Sorry, this movie sucks

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

In one of his books Terry Pratchett describes a light that would "make Steven Spielberg reach for his copyright lawyer." I've always felt Mr. Andersons book was like that light. It was the sort of thing Spielberg or Lucas or the Disney studios could grab and run with. Unfortunately this version is a stumbling fumble. Hopefully Lucas or Spielberg or someone will read the book one day and go for a remake and we can forget that this wasted effort ever existed. My children bought me the DVD of this movie because I'd told them for years that someday the book would be a great motion picture...they still apologize now and then for not watching it first and buying me a tie instead.

Thankfully I've not read the book because this incredibly silly medieval comedy entertained me from start to finish. Some friends made a double-feature with this and A Knight's Tale and I Knew next to nothing about it, which added to my enjoyment because the alien focus came somewhat unexpected. Mild Spoilers: It tells the tale of a knight and his soldiers that kidnap a spaceship and try to use it against the Saracens in the Crusades, but the ship ends up heading to an alien planet and they must fight using their medieval mentality. The movie looks nice for a mid-nineties European flick, and even some cheesy special fx add to the fun so, no problems here.The humor is what will certainly put some people off, but if you dig flicks like Monty Python's Holy Grail, Brancaleone, A Knight's Tale or even Kung-Pow, you may find something to like here.The annoying french bard reminded me of Asterix.

Years ago the very first SF magazine I ever saw had a knight battling an alien -- it was Astounding SF with "The High Crusade." For a kid it was a great adventure, reading as an adult it is truly hilarious. Poul Anderson handled comedy and tragedy equally well. Had they filmed the book they would have had a hit. Rick Overton would have been a perfect Sir Roger, John Rhys-Davies is worth watching even if he isn't very 'parvus (ie. 'measly.')They clearly did not have the budget for the cast that would have been required The best lines are the ones taken from Anderson's book, such as the 'negotiation' scene. My recommendation, if you have time to kill Rhys-Davies is always worth watching as is Overton. The novel was recently brought out again by i-Books in a cover evidently modeled on the movie. Add the book to your collection and enjoy. Really, it's a very good book and someone should make a movie out of it.

at first i must say that i'm german. considering this film to be made by a german producer/director, my comment is influenced by a different way of life than the american one. this film is made by european and made for europeans. the humor, the jokes appearing in this movie are hard to understand when you're u.s. american.ok, i don't know the book. but my personal experiences tell me that nearly every movie is disappointing compared to the original book.this film is simply "cool". a weird story, british black humor mixed with some intelligent jokes. not made for broad masses. "underdog" would be a good word to describe it. it's a pity that it had not a sucess like the blair witch project. a european film has to be extraordinary to be succesful in the u.s. the last try to make a good film was "das boot", directed by wolfgang petersen, now being a great director in hollywood. a great story, great emotions, great actors (juergen prochnow, e.g.),a surprising end and a perfect technique was not enough to prevail in u.s. cinemas. the same happened to "high crusade". not lacking on famous actors, not lacking in good fx, the film was not good enough for the u.s. market.what more to say. it had no success and it won't have any success. but i will watch it everytime it is shown on tv.