'Your Highness'

'Your Highness' (R) (1 1/2 stars)

Writers: Danny McBride and Ben Best
Director: David Gordon Green
Starring: Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Toby Jones,
Justin Theroux

There is a fine line between being vulgar and tasteless while being funny and being desperate and unfunny. From looking at the past comedies of the last few years you can see how hard it is to be funny while going below the belt. "The Hangover" is the side of the line that is funny and "Hall Pass" is the bad side of the line. "Your Highness" is an extremely disappointing example of a gory and vulgar comedy that is desperate and not funny at all. If you are expecting a funny and touching comedy with a dark side that will remind you of "The Princess Bride", which the trailer makes you believe, you will be bummed out.

There is a lot of great talent involved here and it is some of the same talent involved with "Pineapple Express". That was a much better example of the gore and shock value being effective. Now that movie was hated by many so this one should be hated equally. "Your Highness" is a riff on that good old fairy tale where two brothers go on a quest to rescue a princess who has been kidnapped by an evil sorcerer. One brother is played by James Franco who is the brave one and the other is played by Danny McBride who is the lazy one. Both actors seem lost and are not funny. McBride can be funny and sometimes he can be boorish and here all he does his use the f word. I was in a pretty packed theatre and the only time I heard someone laugh was when the characters used the f word over and over again. McBride is funny using swear words as every day language like he did in the HBO show "Eastbound and Down". The problem is here that is all the movie has got, there isn't that much here that is clever or funny as written.

I also was looking forward to Natalie Portman loosening up in an outrageous comedy but she doesn't show up until 45 minutes into the movie. I expected this movie to be a stoner comedy like Pineapple and even that is wasted and never part of any of the comedy. The movie is also very loud and chock full of special effects and the sound level gave me a headache. It is as if the filmmakers knew they were making a turkey and decided to ramp up the explosions and action. This is a desperate comedy that sets no sure tone and has no focus. Is it trying to be a gory comedy set to shock you or a silly spoof on fantasy films? There are talented and funny people here that are set on a mission to find comedy and never complete the mission.