A Knight's Tale is the rousing story of lowborn William Thatcher's (Heath
Ledger) quest to change his stars, win the heart of an exceedingly fair
maiden (Shannyn Sossamon) and rock his medieval world. Having seen the
preview trailer, with a raucous medieval crowd heartily belting out a
rendition of "We will rock you" by Queen, and seeing the tagline "He will
rock you" on the poster outside, made me wonder whether the melding of rock
music and medieval jousting would actually work, or whether this would add
to the growing pile of cheesy unsuccessful summer movies. But it did.

Combining excellent jousting scenes and the comedic partnership of Heath
Ledger and his band of merry men (Mark Addy, Alan Tudyk and a fantastic turn
from Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer), the strange formula of classic rock
and cheesy humour (check the Nike logo on the armour) along with a
smattering of romance and an excellent evil villain (a crazy-eyed Rufus
Sewell) make for a pretty good flick. Thanks to the light-hearted way the
movie takes itself, and the excellent one-liners that keep the laughs
flowing, it is most definitely a good fun movie for most of the family.
(Don't miss the most amusing extra scene when the credits have finished!)

Alistair Power 3/9/01