Your Highness

Genre: Stoner-Comedy
Director: David Gordon Green
Screenplay: Ben Best & Danny McBride
Rated: R
Running Time: 102 minutes
Dropps: 3.2 /10

The stoner-comedy genre is something of great mystery to many people. Does the movie concern pot? Do you have to be stoned to enjoy the film or is it a combination of the two? The only fact I know is that no amount of pot could cure this painfully unfunny “comedy” by Director David Gordon Green and writer/actor Danny McBride. The catch being the amount that you would have to take to find any slice of humor would literally kill you.
Your Highness is the latest entry into the seldom seen fantasy comedy genre, which is dominated by such classics as Mel Brook’s Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which might very well be the holy grail of comedy movies. However, David Gordon Green’s entry is so empty of anything substantial that the film falls flat on its face. Green, whose early credits include the underrated gems George Washington and All the Real Girls, re-unites with James Franco who had starred in Green’s last film, Pineapple Express, which seems like comedic heaven compared to Your Highness.
The cast is talented as it features Franco, fresh off an Oscar nomination, Natalie Portman, fresh off an Oscar victory, and Zooey Deschanel, a great underrated indie actress. To say that everybody’s performance was weak still doesn’t fully capture the unenthusiastic nature of the crew. It’s as if the final version of the movie has all the 6AM blocking moments instead of polished materials. Franco, acts through the film just as he did the Oscars with just enough energy to speak and not fall down. Portman’s greatest attribute to the film is her half-naked scenes, which speaks volumes of a shabby script. McBride simply gets too much screen-time to play a medieval Kenny Powers (A character he plays with great comedic control on Eastbound & Down), while Deschanel gets barely any screen-time what-so-ever.
The setting is quite beautiful, however it is criminally ruined by special effects that are abundant and unspectacular. However, it wouldn’t matter if the effects were brilliant because it still wouldn’t fix a screenplay that seems to have been made by using Mad Libs. As for every noun just think of something unrelated and profane and you’d be correct. The only funny thing about this film is the title, and a cheap pun can only go so far.

-Mat Karako