A long time ago in a land far, far away lived a handsome prince Fabious, (James Franco; 127, Hours, Howl). He was set to marry the beautiful princess, Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel; 500 Days Of Summer, Yes Man) who he had rescued from a castle and the kingdom rejoiced. However, the evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux; Megamind, Miami Vice) had other plans, stealing her away from her prince in order to mate with her to summon a dragon. The handsome prince's brother, Thadeus (Danny McBride; Pineapple Express, Land Of The Lost) was always jealous of his brother so decided to skip the wedding but upon his return to his family's castle learnt the grave occurrences upon his absence. So together they go on a quest to retrieve the prince's true love.
This sounds like a set up for an epic fantasy tale of sorcery and magic where brave knights conquer over evil and true love conquers over all. However this is a movie co-written by and starring Danny McBride so it's certainly got its head fully into the fantasy world of such comedies as The Princess Bride and Stardust but the jokes are far cruder, less funny and sadly, far more poorly executed.
I can understand James Franco's involvement in this movie, after all he did flex his comedy muscles (no pun intended) in Pineapple Express to a much surprised audience and carried it off more successfully than imagined. However in Your Highness he is almost a bit player for Danny McBride's misguided ego as he gets most of the screen time, the jokes, and the girl.
As they quest further (quest being used as a verb in this movie) they cross paths with the beautiful and fearless Isabel (Natalie Portman; The Black Swan, Thor) who is on her own quest on behalf of her brother. Of course this then gradually and yet at the same time abruptly turns into a romance between Isabel and Thadeus (I remind you Danny McBride co-wrote this movie) and the goal of both their quests come closer and closer.
There are many problems with this movie, the miscasting and inappropriateness being large, glaring factors as well as the sheer lack of excitement in the 'quest' and the throw away lines that could have been much better under the right direction. There are moments that do make the audience laugh but at the same time there are lines where the audience almost has to imagine that the characters actually said that because they are delivered so quickly and off the cuff. The romance, of course, never feels real and James Franco can't help but try to act, even in a movie of as low a calibre as this so his performance comes across as insincere and almost like he's in another movie altogether.
As this movie is for adults, then the jokes are of a more adult nature, however, having the odd masturbation joke, visible erect penis and inappropriate penis joke does not make an adult comedy, the jokes just come across as obvious and shoved into the script to raise the movie's certificate for the sake of it.
In a land far, far away there should be a comedy like Your Highness for two reasons; firstly so that Natalie Portman and James Franco can forget this embarrassment and secondly so nobody can even be tempted to watch it.
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