This could be a eulogy as much as a review as Your Highness died this past weekend, the same it was born on. The film opened in 6th place with more people going to see the sure-to-be-shitty Arthur, giving Russell Brand (also voice star of Hop) the top two films this past weekend. The apocalypse is sure to follow.
Well I can say I was one of the 20 people to see Your Highness this past weekend over Arthur and even though it wasn’t really good or even pretty good, I still feel like it was the better choice, and am proud of myself for making it. Oh yeah, about the movie…
What Works: I love Danny McBride (also the star of the cult classic The Foot Fist Way and HBO’s Eastbound and Down, as well as the best thing about fellow stoner comedy Pineapple Express) so it’s no surprise he scores the movie’s only laughs here. James Franco and Natalie Portman—playing it mostly straight—are pretty good here too.
What Doesn’t Work: Unfortunately, when I say McBride scores the movie’s only laughs, I didn’t mention there’s only about five of them. This movie just works much better as a traditional fantasy film than a comedy, which sucks because the fantasy parts are pretty standard. In fact, the movie all but gives up on the comedy during the last third, and not a single character besides McBride’s (with the exception of Justin Theroux as the villainous wizard, who tries to be funny but isn’t) really even plays their material for laughs during this thing.
What I Would Have Done Differently: An r-rated version of The Princess Bride or Monty Python’s Holy Grail (what this film tries to be) isn’t a bad idea, but they needed to spend more time on the actual comedy or at the very least make the fantasy elements more interesting because as is we’ve seen a lot of this before. Portman’s warrior character doesn’t show up until the mid-point and she needed to be introduced earlier too.
I actually like this movie okay, but definitely nothing to write home about. There was…mybe 4 people in the theater so im not suprised it flopped.