Black Knight
The 2001 Martin Lawrence comedy where a modern theme-park worker falls in a moat and wakes up in medieval England, fish-out-of-water antics ensuing. A critical flop that a whole generation still somehow watched on cable a dozen times.
Black Knight, released in November 2001 and directed by Gil Junger, starred Martin Lawrence as Jamal Walker, a jaded employee at a rundown medieval-themed amusement park called Medieval World. When Jamal tumbles into the park's moat, he's transported to actual medieval England in 1328, where he's mistaken for a messenger and swept up in a rebellion against a tyrant king — deploying modern slang, attitude, and pop-culture references on very confused peasants.
Critics were merciless. Against a roughly $50 million budget the film grossed only about $39.9 million worldwide and scored in the teens on Rotten Tomatoes, landing as an outright box-office bomb. It arrived the same year as the flashier medieval romp A Knight's Tale, and never found that film's affection from reviewers.
And yet it endured in the most 2000s way possible — through relentless cable rotation. For a certain age group, Black Knight is less a movie they chose than one that was simply always on, a comfort-flop absorbed by osmosis on lazy weekend afternoons.
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A Knight's Tale
The 2001 jousting movie that made Heath Ledger a star and opened with a medieval crowd stomping and clapping along to Queen's "We Will Rock You." A period adventure that gleefully refused to act its age.
Medieval Times
Dinner and a tournament: jousting knights on horseback, a whole roast chicken eaten with your bare hands, and a whole section of the arena screaming for its color-coded knight. The birthday-and-field-trip institution that a Jim Carrey movie made unforgettable.
Martin Lawrence
A shape-shifting comedy force. On Martin he played a Detroit radio DJ—and an entire neighborhood of other characters: Sheneneh, Mama Payne, Jerome, Dragonfly Jones. The show was one of Fox's highest-rated and made him a star; stand-up and movies (Bad Boys, Big Momma's House) carried the run into the 2000s.
40 Days and 40 Nights
A romantic comedy built on a very 2002 premise: a heartbroken San Francisco web designer swears off all sexual contact for the 40 days of Lent — right as he meets the perfect woman. Josh Hartnett at the peak of his heartthrob moment, opposite Shannyn Sossamon.