April 12, 2011 by Vinnie Leduc
Director David Gordon Green’s venture into comedy, which budded successfully with Pineapple Express (our review here), has reached a sophomore slump. I didn’t think there was any way a competing comedy could perform worse than Arthur, a movie that looks like it’s been done a dozen times before, but after suffering through Danny McBride’s highly disappointing new film, I wouldn’t be surprised if I enjoyed Russell Brand’s movie more… and I’m sick of the Brit!
Your Highness, a stoner flick set in medieval times, is seeded with high concept and pot-ential, but it quickly becomes a drag and ends up being a bad trip. A couple of imaginative action sequences and James Franco’s and freshly minted Oscar queen Natalie Portman’s talents are absolutely wasted and overwhelmed by a plot nobody will care about.
Also co-written by Danny McBride, most of the jokes entail him simply swearing in response to situations like an out-of-place modern slacker. The trailers already weed out 80% of the parts you might laugh at, and the allowed crudeness of an R-rating does little to save the film because aside for the occasional cuss, it provides for only one worthy running gag.
