Details
Film Title: Your Highness
Year: 2011
Directed by: David Gordon Green
Stars: Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Theroux, Charles Dance
Running Time: 102 mins, 1 hr 42 mins
Language: English
Rough Plot Synopsis: Princes Thadeous and Fabious quest to save Belladonna, Fabious' fiancee, from the clutches of the evil sorcerer Leezar, who has kidnapped her and intends to make love to her in order to fulfill a prophecy that would grant him control over a dragon that he can then use to destroy the Kingdom of Mourne.
Thoughts
I don't normally watch many "stoner comedies"(i.e comedies usually having to do with drugs and are generally crude in humour), which is essentially what Your Highness is, but one that is packaged as a Period Piece. This is because while some of them are worth watching(eg. Pineapple Express, Super Bad, Harold and Kumar, The Big Lebowski), most of them are just not done well enough to be funny. When I first encountered Your Highness, I had no prior knowledge of it whatsoever, so the first thing that struck me was just the sheer number of star actors/actresses that this film had(even a pre-Tywin Lannister Charles Dance!) and how I never heard of it before. After watching it, I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised that it was quite enjoyable.
The last time I saw Danny McBride was in Tropic Thunder when he played that demolition guy and while it was a small role, I did get a impression of how he is pretty funny in a loses-his-shit-when-he-panics kind of way. In Your Highness, his modern sense of humour and language contrasts ridiculously with the customary manners and the sense of Medieval propriety that the rest of the characters seem to have, cleverly playing with our expectations from our past experiences with Period Pieces and surprising us with random remarks that are obviously part of a more modern sense of humour. This mismatch in dialogue generates a lot of funny moments where the illusion of a serious Period Piece is ruined with McBride's blunt crudeness that is the equivalent of slapping the rest of the characters in the face.
The plot is ridiculous obviously but interesting enough to give the story and the characters a sense of urgency that propels the film forward. The acting in this film is entertaining as well. There's a fun and sometimes borderline-homosexual relationship existing between McBride and Franco, Theroux convinces as an over-the-top grandiose villain who also happens to be a mama's boy, Natalie Portman's great as a fierce warrior who throws in the unexpected "F" word sometimes and the rest of the supporting cast play their roles convincingly to serve the story as well.
Even though the humour in Your Highness is sort of lowbrow(mostly sexual and concerning dicks), the main reason why it manages to pull it off, at least in my opinion, is that it takes itself seriously. Too many films out there which seek to spoof genres(eg. Scary Movie, Epic Movie etc.) do so clumsily and way too transparently, so much so that is just seems disgustingly desperate, forced, unconvincing, and therefore ultimately not funny at all. Your Highness however, manages to balance the sense of modern humour with the overall seriousness of its plot and, in doing so, has created a very unique film that is crude and sometimes outright disgusting, and yet you can't help but find funny.
I would recommend Your Highness to anyone who enjoys comedies and to approach it as you would any other comedy(i.e do NOT take it seriously, and I'm sure you will enjoy it too). And if the crude humour of the film is not appealing enough to you, there's a scene where Natalie Portman strips down to a Medieval G-string before going for a swim....nuff said.
Film Title: Your Highness
Year: 2011
Directed by: David Gordon Green
Stars: Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Theroux, Charles Dance
Running Time: 102 mins, 1 hr 42 mins
Language: English
Rough Plot Synopsis: Princes Thadeous and Fabious quest to save Belladonna, Fabious' fiancee, from the clutches of the evil sorcerer Leezar, who has kidnapped her and intends to make love to her in order to fulfill a prophecy that would grant him control over a dragon that he can then use to destroy the Kingdom of Mourne.
Thoughts
I don't normally watch many "stoner comedies"(i.e comedies usually having to do with drugs and are generally crude in humour), which is essentially what Your Highness is, but one that is packaged as a Period Piece. This is because while some of them are worth watching(eg. Pineapple Express, Super Bad, Harold and Kumar, The Big Lebowski), most of them are just not done well enough to be funny. When I first encountered Your Highness, I had no prior knowledge of it whatsoever, so the first thing that struck me was just the sheer number of star actors/actresses that this film had(even a pre-Tywin Lannister Charles Dance!) and how I never heard of it before. After watching it, I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised that it was quite enjoyable.
The last time I saw Danny McBride was in Tropic Thunder when he played that demolition guy and while it was a small role, I did get a impression of how he is pretty funny in a loses-his-shit-when-he-panics kind of way. In Your Highness, his modern sense of humour and language contrasts ridiculously with the customary manners and the sense of Medieval propriety that the rest of the characters seem to have, cleverly playing with our expectations from our past experiences with Period Pieces and surprising us with random remarks that are obviously part of a more modern sense of humour. This mismatch in dialogue generates a lot of funny moments where the illusion of a serious Period Piece is ruined with McBride's blunt crudeness that is the equivalent of slapping the rest of the characters in the face.
The plot is ridiculous obviously but interesting enough to give the story and the characters a sense of urgency that propels the film forward. The acting in this film is entertaining as well. There's a fun and sometimes borderline-homosexual relationship existing between McBride and Franco, Theroux convinces as an over-the-top grandiose villain who also happens to be a mama's boy, Natalie Portman's great as a fierce warrior who throws in the unexpected "F" word sometimes and the rest of the supporting cast play their roles convincingly to serve the story as well.
Even though the humour in Your Highness is sort of lowbrow(mostly sexual and concerning dicks), the main reason why it manages to pull it off, at least in my opinion, is that it takes itself seriously. Too many films out there which seek to spoof genres(eg. Scary Movie, Epic Movie etc.) do so clumsily and way too transparently, so much so that is just seems disgustingly desperate, forced, unconvincing, and therefore ultimately not funny at all. Your Highness however, manages to balance the sense of modern humour with the overall seriousness of its plot and, in doing so, has created a very unique film that is crude and sometimes outright disgusting, and yet you can't help but find funny.
I would recommend Your Highness to anyone who enjoys comedies and to approach it as you would any other comedy(i.e do NOT take it seriously, and I'm sure you will enjoy it too). And if the crude humour of the film is not appealing enough to you, there's a scene where Natalie Portman strips down to a Medieval G-string before going for a swim....nuff said.