1½ Knights - In Search of the Ravishing Princess Herzelinde
December. 20,2008The story of Lanze who is in love with the princess. One day the princess is kidnapped by the Dark Knight and Lanze starts his journey to rescue her. But he is not alone because Erdal, a turk, joins him on his journey.
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Well I must say first that lately I've become bored with movies. Kind of an overdose, really, with at least one or two movies a day for the last 3 years. Always the same plots, the same actors, the same styles, the same politically correct and, well, the same everything. So I saw this one thinking that it was going to be the same... again. And boy was I wrong! Of course, there are some "deja vu" things here : the spirit of Shrek, a scene from François Ier with Fernandel, some souvenirs from Princess Bride, some from Kaamelott... But all witty and with good rhythm, and curiously, somehow new. I loved the actors, all unknown to me (though strangely it's been like I've known them forever instantly) but all very good at their part, the casting is outstanding because every character is just so perfectly what you'd expect him/her to be, Lanze wear so seriously his ridiculous hairdo, the Black Knight is so charming, the king so good, the bad one so creepy, the princess so spoiled yet lovable... Anyway, I've spent a very entertaining moment, and I wasn't able to stop before the end, nor did I want to do so, though this has happened to me countless times for other movies lately. It's very well acted, and everything in it just feels right. For me, it's an instant classic. A great and lovable movie, really.
I just saw it at Lufthansa, maybe not the best motivation but I was pleasantly surprised anyway. For humor a German film would not be my first choice. I took the original German sound with English subtitles and appreciated that (being Dutch). The movie is not spectacular in its story or plot and has a classic happy end, but the mix between let's say full medieval scenery and very contemporary culture I found interesting and funny enough. For sure, there is some sex, but more as sound than image and on the level of relatively modest western moral standards, but I would say that adds to the fun of watching this movie. So why this movie? The photography is done very well, very nice to look at, spectacular fighting scenes sometimes, beautiful characters and clothing. It can be slow at times, and indeed never really hilarious, but actually I find that more of a compliment than when it would have gone over the top there. When you do not want a Hollywood film once again, don't want to be annoyed but instead just have entertaining watch time, this movie is a good choice.
I really was disappointed after watching this movie. The cast was promising, a lot of famous Germans actors and comedians are participating in this movie. Even the plot was promising but i don't know what happened. Some sequences were way too long, the beginning was lame and funny scenes weren't that funny. And this movie is NOT for the whole family, my advice: please leave your kids under 12 years at home, because an important topic is sex. I wished there were more funny moments in it. There is no spirit in this movie. Of course there were some points where i had to laugh, mostly when the character called Erdal was on screen. This was not a good German comedy.
Til Schweiger's performance was an absolute tragedy. Whereas Thomas Gottschalk was surprisingly good (for those who remember him in the "Supernasen"-moviews), Rick Kavanian as Erdal was very funny and Udo Kier creepy as always. On the pro side are the sets, costumes and the score. Those have international standard. The story is incredibly boring and many (no, almost all) jokes drain. What I personally found absolutely disgusting, was the fact that father and (15 year old) son were cast as homosexual lovers...just ugh! Overall, the movie was very disappointing. Especially after Til Schweiger's hilarious "Keinohrhasen".