REVIEW: Stupid and Sometimes Uncomfortable, Your Highness Still Entertains

Your Highness seems to be one of those polarizing movies that critics despise and audiences enjoy. Okay, enjoy might be too strong of a word - it received a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes for audience choice and a paltry 25% for critics choice. But doesn't this unusually high gap between audience and critic enjoyment suggest that for those who the movie was really intended for, it was actually a success? The target audience, which Bill O'Reily fondly coined the term Stoner-Slackers, was probably too lazy to make a strong showing at a movie primarily made for them. Medieval enthusiasts and men with a very immature sense of humor also probably enjoyed this film. For everyone else though, it's no surprise that it wasn't a hit.

James Franco stars as Fabious, a pretty-boy knight who must quest with his incompetent, jealous brother Thadeus (Danny McBride) to save his bride-to-be Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel). Natalie Portman comes in to support the cast as Isabel, the warrior-hottie love interest of Thadeus. The plot, while nothing spectacular, is certainly coherent and straightforward enough to deserve less criticism than it has been getting.

What is especially being picked apart in recent reviews, however, seems to be the humor. Your Highness marketed itself as a stupid but entertaining movie (how can a tagline like "Best. Quest. Ever" suggest otherwise?), and that was exactly what it was. Yes, there were maybe too many uncomfortably sexual jokes, especially the ones about molestation (although honestly, it's hard to take seriously when the perpetrator is a purple, weed-smoking jellyfish). And for those of you a bit more sensitive, the image of a minotaur's penis dangling from Danny McBride's neck may take a while to revert back into the subconscious. But I digress, being a part of the movie's target audience, I found it hilarious. Yes, the jokes were incredibly immature and there was no substantial theme to back the story up - this is probably why Your Highness failed where Pineapple Express (also directed by David Gordon Green) succeeded - but it was still an entertaining movie that succeeded in exactly what it set out to be.

Why did such a lowly but entertaining film like The Fast and Furious gain a 52% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, while Your Highness gained just half of that? My theory is that people were expecting too much from recently lauded actors James Franco and Natalie Portman, and that given the surprisingly deep and emotional tone of the other Green-directed stoner movie Pineapple Express, Your Highness would be just as profound. Maybe Danny McBride (who wrote Your Highness with Ben Best) just isn't as insightful into emotional connections as Judd Apatow, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen, who collectively wrote Pineapple Express. But that shouldn't stop you from enjoying Your Highness, in all its uncomfortable glory. Sometimes films come along that don't really have a great story but still succeed as comedic experiences (I would cite a personal favorite of mine, Dazed and Confused, as a prime example). And while many of the jokes in Your Highness are uncomfortable and downright weird, it still keeps you laughing the whole way. McBride, Franco, and Justin Theroux (who plays the sexually-awkward villain Leezar) give strong comedic performances with the lines they're given, and despite all the bad press, I still recommend Your Highness for anyone who is looking to simply relax and laugh at good, old-fashioned disgusting humor.