



Your Highness (2011)
Dir: David Gordon Green
Ever since I saw the trailers I’ve been interested in this film, they looked really funny and it had a great cast to boot; besides I really liked the Pineapple Express and this looked like a great follow up of sorts. Also Zooey Deschanel.
The concept of this film is actually pretty original and as far as I know hasn’t been done before: taking an R-rated stoner comedy to a medieval fantasy land, a concept which the writers never really take full advantage of, becoming a mostly tedious collection of “suck my dick” jokes.
The biggest fault however is that it’s not focused, the movie throws many subplots that come out of nowhere and feel unnecessary and most of them are not funny. One in particular is when the heroes are kidnapped and put into a gladiatorial battle against some hand-shaped monster and the result is not only unfunny but also stupid, (hahaha they cut every head but the middle one, it’s like it’s giving the middle finger, get it? ”. Scenes like these feel like they’re catering to 5-graders instead of a mature audience.
The actors all do a good job for the most part, the only notable exception being Natalie Portman who seemed to be taking it way too seriously, even in the scenes that are supposed to be funny; maybe she just thought she was in a different movie? Justin Theroux is the only one who excels in his villain role, providing a great balance between ridiculous and evil to work. The biggest disappointment from the cast however, comes from Zooey Deschanel, who despite doing a good job and being funny enough in her damsel in distress role is not given nearly enough screen time as she deserves .
To make matters worse, the movie isn’t even technically competent, the special effects are crappy, and there are really bad audio synch issues and worst of all some really noticeable and unforgivable continuity problems. All of this detracts from the experience.
To be fair the movie does have quite a bit of funny moments and is recommendable for anyone who enjoys the Apatow brand of comedy. However, it underutilizes both its concept and its cast and it never quite fulfills the promise that the first half-hour establishes, after that it just veers into the realms of predictability and stupidity. And that’s why it’s such a big disappointment.