Set in a medieval, magical age Your Highness is the new silly, stoner comedy brought to you by the director of Pineapple Express, David Gordon Green and an all star cast featuring Oscar nominated James Franco and Oscar winner Natalie Portman.
After spending most of his life in his brother’s shadow, Thadeous (Danny McBride) finds himself swept up in a quest to help his brother Fabius (James Franco) save his fiancé (Zooey Deschanel) from an evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux). Thadeous has one shot to prove to his father and his kingdom he is a brave warrior like his famous older brother. That is, if he can be bothered.
Any fan of Danny McBride and Pineapple Express will like what they find in Your Highness. Its main source of humour is crude jokes and random one-liners that are pretty funny. McBride especially show cases his talent for comic delivery and holds up well in his action sequences. James Franco does what he knows best in this role as the noble prince, though he is not the centre of the comedic stage, his performance is strong. There is of course one major drawback to this, if you are not a fan of crude boob jokes and Danny McBride’s signature off looks to the camera, this film will hold no interest to you at all.
It may also disappoint fans who have been eager to see it from what the trailer promised. While the jokes are good and the acting is on form, a lot of it falls short because the jokes are few and far between. Instead of the seemingly fast flowing jokes the trailer insinuated there is a lot of not much going on, or McBride just saying “shit” at the end of each sentence. While that can be amusing, it’s like being short changed as the end experience was fine but not what we expected.
Bizarrely among all these Hollywood A-listers is a wealth of British talent that is wasted in the back ground. Actors such as Damian Lewis, Charles Dance and Toby Jones are not given enough screen time to add anything to the film which is a true missed opportunity
This film will make you laugh if you’re not offended by lots of boob jokes and copious amounts of swearing, but some will feel cheated that most of the funniest bits were shown in the trailer and the film does not go deeper than that. Which is a shame really.
3/5
Your Highness is out now. Check our cinema listings for times near you.
