Your Highness in a nutshell: It’s like a 13 year-old boy wrote a script because he thought: “Wouldn’t it be funny if there was a Medieval-themed fantasy film with swearing and jokes about blowjobs?!” You’ll chuckle the first few times they do this, but the novelty wears thin quickly.
Danny McBride as the bumbling younger brother to the exalted, questing Prince Fabious (James Franco) sheds the insane energy that launched his career in Tropic Thunder to become a middling jokester on a quest to stop “the F*ckening,” whereby Fabious’ virginal gal will be impregnated with a dragon-spawn by the evil wizard Leezar. The film makes little nods at its absurdity, but still tries to play it straight, much to the audience’s chagrin. It lacks the life of Anchorman or the wit of The Princess Bride, which is to say, it’s not that funny.
Swearing unto itself won’t get chuckles, you have to make an actual joke with it. Which is why, despite the impressive production values (good mix of practical effects and CGI), the film fails. No matter how you dress it, if you have a terrible script, especially for a comedy, you’re going to have a bad film. Dick jokes and f-bombs only gets your foot in the door.
It has good moments, but Your Highness would have been better as a Funny or Die video.
-Remington Smith
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