Your Highness

Plot synopsis:
Thadeous and Fabious are sons of King Tallious in the Kingdom of Mourne. They are warriors: Fabious is dashing and skilled and Thadeous is lazy and ineffectual. While celebrating his latest victory over the evil sorcerer, Leezar, who has been ravaging Tallious's kingdom, Fabious introduces the virgin Belladonna whom he has freed from a tower and wishes to marry. Though his brother makes him the best man, Thadeous skips the wedding after overhearing Fabious's Knights Elite, led by Boremont, talk about him negatively. The wedding is then crashed by Leezar, who reveals himself to be the one who placed Belladonna in the tower. Leezar re-kidnaps her and flees. Returning to the castle with his servant Courtney, Thadeous is given an ultimatum: join Fabious on his quest to rescue Belladonna or be banished from Mourne.
Visiting the Great Wize Wizard, Thadeous and Fabious learn that Leezar is attempting to fulfill a prophecy of a warlock having sex with a maiden when the two moons converge, impregnating her with a dragon that will allow him to take over King Tallious's kingdom. To destroy Leezar, they are given a magic compass that will lead them to the Blade of Unicorn, located within a labyrinth. On the way there, they learn Fabious's eunuch slave, Julie, has been reporting to Leezar of their progress and that the Knights Elite are serving the warlock. Fabious sends his mechanical bird Simon to tell the king of the betrayal by the Knights Elite and request reinforcements. Thadeous, Fabious and Courtney are captured by nymphs under their leader, Marteetee, who imprisons them at an arena, where Fabious kills off Marteetee's finest warrior. In retaliation, Marteetee summons a hydra-like monster to kill them. The brothers are rescued by Isabel, a warrior seeking revenge for her father's murder at Marteetee's hands.
Later that night, Thadeous learns that Isabel is also after Leezar for the slaughter of her brothers. The next day, the party learns too late that Isabel stole the compass from Thadeous. Fabious, finally angered by his brother's selfishness, decides to find the Blade of Unicorn alone as Thadeous and Courtney go to a tavern, where they find Isabel and steal the compass back. But finding that his brother has been captured by Leezar's men, Thadeous wins Isabel over as they join forces, entering the labyrinth where they encounter a Minotaur. After becoming separated from the others, Thadeous retrieves the Blade of Unicorn and slays the Minotaur. Thadeous and his group make their way to Leezar's castle and free Fabious, giving him the Sword of Unicorn. As the others kill off Julie, Boremont's men and Leezar's three witches, Fabious impales Leezar with the Blade of Unicorn, to prevent him from raping Belladonna.
After their victory, Isabel leaves for another quest and the heroes return home. Fabious and Belladonna marry, while Thadeous is approached by Isabel, who reveals that she has fallen in love with him. However, for them to have sex, he must first slay the witch who has cast a spell on her, locking her in a chastity belt. Though not in the mood to go out, Isabel's suggestion convinces him to go on a new adventure.

Tags: comedy, boring, murder, violence, good versus evil, humor, revenge

Review:
Well that taught me a lesson.The only accountable reason i can arrive at for all the negative feedback i heard from critics and the public is that i feel they were expecting something a little more Holy Grail, because of the setting and the English accents and instead i felt this is more Blazing Saddles, very un-pc, whilst gently goosing (oo-er) its chosen genre.It is immature and crude, but the laughs were consistent enough, its a comedy notion which would usually have a B grade budget, but has somehow been made with an A grade budget and for me that was part of its charm.
The movie is a satire about medieval action and dungeons tales movies, but it's not cheesy as ordinary satires like Scary Movie series (among others), it has its own story, with its own characters and originality and plays with clichés all the time, making the characters look pathetic when acting like heroes that needs to complete quests as in a RPG game, a satire that seems much more like Mel Brooks classic titles.People are claiming it offensive and aggressive for the extensive use of sexual language and also for some explicit nude scenes.
For sure it is, and this negative response from these people is just a reflexion of the puritan hypocrite society we live in, because if you laugh about Eddie Murphy's Nutty Professor farting with his family for about 10 minutes, you aren't able to say that You Highness is offensive or aggressive for its verbal content, first of all because I'm talking about a movie that seems silly and a waste of time, but in reality it is a very intelligent and interesting one, and for sure, one of the funniest movies and the best in its satire genre that I've seen since...
Screenwriters Danny McBride and Ben Best did an excellent job together creating an uncommon tale based on mythologies and sex into a medieval and puritan world, that's why is so funny, because you never expect so serious characters talking about sex and genitals like something simple and ordinary.
I have just seen this at a preview screening in London.I'm not actually a fan of low brow humour but I found myself laughing and chuckling throughout this filthy mouthed, very gory, medieval sword and sorcery fantasy comedy.
While James Franco and Danny McBride provides the laughter and brotherly banter, Natalie Portman strides in with stunning gravitas as a deceptive sexy swashbuckling heroine.The storyline is a simple action adventure journey to save a damsel in distress from a warlord.
I believe the film was given a normal comedy level budget but they certainly seem to have made clever use of it with some impressive special effects.Yes there is much sexual jokes and innuendos and a heavy reliance on uncharacteristic medieval expletive adjectives to force a laugh but the charm of the characters makes them get away with it.Having said all of the above, there were clearly some pacing issues and missed opportunities for this to be an even funnier and smarter movie but as it is, it offers plenty of entertainment, fun and laughs for a Friday/Saturday evening at the cinema..
It absolutely is nothing more than a movie to get some laughs out of, since the plot is definitely NOT on of the most superb stories you've ever seen in a movie, and the acting is rather fake, for the exception of Natalie Portman and maybe James Franco.
How they managed to get a pretty impressive cast, I don't know but, it all worked well, in my humble opinion.It was Danny MacBride's previous incarnations which enticed me to watch the movie and he didn't disappoint!
Almost as politically incorrect as many of his other roles albeit with a slightly anglicised accent, added to the fun.It's likely to be panned by the critics but, if you want a light hearted romp for 105 minutes, don't mind gratuitous references to unnatural sexual acts, unexpected 21st Century expletives in a Medieval environment and Natalie Portman saying the odd 'F' word, then you may well enjoy this.I have only written one previous review, for a film which had good reviews and I thought was crap!
It was not funny or interesting and at best, I was bored.The cast should be ashamed of themselves, there are some good actors here who are surely above this.Too often when films rely on improvised dialogue the result is an incoherent showcase of actors having a whale of a time while the audience are left alienated and disappointed at being left out of the joke and Your Highness is one of the worst offenders.
Your Highness is the type of movie that makes me sick to have paid ten bucks for the matinée showing, I can't imagine the people who paid full price for this sack.Danny McBride and James Franco play two brothers, one lazy and one brave, courageous, heroic, whatever (I'll let you guess how these descriptions respond).
Jokes about masturbation and sex run amok and offer no chance of redemption for this turkey.I hope Franco, McBride, and Portman do better next time, because ultimately they're all good actors that deserve better material and have potential.
'Your Highness' pays tribute to many of those old action adventure fantasy films that we have grown up watching like 'Conan The Barbarian', 'The Dark Crystal', 'Lady Hawk' etc.
Shame on everyone involved in this unmitigated disaster of a film: Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Justin Theroux, Zooey Deschanel, Toby Jones, and director David Gordon Green.
A thirty-second preview for Danny McBride's uproariously filthy HBO show Eastbound & Down is funnier than the entirety of Your Highness, a wannabee-stoner film that cannot even milk its drug use for laughs.
James Franco should be forced to watch his performance in this film on a loop over and over again with his eyes held open ala A Clockwork Orange.Natalie Portman should have to return her Black Swan Best Actress Academy Award and never speak of her involvement in this film ever.Justin Theroux should have to stop dating Jennifer Aniston.And director David Gordon Green?To paraphrase the classic film comedy Billy Madison, Mr. Green, what you've just created ...
Watching this movie you are constantly subjected to distasteful sexual "jokes", gore, violence and the worst part is that it's not even funny as I think it was meant to be.What a waste of time and money to make such an awkward movie with such a poor story.
Natalie Portman gives a fine performance that goes wasted, while Franco looks like he's stuck in a bad SNL skit from the 90's.
Your Highness is a great comedy: it takes the RPG, Dungeon & Dragons, Medieval Fayre, genre and lampoons it perfectly: just serious enough to be a real quest, just anachronistic enough, and definitely rude enough, to be spurt your coke funny.All in if you just want to feel stupid and laugh then this is your movie.
It's even probably got enough going for it to be quoted by teens everywhere of a certain geekiness.All in all, this deserves to be lots of people's guilty pleasure, it's fun, funny, even exciting, it know's its genres conventions inside out, and after a season of Game of Thrones, it's even funnier....recommended as being a lampoon and a half....fun movie..
If you watched the trailer, you've seen every decently entertaining moment of the movie.The entire movie drags from the poor acting (minus Natalie Portman, the only thing worthwhile), bad accents and dialog that had to be written by a 12 year old.
its about two brothers, 1 "clever and good-looking" and 1 stupid (like always in B-movies)They are going out on a quest where they meet a pedophile bastard and an evil sorcerer..
If you're a fan of Danny McBride, I'd actually advise you to avoid this film as it will degrade your opinion of him.On the positive side, I guess you could say that McBride and James Franco had okay chemistry - I would be interested to see these two dudes just hanging out and cracking jokes, and that would be more interesting than "your highness".
Based on the trailers, I expected a lighthearted "fairytale" comedy or "spoof" showcasing the talents of actors I like: James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel.
It's meant to be a genre-busting stoner movie, and, yes, it's sexist, but this is a *satire*, a point I think a lot of viewers and even more critics missed.I just watched this now, 7 years later, because I was turned away from it by all the horrible reviews and I'm very grateful I was bored today and gave it a try.
The comedic genre is increasingly mixed with dramatic content, and even comedies that do well at the box-office don't rate well it seems (a 6.5 on IMDB is fantastic rating for a comedy in my experience, which goes to show how stale a genre can get when it rests on its laurels, and for comedy especially, which at it's core is about pushing boundaries and taking chances, and has been since Duck Soup, Modern Times, etc.).And good for David Gordon Green to make a movie that he felt like making, one he and I'm sure his friends would enjoy.
By the time Portman appears you're hit full on with decent acting from everyone, reminding you that all of these actors are well accomplished, high talents.By the third act you're amazed at how good this "bad film" has become.
Just like how Pineapple Express was an awesome action movie, it ends up being hilarious that these academy acclaimed actors came together and made a half decent, over the top, silly epic.Or maybe it was because my weed brownie that I ate had finally begun to kick in about halfway through...
It's sad to see such talented people in such a juvenile and disgusting movie too; James Franco, Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel.
I LOVE "stupid comedy" and "low humour." Not for every single thing I ever see, of course- but show me a well-timed fart joke, a "dress gets ripped off accidentally and bare breasts are exposed" set- up or other expert slapstick and I am there.
There are so many other great flicks out now- see any one of them, then tell yourselves some raunchy jokes on the drive home, to satisfy your quarterly yearning for frat-house humour.Lastly, Natalie Portman's and Zooey Deschanel's puzzling presence in this simply proves that even great actors like them are only human, and they too can misjudge a project..
This comedy of a film to the medieval fantasy action adventure genre is something that Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer could probably never get it in their lifetime with their track record of horrible films trying to pass off as funny, taking well established formula and stereotypes from the genre and turning them all over their heads for a laugh, which worked a lot of the time and surprisingly was way better than expected.There are many sprawling elements here that make up the narrative, from character or caricature examination to the nature of a quest movie to find a hidden artifact, kill the villain and rescue the damsel, while swashbuckling the way through countless of villains through the combination of brawn and magic.
In his latest quest, Fabious returns with a bride to be only for the evil warlock Leezar (Justin Theroux) to come steal her away for deflowering under the eclipse of two moons, and it's up to our merry men, and their entourage consisting the likes of court jester Julie (Toby Jones) to go on a quest to seek out mythical, perverted sages, retrieve powerful weapons and ally with equally skilled exponents like Isabel (Natalie Portman) the warrior woman who is also on a quest with common objectives.What just worked is the casting which had many play against type, and James Franco fans listen up.
Natalie Portman only had a minor role here, entering the fray midway though contributing no less with new found physicality and an insane parting shot, while Danny McBride co-writes and stars as the grouchy slouch Thadeous who is in a desperate need for money to sustain the lifestyle he's leading, not that he's very bright to begin with, but I suppose being born into the right family means connections as we see from his dealings with various enemies of the state.Be warned though that Your Highness has plenty of raunchy jokes, and nasty visual sight gags from hand jobs to the blatant display of genitalia, or the lack thereof.
Set aside the fact that very few (if any) of the jokes are truly clever, the real problem with this movie is Danny McBride.You can't make a leading man out of just anyone and 'Your Highness' is definitely proof of that.
It's impossible to get through an unwitty comedy without a dynamic lead keeping you at least holding on for a few laughs.'Your Highness' delivers a few cheap laughs, mostly due to James Franco being his usual quirky self, but over all fails to be more than the kind of movie you *might* watch on TV if there's nothing else on and it's raining outside..
The critics are wrong and James Franco himself is wrong, this film doesn't suck, those green goblin movies suck, your highness is genius...its like what the lord of the rings should have been rather than that boring walking toward a volcano for hours on end.
Danny McBride and Franco are a good pairing just like they are in This is the End and Natalie Portman is dynamite.
The first time actually compelled to write a review, please have a heart.Based on the trailers, advertised storyline and cast I was anticipating a somewhat off-beat funny movie with reservations knowing the director was a part of the awful "Pineapple Express" Thought give it a shot anyway.
I really expected to leave this movie feeling good...Disappointed, betrayed, ripped off (keep in mind I just left the theater just hours ago - I actually feel like I lost IQ points) really what else would explain my sitting through such trash...Natalie Portman, that is it...
I am a big fan of Natalie Portman, James Franco, and Danny McBride, but last night they proved to me that even they can f*ck up horribly.
I loved Pineapple Express, and I like Danny McBride a lot in general, but nothing in this film works.
That might have worked well if the comedy had come from that clash, but it rarely does (they swear a lot; that's about the only joke we get in that fashion; oh, and McBride smokes some pot, which is so awkwardly inserted into the film that it feels very desperate every time it's mentioned).
Not sure if they did the wrap around green screen but it definitely has the feeling of a full feature film, not some cheap indie.All in, i would say this could be a cult movie later due to some choice scenes and acting, but we will probably watch it hit the $9.99 or less bins really fast.
I saw no purpose for the foul language or for the crude humor throughout the film.I have no idea why Natalie Portman or James Franco would debase themselves in such a movie.
We have a wealth of talent in Natalie Portman, James Franco, Toby Jones, Zooey Deschanel, Damian Lewis, Charles Dance and (perhaps controversially given this outing) Danny McBride in this film, but nothing can really tie it together with the dire script and poor storyline.
The only saving grace to the movie was much of the scenery during their travels is very majestic and beautiful, I enjoyed the soundtrack and James Franco and Natalie Portman do, as usual, a good job in their roles.If for some reason you want to waste the price of a ticket and don't need any dental work...go ahead and see this one..
I was also buoyed by the promise of another comedic performance from two of the main actors in the hit comedy Pineapple Express – James Franco and Danny McBride.Unfortunately, and despite the apparently strong cast previously mentioned, Your Highness was simply a huge disappointment and most definitely did not live up the hype.
You can tell a comedy is going downhill when it beings to use toilet humour in an effort to make the audience laugh.The fact that I can't remember any of the funny parts of the movie to mention in this review is not a good sign, and come to think of it this is probably the only review I have ever written where I cannot think of anything positive to mention about this movie.
For a movie that advertises the raunchy drug humor ("Your HIGHness") of Franco and McBride, their was very little partying at all, almost none.
If you like D&D, stoner movies and laughing your ass off, I definitely recommend Your Highness!!.
And yet there is something about it that will keep you watching right until the very end.Brought to us by the guys behind Pineapple Express, Your Highness follows two brothers Thadeous (Danny McBride) and Fabious (James Franco) with their trusty man slave Courtney on a quest to save the recently rescued princess (Zooey Deschanel) who has been re-kidnapped by the evil warlock Leezar (Justin Theroux).
In the fashion of Franco and McBride's previous movie, Pineapple Express, it was a funny action movie that winded up not being quite what I expected, but definitely worth my time and money.
Your Highness has a consistent amount of very funny jokes and good performances from Natalie Portman, James Franco and Danny McBride, which make up for the gross jokes that aren't as funny..
The story comes in second to dirty jokes every time, much like every terrible R rated comedy you've ever seen.
I think I was going to be kinder to this movie before I started writing this, but I did enjoy Natalie and James, plus there are funny jokes, its just not consistent.
One of few fun movies i realy want a sequel to...i realy liked the fantasy medieval time and the story...