Your Highness (2011)

Every so often my school's Student Union, or whatever the organization is aptly titled, has special screenings of soon-to-be-released movies. This past week, Your Highness was shown, with special live appearances by David Gordon Green, who directed the film, and Danny McBride, who stars in it. They were signing movie posters before the screening, and then held a short Q&A afterwards. Cool stuff.

It seems like there was a lot of buzz and/or hype as to whether it would be as funny as Pineapple Express (2008), which Gordon also directed and McBride also starred in as a supporting character. I've watched major chunks of that movie, but I haven't seen the entire film from start to finish. So I can't exactly make a comparison between Your Highness and Pineapple Express. 

I'll just come out and say for the most part, Your Highness was quite entertaining. It's good, but not great. I think the premise was like a Medieval-Stoner film, but I didn't see so much of the Stoner aspect in it. The story is set in a Medieval era. There are two brothers, princes, in fact. Thadeous (McBride) is the younger, lazy, arrogant, brother who is forced by his father to accompany his older brother Fabious (James Franco) on a quest to save Fabious' bride-to-be (Zooey Deschanel), who was kidnapped by an evil wizard dude. Along the way, they team up a warrior princess (Natalie Portman) who aids them on their quest. 

The movie definitely has it's hilarious moments, but I guess not all of them were so great because I can't recall any specific scenes. They're more in-the-moment laughs, I guess? I think it's because much of the humor is rather crude (dick jokes, sex jokes, gay jokes...you know.) I think what I liked the most was how at times the dialogue was very anti-medieval, or un-medieval, how they used modern day phrases/curses. It's a little jarring at times, to be honest, but it's still pretty funny. 

Now for something I didn't like. Why the hell were the costumes for Deschanel and Portman made to make their boobs look so damn big? It seemed completely unnecessary. Who designed the costumes...apparently one Hazel Webb-Crozier? I hope the decision to enhance boob appearance and cleavage was pushed by the director and not the designer. ye gads. 

And then, ****SPOILER ALERT (somewhat mildish? depending on your opinion)***** Portman kissing McBride? Really? That's just...gaw. Really! You've got Nat Portman, who's all sorts of hot shit these days, and pair her up with Danny McBride: Mullet-ville. What the heck. 

****END SPOILER ALERT*****

Your Highness opens in theatres April 8. In my opinion, I wouldn't pay for a movie ticket to see it (luckily the screening here was free for students. Boom.) It's a funny movie and has it's moments, but it's just not worth the ~$10 price tag. Wait for the DVD. Or torrent it (lawlz).