The Excalibur Kid (1998)

These Kushner-Locke kidvids shot in Romania need to be assessed the same way that home appraisers assign value to a home; in addition to an objective assessment of the specific movie’s merits, you have to compare it to its comparable surroundings and see where it fits in in the community. In this case, The Excalibur Kid’s nearest neighbors are Teen Knight (1998) and Johnny Mysto: Boy Wizard (1997), produced by the same people under the same conditions, all three of them dealing with modern teens transported back in time to medieval periods. Johnny Mysto and The Excalibur Kid even have an Arthurian flavor in common. Compared with these other likely suspects in a lineup, The Excalibur Kid comes off pretty well. But I would have to say that see The Excalibur Kid after Teen Knight and Johnny Mysto is the only way to make it look good.