Movie review: Your Highness

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Genre: Comedy, Action/Adventure

Opens locally Friday, April 8th, 2011 

Run Time: 1 hour 42 minutes, Rated R

Starring: Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel

​Directed by David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express)
Did you ever wonder what it would sound like if medieval warriors and wizards used crass, adult modern language? Well look no further, “Your Highness” has arrived, and is nothing more than an immature stoner comedy set in a Lord of the Rings-like fantasy land. Nothing against stoner comedies, I’m a fan of many of them and also a big fan of Danny McBride. But “Your Highness” is a throw-away.

The Plot. James Franco is Fabious, the perfect noble hero and heir to the throne. Danny McBride (The Foot Fist Way, Eastbound & Down) is his loser kid brother, the Fredo of the royal family. When Fabious’s princess-to-be (Zooey Deschanel) is kidnapped by an evil wizard, the brothers embark, albeit grudgingly, on a quest to save the princess and defeat the evil lord.

Draggin'. The movie uses tried & true archetypes from the fantasy genre, and is basically a one-joke comedy…that one joke being the use of language and a modern take on these fantastical situations. Our heroes are more interested in getting laid and getting high than really anything else. There are a few laughs sprinkled throughout, but not enough. Most of the comedy is absurdly vulgar…funny in small doses but very tedious stretched out over the course of 100 minutes.

Save Me. By the time Natalie Portman appears (way too far into the movie), the movie is actually more action/adventure than comedy. It actually becomes the kind of movie that it is trying to parody, a stereotypical “let’s save the princess” swashbuckler. Portman may have never looked better on film, and there’s one gratuitous scene of her in a thong that may be enough for some to want to see the film. But even still, she has a hard time breathing any life into the disjointed story.
The movie is highly produced and looks great, and as the film rolls along it actually works better as an action movie. But it’s too focused on trying to force us to laugh, that each time the action picks up, it is interrupted by injected so-called humor.

​Bottom Line. It is definitely a film for adults, but is so low-brow that you’d have to be a child to really appreciate it. One can take only so many jokes and references to genitalia, getting high, and using the F-word as the punchline. It’s just the kind of movie that you will wish you caught on cable, instead of having paid to have seen.