Less stoned than you would want it to be, this foul-mouthed medieval comedy nonetheless has a few gut-busting laughs. “Prepare yourself for one twisted tale,” the prologue for Your Highness promises. Then it is punctuated with something along the lines to be prepared that it is going to be “F***ed Up.” Danny McBride and James Franco star as sons of the king but they are opposites when it comes to courage and integrity. McBride as Thadeous wants to live in ceaseless debauchery and Franco as Fabious wants to defend his love and fight for nobility. Zooey Deschanel is pretty cute as Fabious’ bride Belladonna, and the dimples besotted actress is luminous. But only moments later she will be kidnapped by Justin Theroux as the dastardly evil wizard Leezar, with the plan to deflower her once the season’s moon eclipse happens. This is a race against the clock for the men of nobility. But the endless penis jokes – one has rarely heard so many – becomes as appetizing as diarrhea in the mouth.
For good or bad, this is a drunk night movie. If you don’t drink, then you can forget this one altogether. It’s terribly obscene.
What transpires is a quest embedded with heavy digital special effects, and McBride shooting off as many anachronistic variations on the F-word and sexual innuendos as he can come up with. McBride wrote the screenplay with crude dumbass behavior in mind, and David Gordon Green of “Pineapple Express” directs. The rambunctiousness and irreverence wants to meet comparison with “Monty Python and Holy Grail” (1975), but such pleasures are unequal. A visit with a horny Yoda-like wizard with six tentacles and a glowing head of plankton is hysterically riotous for a crass comedy. But the whole production of subsequent set pieces is too jumpy, too earsplitting with effects noises. It loses its cool, its kick-back smoothness, so the result can be rough and clattering.
Natalie Portman, as female warrior Isabel, is shown off broadly for being beautiful with long braided hair, ripe pink lips, and a bosom that takes perky notice. Portman is determined and fiery, as well as funny with her no-guys policy while she takes on this legion of evil spirit. She barely needs these boys.
By the time McBride decides to wear a penis around his neck you become aware that “Your Highness,” not the pot comedy you thought it would be, has run out of any original jokes. Deschanel’s genuine virtuousness, so squarely moral, is truly funny as a contrast to the tide of McBride’s vulgarity.
“Tropic Thunder” (2008), the best classic of the macho crass comedies, had humor that tackled all body parts and spoofed all conceited character types. “Your Highness” doesn’t exactly get boring with its unfettered crassness – you would get annoyed relatively quickly if you played the future DVD on repeat – but it devolves into something only nominally amusing for a one-time viewing that would be better served with inebriated dumbass friends by your side so you can laugh at them more than at the movie.
102 Minutes. Rated R.
COMEDY / CRUDE HUMOR / WEEKEND SLACKER MOVIE
Film Cousins: “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975); “Life of Brian” (1979); “Spaceballs” (1987); “Pineapple Express” (2008).
