Your Highness: Should Audiences Just Say Yes?

When a movie comes up with a title first -- as Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green has publicly admitted about Your Highness -- one has to question its quality. (After all, isn't that how Black Knight was made?) But as it turns out, with this the cast and crew, what could have been a paint-by-numbers medieval comedy turns out to be a hilariously vulgar homage to clichéd hero's quest movies.

Thadeous (Danny McBride) and Fabious (James Franco) are brothers but they couldn't be more different. While Fabious slays monsters and rescues maidens, Thadeous does... very little, and what he does, he fucks up. (Pardon the French, but if you don't like it, you really shouldn't see the movie. "Fuck" is practically every other word.) When Fabious's betrothed Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel), a maiden who has been locked in a tower her entire life, is re-abducted by the same wizard (Justin Theroux), Thadeous's father (Charles Dance) orders him to accompany his brother on the quest to save her. Accompanied by his squire and wingman Courtney (Rasmus Hardiker), Fabious's squire Julie (Toby Jones) and Fabious's lead knight Boremont (Damian Lewis), the band sets out on a quest to meet a seer, find the sword that will kill the wizard and rescue Belladonna, but of course nothing goes according to plan. Even a partnership with another skilled warrior, Isabel (Natalie Portman), who is on a quest of her own, is more of a setback than an advantage. Which is good, because it gives the cast a reason to curse steadily and loudly from Scene One until the end credits.

Despite the pun inherent in the title, there's very little weed-smoking in the movie, but there's a whole lot of penis humor. Literally everything in the movie is shaped like a penis -- the old seer's head, the wizard's staff, the wizard's tower, the penis of the mythological beast they encounter midway through... it can be overwhelming, and you start seeing them even when they're not there. Franco plays Fabious as a friendly, likable doofus, and McBride plays Thadeous like most of his cowardly, substance-abusing characters, only in a suit of armor, but the dialogue is all hilarious, possibly because most of it was improvised off of a loose outline by McBride and Ben Best. (Theroux gets some particularly good lines as the pixie-snorting evil wizard rapist.) And the movie is packed with references to other fantasy films, including Clash of the Titans, which gives Fabious his mechanical bluebird companion. So even if you aren't a fan of Franco and McBride comedies, this movie is required viewing for any student of 1980s fantasy extravaganzas. Also, penis enthusiasts.

Did you see Your Highness? Tell us what you thought below, then see what we think are the best and worst medieval comedies. And read more movie reviews here!

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4 Comments

April 24, 2011 9:08 AM
Jake
Reply

I went to see this and wish I hadn't. Yes, there are some funny moments, but the homage to/parody of the quest genre was lost in the penis "humor" and scenes that dragged on for ages. Krod Mandoon was far more entertaining.

October 2, 2011 11:31 AM
Brendy
Reply

At last! Someone who udnersatnds! Thanks for posting!

October 4, 2011 11:47 PM
Wilma
Reply

That's more than senibsle! That's a great post!

October 18, 2011 4:16 PM
Lenjerie intima
Reply

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