Now Playing: Your Highness

Today I went downtown to catch up with a friend from college and when I left the movie choice up to him, he picked Your Highness. I had seen the trailer previously and I thought it looked quite funny, but it was definitely a movie that could end up going either way. I expected a lot of pot jokes and crude humour, but I was more than willing to give it a try because the trailer did get a few laughs out of me. So hit the jump for more and find out if it's more than the sum of its parts.


The story is simple, Prince Thadeous is jealous of his far more successful and loved brother, Prince Fabious. Prince Fabious returns home from a glorious quest having saved the beautiful Belladonna, and vows to marry her. However, the evil wizard Leezar crashes the wedding and kidnaps the princess back, as he was the one originally holding her captive. Fabious along with his brother Thadeous head out to rescue Belladonna, and wacky hi-jinks ensue.

Fabious and Thadeous spy on Isabel while she's bathing

The cast was really good generally speaking. I thought James Franco as Fabious was really good and I thought he delivered not only his jokes well but also the action scenes. He just really seemed to fit this overly bold, yet sometimes clueless hero. Natalie Portman as the tough and always serious warrior Isabel was also really good. It was such a departure from her role in Black Swan, and I really liked seeing her kick some ass and kill dudes. Danny McBride as Thadeous was alright, but sometimes his jokes fell kinda flat with me, but to be honest, for the most part I was really enjoying the comedy, as silly and stupid as it was. If there was a weak link in the cast, it would be Zooey Daschanel as Belladonna. Not that she acted poorly, but she's actually barely in the movie, and it seems like she's there only to show off her huge cleavage. But maybe that's an additional reason for some to see this movie.

Isabel kicks serious ass and she's all business!

 Something that surprised me was all the special effects that were in this movie. There's tons of magic blasts and mystical creatures throughout the whole film that I don't remember ever seeing in the trailer. And you know what? They were done really well! The magic attacks looked great with a sort of Ghostbuster proton stream look to them which I of course loved. In fact, everything about this movie looked great to me. There were a number of great wide shots of the lands they were traveling, and even the costumes and armour looked really good. I'm a sucker for a good fantasy movie.

The magical effects were shockingly great!

I already lightly touched on the comedy, but I'd like to get a little more into that if I may. I expected a lot of crude humour, and I was right to do so, but it was actually beyond even what I expected. There is TONS of swearing in this, but due to the fantasy time period and old English, even a simple modern day curse brought a laugh out of me simply from being so out of place. That joke does start to get a little old as it keeps up for the whole movie, but a few were still getting a grin out of me even by the end. The other thing I expected was tons of jokes about getting high, it's even implied with the movie title. Surprisingly, there was very little jokes of that nature. There was certainly a few, but really not much. This actually worked out better for me since I really don't find pot humour funny, so bonus for me!

No one in this movie is afraid to get a little dirty

In the end I found myself enjoying Your Highness quite a bit. Walking out of the theater, it was clear the ironic clash of a medieval world and modern swearing worked well. Both my friend and I were already quoting our favorite lines back and forth to each other and laughing as we left. I think if you found the trailer interesting, you'll like the movie. For once the trailer actually seemed to reflect the contents of the final film well. Just get ready for excessive swearing and totally crude and rude humour, as well as some sweet magical action! Have fun!