YOUR HIGHNESS review by John Delia

 

 

 

 

Cast: Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Theroux, Toby Jones, Damian Lewis

Directed by: David Gordon Green

MPAA Rating: R for strong crude and sexual content, pervasive language, nudity, violence and some drug use

Genre: Comedy

Running Time: 1hr 42min

Opening Date: April 8th, 2011

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

 

 

By John Delia

 

Gross, rude, crude and lewd, Your Highness almost takes the trophy from Borat, Bruno, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back as the most vulgar film of the past decade.  Every laugh attempt uses tongue in cheek comedy and that gets weird after awhile.  The special effect/CGI laden motion picture looked like a tribute to FX artists everywhere.  The only group worthy of such foolishness, men who think macho is still ‘in’, will probably suck it up big time.

There is no real story; well ok it’s about Thadeous (Danny McBride) the son of a king who’s jealous of his brother Fabious (James Franco) because he does all the fun stuff like slaying the local Cyclops.  When Fabious’s bride to be gets kidnapped by a wizard, the two join in a quest to get her back.

 

The ‘F’ word gets used so much, after awhile I became immune to the insult.  Constant sexual suggestions, pseudo portrayals of sex, exposed genitalia and mammary make the film so infantile that even the target audience will probably say, “You got to be kidding me” “Yuck,” “Oh no not that” or “Tell me that’s not real”.

Now the film isn’t completely all that bad because it has some excellent special effects.  I even have to admit I laughed very loudly during the scene where Thadious, Fabious and Courtney are held captive in a stadium and they have to fight an evil looking five-headed monster.  Yeah, and also the stagecoach chase scene gets exciting, and the scene in the wizard’s castle where he tries to take Belladonna’s virginity, and the scene where Thadious has to kiss the Oracle, and … well maybe several other scenes, but not THAT many.

 

However, Your Highness IS rated R for strong crude and sexual content, pervasive language, nudity, violence and some drug use.  I’m sure they left out other stuff like a genital necklace and a record number of times they use the ‘F’ word.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS: Warning, do not take your girlfriend to see the film. Trust me on this one, it’s a guy thing. (B)