When You Get High
There was a time when a movie dominated by a plethora of cock jokes infused with drug jokes would have been enough to make it work. But I guess those times have passed and watching "Your Highness" ended up a slog of cock jokes and other such juvenile humour which often failed to make me laugh. Oh I am sure there are many who will love this as I am sure I would have twenty years earlier but it is a movie whose appeal is for the crowd who still find stoner comedy combined with sex jokes hilarious enough to make a movie work.
Whilst Fabious (James Franco) is the heroic monster slaying son that his father, King Tallious (Charles Dance) always wished for his brother Thadeous (Danny McBride) is a slacker and a disappointment. When the evil Leezar (Justin Theroux) kidnaps Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel), Fabious's bride to be, Tallious orders Thadeous to accompany his brother on his quest to get Belladonna back.
"Your Highness" feels like it has been written by fans of "The Princess Bride" but fans who are stoners. As such on one hand we have a quest through a medieval world full of quirky creatures and magic but combined with stoner and cock jokes. In fairness the concept is not bad and "Your Highness" is certainly not some cheaply thrown together production with good costumes, quirky creations and some surprisingly impressive special effects.
But the dominant force in "Your Highness" is the juvenile humour which means there are countless cock jokes, various gay jokes and plenty of drug jokes. But the humour outweighs the story and so far too frequently it feels like the writers were having such a good time coming up with juvenile gags that they didn't know when to hold back and allow the story to take over. It does come down to an age thing because if I think back 20 years the constant flow of gags would have been enough to make me love this movie but now I needed more. And also having grown up some of those juvenile gags now fall totally flat although in fairness there were some which were also inspired.
As for the acting well to be frank "Your Highness" felt like a group of mates acting out their fantasy and having a lot of fun doing it. They all play their parts well enough with James Franco sending himself up whilst Danny McBride is full of obnoxious moments. But the star of "Your Highness" is Natalie Portman who simply looks bodacious as Isabel in her leather outfit and dare I say thong.
What this all boils down to is that if you still love cock jokes and stoner humour then "Your Highness" is probably going to make you laugh. But if times have changed and you need more than frequent swearing and immature sex jokes this is going to be hard work.
