Wat (Tudyk) who are introduced as three poor squires to a recently deceased knight who has been competing in a jousting tournament (and must only win one final match to win the tournament).  Caught in this situation, Will convinces Roland and Wat that he can impersonate the knight and complete the tournament in place of the dead knight.  Will wins the match (and the tournament) without being discovered (it is against the law for peasants to compete in the tournaments) and all three squires get a taste of the wealth that can be made by impersonating the knight and set off to the next tournament.  

      Along the way they run into a naked Geoffrey Chaucer (Bettany) who teams up with them and becomes their promoter, a medieval version of Don King.  Chaucer is definitely the best character in the movie and provides a lot of wit and laughs.  The boys team up with a chick blacksmith too...she was a pretty shallow character (like most of the others now that I think about it) but there was only one major thing that bothered me about her.  She made some special armor for Will and she added her own little logo to it, for people to identify her work…..it was two Nike “swooshes”.  I just thought that was a little ridiculous…but whatever.  Anyway, a little love story goes on between Will and some princess (Princess Jocelyn played by Sossamon) and a little unfriendly competition with (the token bad guy) Count Adhemar (Sewell) results.  But who will win the World Jousting Championship and Princess Jocelyn’s heart?  And will Will be found out???  Tune in next week….I mean, see the movie to find out!

      Recommendation:  This is a fun, fun, fun film.  Shakespeare it ain’t but to some people that may be a good thing.  The plot is acceptable, the characters are amusing (except for the Princess—I thought she was annoying), and the jousting action is definitely a large part of the film.  You’ll laugh, you may even cry, but you’ll definitely be entertained.  It’s a good action/adventure movie with a good retro rock ‘n roll soundtrack.  Better than “The Mummy Returns” but not half as good as “Gladiator” (but what is?). 

     -- Patsy ( 2 1/2 out of 4 pops )

Talk about this film with other Popkorn Junkies

      Liz ( 2 out of 4 pops )

      I didn't know what to think of all the modern hoopla until I remembered that part of why I fell asleep during "Gladiator" was that I got bored with everyone taking themselves so seriously.  Pretending that something is great doesn't make it great and, unfortunately for "A Knight's Tale," going for cheap laughs doesn't make a movie great, either.  It does, however, make for some good afternoon entertainment.  I was surprisingly drawn into this one (probably give credit to Heath Ledger for that, and to the Chaucer character).  I thought the joust scenes were good but also too repetitive and I was sometimes confused as to who was who, with all that armor on and whatnot.  In fact, a lot of this movie was too repetitive.  Did anyone else notice that Chaucer's speeches are very, very similar?  And that they show the final jousting triumph twice??  I know the final scene was done for effect, but really.  This movie is definitely fluffy, but it is a fun kind of fluffy -- I just hope no twelve-year-olds decide to reference it in a report on medieval times. 

      Pappy ( 2 1/2 out of 4 pops )

      I enjoyed the film.  It got a little slow at about the 90 minute mark, and was very predictable.  I wish there were more anachronisms, as I think they really added to the film.  Most of the supporting characters did a good job, and the stripped down version of Chaucer was a lot of fun (well for a while anyway.).  Editing, production design, color, costumes were right on target, though I feel the action scenes should have produced a lot more excitement.  I think it was big mistake for our knight to have given up the swordplay as that may have helped add some much needed variety to the action.

      James  ( 3 1/2 out of 4 pops )

      While some people have bashed this movie for it's "modern" edge, that aspect worked out real well.  The only people saying that it's a copy of “Gladiator” are the ones who haven't seen it.  It's a nice little story of how a peasant-type-of-person tricked people of royalty into thinking he was a knight.  Heath Ledger plays that such person, and doesn't disappoint.  This movie is really funny, with some unknown (at least to me) actors doing quite well.  The supporting actors all give great performances.  Bettany and Tudyk are really hilarious!  Oh, and let's not forget Heath Ledger, he's funny too!  There's this scene when Bettany's character is teaching Ledger's character how to dance, and says Tudyk's character isn't leading, he's "following like a girl", and Tudyk's character punches Bettany's in the face.   Maybe some people can't take a medieval movie seriously when "We will, We Will, Rock You" is played in the beginning, but it's a nice movie to watch when you want to "escape". Please don't see crap like "The Mummy Returns", see this one instead.