Your Highness - Schwerter, Joints und scharfe Bräute

I have just seen this at a preview screening in London.

I'm not actually a fan of low brow humour but I found myself laughing and chuckling throughout this filthy mouthed, very gory, medieval sword and sorcery fantasy comedy. Its mainly because the cast is very likable with its main leads resonating off each other in this pool of silliness which makes the film highly entertaining. While James Franco and Danny McBride provides the laughter and brotherly banter, Natalie Portman strides in with stunning gravitas as a deceptive sexy swashbuckling heroine.

The storyline is a simple action adventure journey to save a damsel in distress from a warlord. But this not a naked gun style comedy, rather a humorous homage to classic fantasy movies such as Dark Crystal, Conan the Barbarian, Princess Bride etc. What's surprising is that the adventure is rather genuine and exciting with a huge dose of special effects that a comedy shouldn't really be allowed to have. I believe the film was given a normal comedy level budget but they certainly seem to have made clever use of it with some impressive special effects.

Yes there is much sexual jokes and innuendos and a heavy reliance on uncharacteristic medieval expletive adjectives to force a laugh but the charm of the characters makes them get away with it.

Having said all of the above, there were clearly some pacing issues and missed opportunities for this to be an even funnier and smarter movie but as it is, it offers plenty of entertainment, fun and laughs for a Friday/Saturday evening at the cinema.

Seriously what's wrong with people?

Here, we have ourselves one of the best hommages to the fantasy genre.

It has everything. Evil sorcerers, monsters, battles, conspiracy, cart chases, lush sets and costumes, an army of good actors.

What's not to like?

There's even a great score that is worthy of a great fantasy movie.

Oh yeah, and most of the people who made this were probably stoned the whole time.

Your Highness manages to balance everything almost perfectly.

Despite all its sillyness, it *still* works perfectly as an immersive fantasy movie.

It is probably best seen in a double feature after "Stardust", another tongue-in-cheek fantasy movie that is admittedly more polished, but similar in its approach.

Your Highness just has more THC in it.

...this film was a whole lot of fun. It is a fantastic spoof of all those usually pretty bad sword and sorcery movies that came out after Conan the Barbarian and Excalibur were huge hits. It also is a satire of the over-the-top vulgarity of many early 80s comedy hits, and it even takes it up a notch.

To borrow from Rob Reiner/Christopher Guest, they took all these elements and turned them up to 11. This film is about excess and it pulls it off fantastically. It's meant to be a genre-busting stoner movie, and, yes, it's sexist, but this is a *satire*, a point I think a lot of viewers and even more critics missed.

I just watched this now, 7 years later, because I was turned away from it by all the horrible reviews and I'm very grateful I was bored today and gave it a try. Watch it with a bud (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), you will *not* be disappointed. I think we need more films like this that take risks and push boundaries like Animal House and the Blues Brothers as two very apt examples did back in the day.

The comedic genre is increasingly mixed with dramatic content, and even comedies that do well at the box-office don't rate well it seems (a 6.5 on IMDB is fantastic rating for a comedy in my experience, which goes to show how stale a genre can get when it rests on its laurels, and for comedy especially, which at it's core is about pushing boundaries and taking chances, and has been since Duck Soup, Modern Times, etc.).

And good for David Gordon Green to make a movie that he felt like making, one he and I'm sure his friends would enjoy. It looks like it would be a blast making this movie, too. I love his more serious films like Joe, All The Real Girls, Undertow, Snow Angels, etc., mostly dramatic pieces that received critical acclaim. It makes me respect him all the more by moving to comedy when he feels like it like with this film and Pineapple Express; I think is part of the reason why he's one of my favourite directors, one where everyone of his films I've really enjoyed. I always hope that he gets his due credit someday if for no other reason than to lead viewers to some of his lesser known gems, or ones that were unfairly panned by critics who didn't seem to think about what he was trying to achieve, like with Your Highness.

This movie flew under the radar for many people and missed the mark for a lot of critics out there. However it was fairly well put together with good acting and the storyline was fresh compared to previous movies. It offered something new like a dungeons & dragons feel with comedy. The comedy wasn't forced and the flow was natural with unexpected laughs. It was clever and witty and all of the actors played well together. This movie is at least a solid seven or better. Now the movie dungeons and dragons came out with comedy in it and it basically copied this movie yet it got much better reviews lol.

An interesting, comedic twist on the 'Fantasy Quest' genre! Lot's of 'schoolboy' humour and a large number of expletives, kept me entertained anyway!

It's a sort of 'Krull' meets 'The Inbetweeners' and I found myself laughing occasionally and smiling throughout! How they managed to get a pretty impressive cast, I don't know but, it all worked well, in my humble opinion.

It was Danny MacBride's previous incarnations which enticed me to watch the movie and he didn't disappoint! Almost as politically incorrect as many of his other roles albeit with a slightly anglicised accent, added to the fun.

It's likely to be panned by the critics but, if you want a light hearted romp for 105 minutes, don't mind gratuitous references to unnatural sexual acts, unexpected 21st Century expletives in a Medieval environment and Natalie Portman saying the odd 'F' word, then you may well enjoy this.

I have only written one previous review, for a film which had good reviews and I thought was crap! 'Your Highness' is the complete opposite, in my opinion and, as such has prompted my second review.

I will watch it again, not with my youngest daughter who is an ordained minister but with my eldest who is an A & E Nurse. Say no more.