One sensory-driven, offbeat adventure—especially in Blu-ray.
Ledger turns in a decent performance as the commoner who takes up armor and lance first to provide a meal for himself and his friends, but then in order to act out the part of the knight that he always dreamed of becoming as a young boy. You can change your stars, he's determined to prove, and as Sir Ulrich, with Chaucer's help, Will becomes a bit of a populist hero. The plot isn't terribly complex, however. It's structured like a sports film, with joust after joust leading up to one final showdown between Will and his nemesis (Rufus Sewell). Intercut are interludes that are part romantic and part showcase for his goofy entourage, which includes Chaucer, the rotund and quick-witted Roland (Mark Addy), the dense and fiery Wat (Alan Tudyk), and a slightly anachronistic female blacksmith and armor-maker named Kate (Laura Fraser). The entire film was shot in the Czech republic, and while the subscript announces different locations for the jousting contests in France, if every "stadium" starts to look the same, it's because there were just two jousting sets—one for Rouen, France, and the other to represent London.
Sewell plays the ignoble noble Count Adhemar with all the relish and flair of that chariot-racing Messala in "Ben-Hur." And like Messala, whose wheels were rigged with illegal spoke-shredding blades, the Count shows up to joust against Will/Ulrich with illegally tipped lances and trademark lances that have a clenched fist on the end. And that little anachronism ought to make "Top Secret!" fans laugh out loud, it looks so similar to the "anal intruder" gag from that film.
Video: I couldn't tell much of a difference in sharpness or color levels between the Special and Extended Cut editions, but the first thing you notice with this Blu-ray release is that it offers less color saturation, but with a truer overall look. When you compare the Extended or Special editions to the Blu-ray picture, it almost looks as if the early editions have a slightly yellowish to orangey cast to them. The Blu-ray colors actually look more natural by comparison, with less haloing. The presentation is 2.35:1, with the resolution a full 1920x1080p—or, as the packaging is fond of proclaiming, "pure picture . . . true to the original source master." And it does look great. The black levels could have been just a tad higher for my taste, but otherwise the picture was sharp and pulled in detail that you couldn't see on the previous releases.
Audio: Pure uncompressed PCM 5.1 sound really makes the lively soundtrack really thump and with energetic bass, a bright-sounding timbre, and great movement across the front main and center speakers. And what a collection of tunes! Songs include Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business," Rare Earth's "Get Ready," Thin Lizzy's "The Boy's Are Back in Town," War's "Low Rider," and David Bowie's "Golden Years." The six channel sound was made for DVDs like this.
Extras: The Extended edition was crammed with extras—11 featurettes on "The Rock Music Scene in 1370," "Sexy Armor & a Rock Band on Tour," "You Never Know What You'll Find in a Czech Prop House," "School of Hard Knocks," "Tournaments—a Cross Between Pro Football and Stock Car Racing," "The Marquee Event," "The World's 1st Sports Promoter," "Stories for the People," "The Rules of Love," "Heath Ledger Profile," and "A Director's Quest." Do you think it would have killed them to include ONE of them here? Once again, we get the single-layer transfer lament. There are zero extras here. Zip. Nada. Not even a making-of special and Queen music video from the first release.
Bottom Line: "A Knight's Tale" is fun and energetic, though the length works against the energy level at times, with some of the scenes begging to be shortened. In the end, though, it's the populist theme, the humor, the anachronisms, and the grand spectacle that save the day. This is one sensory-driven, offbeat adventure—especially in Blu-ray.
Sewell plays the ignoble noble Count Adhemar with all the relish and flair of that chariot-racing Messala in "Ben-Hur." And like Messala, whose wheels were rigged with illegal spoke-shredding blades, the Count shows up to joust against Will/Ulrich with illegally tipped lances and trademark lances that have a clenched fist on the end. And that little anachronism ought to make "Top Secret!" fans laugh out loud, it looks so similar to the "anal intruder" gag from that film.
Video: I couldn't tell much of a difference in sharpness or color levels between the Special and Extended Cut editions, but the first thing you notice with this Blu-ray release is that it offers less color saturation, but with a truer overall look. When you compare the Extended or Special editions to the Blu-ray picture, it almost looks as if the early editions have a slightly yellowish to orangey cast to them. The Blu-ray colors actually look more natural by comparison, with less haloing. The presentation is 2.35:1, with the resolution a full 1920x1080p—or, as the packaging is fond of proclaiming, "pure picture . . . true to the original source master." And it does look great. The black levels could have been just a tad higher for my taste, but otherwise the picture was sharp and pulled in detail that you couldn't see on the previous releases.
Audio: Pure uncompressed PCM 5.1 sound really makes the lively soundtrack really thump and with energetic bass, a bright-sounding timbre, and great movement across the front main and center speakers. And what a collection of tunes! Songs include Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business," Rare Earth's "Get Ready," Thin Lizzy's "The Boy's Are Back in Town," War's "Low Rider," and David Bowie's "Golden Years." The six channel sound was made for DVDs like this.
Extras: The Extended edition was crammed with extras—11 featurettes on "The Rock Music Scene in 1370," "Sexy Armor & a Rock Band on Tour," "You Never Know What You'll Find in a Czech Prop House," "School of Hard Knocks," "Tournaments—a Cross Between Pro Football and Stock Car Racing," "The Marquee Event," "The World's 1st Sports Promoter," "Stories for the People," "The Rules of Love," "Heath Ledger Profile," and "A Director's Quest." Do you think it would have killed them to include ONE of them here? Once again, we get the single-layer transfer lament. There are zero extras here. Zip. Nada. Not even a making-of special and Queen music video from the first release.
Bottom Line: "A Knight's Tale" is fun and energetic, though the length works against the energy level at times, with some of the scenes begging to be shortened. In the end, though, it's the populist theme, the humor, the anachronisms, and the grand spectacle that save the day. This is one sensory-driven, offbeat adventure—especially in Blu-ray.
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[release]18578[/release]