Empire's Your Highness Movie Review

Your Highness
The Penis Bride

Plot
In a medieval fantasy world, the noble, valiant Prince Fabious (Franco) embarks on a quest to reclaim his betrothed (Deschanel) after she is kidnapped by the evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux). Also along for the ride, however, is Fabious’ sweary, underachieving black sheep of a brother, Thadeous (Danny McBride).

Review

If you’ve not seen that trailer then yes, this is a fantasy movie from the guys who brought you Pineapple Express and TV’s Eastbound & Down. Take a moment and imagine all that entails.

Love or hate what you just dreamed up, you’re pretty much on the money. But even if you have seen that trailer, it won’t quite give you the whole picture. It’s important to know that Your Highness isn’t a parody of the early ’80s fantasy genre (Krull, The Beastmaster et al), it’s one of them, and it just happens to be a comedy — their style of comedy. So that’d be ‘no’ to deliberately crummy sets and effects, but ‘yes’ to loads of puerile stoner humour amongst the swords and sorcery.

Your Highness is the long-gestating brainchild of David Gordon Green and frequent partner-in-crime Danny McBride, who’s perfectly at home as the sullen, sulky Thadeous, a man who would rather be smoking dope than being best man at his loving brother’s wedding. James Franco as the favoured son again demonstrates his considerable comic skills, while Natalie Portman shows up as a tight leather-wearing warrior woman out for revenge, and Justin Theroux makes an impression as the dastardly, socially awkward Leezar.

The British accents might be all over the place, but in this case that’s no bad thing — certainly not as problematic as the British supporting cast (Charles Dance, Toby Jones, Damian Lewis), who seem lost in the endless ad-libbing, this becoming the film’s single biggest issue.

Green himself makes no secret of his dislike for using scripts on set, claiming that virtually all of Your Highness was extemporised. That would be fine if it was working to the levels of, say, Anchorman, but here even fans won’t be able to claim a gag success rate much past 50 per cent. When it works, it’s hilarious, but almost like clockwork, for every pearler (pervy puppet mentors, severed Minotaur ‘trophy’ necklaces) there’s a dud, and dropping swearing into medieval speech is only funny so many times.

Which is not to say that Green and co. have been lazy. There’s a clear love of the genre on display — fantasy geeks should be happy with the mechanical pets, Steve Jablonsky’s spot-on score, and the daffy digressions of the quest — it’s just a pity that they couldn’t nail a few more jokes before the cameras started rolling.

Verdict

Reviewed by Sam Toy

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Your Reviews

Average user rating for Your Highness

Really
I can't believe this was the same guy who made pineapple express. McBride isn't good enough to carry the lead role and for the first time ever I thought Franco was very average. Really not very funny at all. ... More


Posted by guysalisbury at 17:30, 07 April 2012 \| Report This Post



RE: hilarious
Absolute sack of shit, i turned it off after 15 minutes ... More

Posted by kargon at 12:10, 18 September 2011 \| Report This Post



hilarious
dont even need to stoned to enjoy it ... More


Posted by aamoran10 at 22:36, 11 September 2011 \| Report This Post



brillant
such a laugh ... More


Posted by aamoran10 at 22:36, 11 September 2011 \| Report This Post



genius
funniest film ever ... More


Posted by aamoran10 at 22:35, 11 September 2011 \| Report This Post



Your Highness: Review
Your Highness is a terrible film. The story was lame, the characters are not interesting at all and the comedy in this film is just disgraceful. all the jokes were mainly dick jokes and we've hear these millions of times. The only good thing in the film is Natalie Portman performance for the first five minutes but then her character is just retarded. This is definitely one of the worst movies i've ever see. I would recommend not to go see this film. ... More


Posted by Edward9630 at 00:53, 17 August 2011 \| Report This Post



WORST (Not going to call it a film).. thing to enter my eyes, EVER!!!
ATTENTION everyone!!! If you treasure you occular cavities, your wonderful eyes never ever submit them to "Your Highness". It is quite simply the greatest, most monumental pile of shit I have seen in recent years!.. Firstly I could sue for false advertising with the DVD quote stating "comedy of the year" because it is anything but. Everyone involved wants murdering in the face then re-animated back to life so they can live out their shame. Danny McBride who wrote (if you ... More


Posted by Obi1kivobi at 17:12, 13 August 2011 \| Report This Post




I loved it a lot. Yes its crude and very Juvenile but I had a great time. ... More


Posted by NCC1701A at 18:20, 12 August 2011 \| Report This Post




I loved it a lot. Yes its crude and very Juvenile but I had a great time. ... More


Posted by NCC1701A at 18:20, 12 August 2011 \| Report This Post



RE: Fuck It
Box office looks grim on this which is a shame because I enjoyed it a lot more than the dismal Hangover 2 and being puerile hasn't stopped it taking huge amounts of cash. ttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001302/]Nigel Tufnelell, so what? What's wrong with bein' sexy? I mean there's no... ttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0376676/]Ian Faithex-IST! ttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0571106/]David St. HubbinsST! ... More

Posted by Schadenfreude at 08:22, 06 June 2011 \| Report This Post



RE: Fuck It
L: Bighousewill The whole film is bit silly it has stoner humor in it but I don't smoke weed so I guess its not as funny for me. smoke weed and found this to be infantile, sleazy garbage that deserves to be buried deep in the deepest of deep holes. A review coming later, but without question the worst film I've endured this year thus far - and that includes Yogi Bear! b]1/5 ... More

Posted by Qwerty Norris at 21:48, 25 April 2011 \| Report This Post



Dry yer eyes!
I knew what to expect and I loved it. If anyone was a weak link in this film it was Franco, McBride was awesome! ... More


Posted by beardyphysics at 11:47, 21 April 2011 \| Report This Post



RE: one of the worst films ever
Thought this was very funny!!! the Brit accents are clearly part of the joke and the inserting bad words into old English didn't really get old for also Stephen/Steven is only one of the funniest characters I've seen in a movie EVER ... More

Posted by musht at 00:36, 18 April 2011 \| Report This Post



one of the worst films ever
What a fucking mess. ... More


Posted by tysmuse at 18:31, 17 April 2011 \| Report This Post



RE: Not bad
I really wanted to love this, but Empire got it right on this one. As a comedy it's just not very funny but as a fantasy film, it's actually pretty good. It's clearly made by people who love fantasy films, and I think that's the film's saving grace. The cast are great though the script is pants. It's not terrible by any means, but it has nothing on The Princess Bride. ... More

Posted by Lazy wolf eyes at 17:16, 16 April 2011 \| Report This Post



Not bad
Maybe it's because I had extremely low expectations or maybe I laugh too easily but I thought this was funny. WARNING: An abundance of puerile, frat-boy humour. ... More


Posted by thereallovefilm at 15:27, 16 April 2011 \| Report This Post




Why should an audience be asked to pay for something that a director can't be arsed to write a script for? ... More


Posted by Loosecrew at 15:07, 16 April 2011 \| Report This Post



RE: 3.5 stars
L: Bubba76 I agree that it's a funny film "if you're a fan of that sort of thing".... and I AM a fan of that sort of thing! greed. It's very juvenile and crude, but I loved it. 4 stars. ... More


Posted by skeletonjack at 10:04, 16 April 2011 \| Report This Post



Your Shitness
As the characters in 'Your Highness' are fond of saying - this is 'shit'. Given the considerable talent involved - McBride, Franco and Portman - you would hope for a few funny moments - instead you get crass and purile. For the very easily pleased only. ... More


Posted by vipey at 16:53, 15 April 2011 \| Report This Post



No way
Please just tell me that Portman doesn't succumb to McBride's "charms", because that would be pushing the fantasy too far. ... More


Posted by Enzino at 11:11, 15 April 2011 \| Report This Post



No way
Please just tell me that Portman doesn't succumb to McBride's "charms", because that would be pushing the fantasy too far. ... More


Posted by Enzino at 11:11, 15 April 2011 \| Report This Post



No way
Please just tell me that Portman doesn't succumb to McBride's "charms", because that would be pushing the fantasy too far. ... More


Posted by Enzino at 11:11, 15 April 2011 \| Report This Post



No way
Please just tell me that Portman doesn't succumb to McBride's "charms", because that would be pushing the fantasy too far. ... More


Posted by Enzino at 11:11, 15 April 2011 \| Report This Post



Fuck It
Danny Mcbride say's that a lot, it's almost as though they said be Kenny Powers from Eastbound and down (which is brilliant btw) except they said put on an English accent at the same time. The whole film is bit silly it has stoner humor in it but I don't smoke weed so I guess its not as funny for me. I thought the humor was juvenile at best I do agree that this could've been so much better it had potential but its passable entertainment. 2.5 stars round it up to 3. ... More


Posted by Bighousewill at 18:57, 14 April 2011 \| Report This Post



3.5 stars
I agree that it's a funny film "if you're a fan of that sort of thing".... and I AM a fan of that sort of thing! I would give it a solid 3 stars and the extra half is for Natalie Portman in a thong! ;-) ... More


Posted by Bubba76 at 20:31, 13 April 2011 \| Report This Post



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