Saturday knight fever

Heath Ledger plays the serf who pretends to be a knight and sets off around Europe to win every It's A Knockout joustathon he can enter, aided by Mark Addy as Buttons and Paul Bettany as the fairy godmother - aka Geoffrey Chaucer. There is, of course, a fair lady - from the pool of models-turned-actresses we pull out the industrially jawed Shannyn Sossamon - and a deliciously unchivalrous baddie (Rufus Sewell). Helping proceedings along is lots of 20th-century music from David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, panto dames of yore. Oh no they're not, I hear their fans cry.

And as in all panto, acting isn't an issue. Whoever came out of Peter Pan at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, saying, 'That Adam Chance was clearly having trouble finding his motivation as Captain Hook'? Show-stealing is, though. Pretty Heath Ledger's time is so taken up going through the Mel Gibson Book Of Becoming An Antipodean A-Lister that he hasn't time for anything except adjusting his Adam's apple and accent. Leaving the ground clear for Bettany to run away with the film - well, if you've been given the best lines, it's rude not to. You've got to watch that Bettany - he's just done exactly the same thing in Russell Crowe's latest outing A Beautiful Mind.

Verdict: Knight-fever.