Your Highness

Although I prefer slightly more sophisticated humor, I do appreciate an occasional stoner comedy, too. I had high expectations of Danny McBride. He often makes me laugh out loud, only this time it just didn't work out. I guess I was too hyped up and I was expecting it to be even more hilarious. Despite not living up to my expectations, I did have fun, so a 3+. (08/10/2020)

I'm at a loss. I'll admit that I laughed at times and the film was properly awkward and cringeworthy, but for most of the running time it is pretty shaky and doesn't impress in any significant way. In fact, it's a little too serious for a farce in places, and too silly for a serious fantasy. It's to the point where I feel like David Gordon Green is simply a lost director, and not only does he not have a vision of what the film should be, but he doesn't even have key details or individual scenes that would blow the viewer away and make them go "yeah, that was nice”. And I'd rather not even mention how the boy has managed to screw up the entire Halloween franchise the last few years. I don't know about you David, but it's almost like you fuck up everything you touch. But I'll throw in a second star for the occasional fun... (04/07/2023)

Danny McBride wrote a script tailored to himself, invited some of his buddies from Pineapple Express along for the ride... and yet again, it for the most part didn't turn out well. Though I wasn't suffering too much this time, the humor aims solely at sexual innuendos, which can get boring relatively quickly on a hundred-minute running time. And that simplicity is a terrible shame, because the cinematography is actually well done, Steve Jablonsky nails it as usual, and Natalie Portman effortlessly steals every scene. A forgiving 50% and an unnecessary disappointment. (06/22/2011)

“Magic. Motherfucker!” An idiosyncratic approach to the fantasy genre in which the situations known from such films are spiced up with assorted variations of the word “fuck” and jokes based on somewhat juvenile awareness of the sexual differences between men and women and the possibility of copulation between one sex and the other (in other words: vagina here, penis there and a lot of  fucking). This approach isn’t very laborious, as it derives comedy exclusively from the uttering of words that are inappropriate in the given context. With a success rate of one out of every three or four attempts, there are many deaf spots in the film, not to mention the highly misogynistic ogling and treatment of the female characters. I was entertained in places and I recognised the amount of money invested in the money shots (though greater cheapness and self-deprecation wouldn’t have hurt anything), but this is something that I didn’t like enough that I would want to see it again. 60% (06/14/2011)

The main character of Your Highness = the slightly less dastardly Edmund Blackadder. The servant/companion of the main character = the slightly less stupid Baldrick, servant/companion of Edmund Blackadder. Do you think I was outraged by this "copying" of characters from my beloved Black Adder that I gave the film two stars? Wrong. It was simply the best Your Highness had to offer.____Three of the biggest pains: 1) That the characters compete throughout the film in the use (with a few exceptions) of first-rate profanity of all kinds did not add to my comedic satisfaction. The screenwriters have become unhealthily too attached to this idea and so, after some twenty minutes, instead of all this "as if inappropriate" use of the word “fuck" shocking the viewer and making him laugh, it instead annoys. 2) Cliché, cliché, cliché. The stupid story, which the screenwriters tried to mask with that one idea (see point 1), is incredibly unoriginal, although the attempt at parody is there. Sadly, it’s rare. 3) lazy direction, especially during the action scenes. Even the stuff that could rack up points for originality isn't original. Let alone entertaining. The opening with the execution is reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean, the scene with the Wild Wild West carriage, and the fight with the monster is reminiscent of any fight with a monster from TV's Xena. Unfortunately, everything is just a reminder - nothing revelatory happens. It’s simply boring. If the action scenes have any dynamics (the ending especially), they owe it only to Jablonsky's good (based on Zimmer's Pirates, but good) music.____The pros: Praise goes to the great Danny R. McBride, thanks to Zooey Deschanel, who played the naive, know-nothing princess very cutely, I was glad to see Damian Lewis again, although his role... Well... No point in writing about it. The aforementioned Steve Jablonsky was also a pleasure, but his soundtrack would have been much, much better if it had been played by a real big orchestra and not some electronically created imitation of him, whose sound really pulled at the ears in places. The film should be thankful for the two stars. (08/03/2011)