A Knight's Tale (2001) review

Despite being born into poverty, squire William Thatcher (Heath Ledger) has always dreamed of becoming a knight, so when his master dies he takes his place participating in jousting tournaments - which are strictly for those "of noble birth" - with the help of pals Roland (Mark Addy) and Wat (Alan Tudyk) - soon, they befriend gambling addict writer Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany) and female blacksmith Kate (Laura Fraser), William falls in love with Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon) and then faces off against elitist Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell).  As far as "historical" action movies go, it tries desperately to be crowd-pleasing fluff with its anachronistic use of rock music (Queen, AC/DC, War, David Bowie, etc.) and a fresh-faced Ledger is eager to allow his body get smashed into by wooden lances, although structurally it's quite easy to figure out what's going to happen in advance and the actual jousts become highly redundant after a little while.  A few sword battles would have been nice to add some variety ... or were the producers worried they wouldn't secure that precious PG-13 rating if there was more blood?