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.
