Your Highness

This week I’ave been mostly watching Your Highness

And I have to say I was really looking forward to watching this as it seemed to have all the attributes of a quality but stupid action comedy. The film itself was very good, but I think they really missed a trick, as this could have been a true classic if they have taken the time to make it a little funnier, without the unnecessary crudeness.

Don’t get me wrong, I love pointless crude and disgusting humour as much as the next guy, but just think that some of it could have easily been replaced with funnier materials. This is definitely not a film for the kids! Natalie Portman sums it up as “an adult Princess Bride”. The film is spawned around the concepts of the 80’s classics such as Hawk the Slayer and Krull.

Basic storyline, is focus on the dashingly handsome James Franco as Prince Fabious who regularly rescues the kingdom from Evil and the dim-witted layabout Prince Thadeous played by the lead man and writer Danny McBride. Franco’s virgin bride to be Zooey Deschannel is kidnapped by Evil Wizard Leezar and McBride is forced to accompany Franco on his first ever quest. Along the way they are betrayed by their knights elite, then rescued, betrayed and then befriended by the feisty Natalie Portman. There’s a few different twists and turns along the way, but eventually Thadeous realises he could be a hero if he just got of his fat ass and tried. Ultimately Franco and McBride slay Leezar and rescue Zooey from “the fuckaning”

Likes number one, has to be Natalie Portman. I’ve always been a big fan of everything she does and I have to say this is some of her finest acting (especially with the lines she has to get through, watching the gag reel shows just how tricky some of the scenes were). She also looks stunning all the way through the movie, with the highlight being, Likes number two, where she strips down to a tiny bikini and dives into a lake. Likes number three, lots of stupid humour, Likes number four, the tribe of naked women using Paige Tyler as a man trap!

Dislikes number one, the writers/director/actors seemed unable to decide exactly how each character should talk, there is an attempt to use ye olde English for the majority of the script with badly added swearing and modernisations. Dislike number two, the fact that the scene with Natalie Portman stripping down is filmed from far too far away! Dislike number three, would be the whole Minotaur piece, I mean the dry humping was odd, but chopping of its penis and wearing it as a trophy is just plain creepy (it probably would have seemed more appropriate if the scene where Natalie suggested doing the same to McBride was left on the cutting room floor). Dislike number four, would be the crudeness of lot of the humour, the film would have been funnier if the writers of the jokes and one lines had tried to be fun rather than just disgusting. Dislike number five, has to be the very bizarre wise wizard scene, where they seemed to borrow the animatronics from Farscape but proceed to put the dirty mind of a sex maniac in control of the puppet! Dislike number six, would be the lack of explanation as to why “Julie” had the genitalia of an action man figure. The final dislike number seven has to be the mechanical bird. Now I can see why they did it as a reference to Clash of the Titans, but why oh why was it called Simon!

So it may sound like I didn’t like the film, but in general I did. I laugh all the way through and enjoyed the wide variety of scenes and characters. I thought it was going to be funnier and was a little disappointed it didn’t quite reach my expectations. I would recommend watching it, but it’s definitely not one for the kids!!

Random pub talking point….do you feel awkward watching Leon?