Your Highness ****

Panto season is (thankfully) a long way off, but if you want some pre-Easter sauciness to tickle your fancy, and are a big fan of sword-fighting fantasy adventures, Your Highness is at your service. Crass, crude and boundlessly bonkers, Your Highness is quite literally a hilarious, sex-obsessed adult fairy tale with a big heart – think a cross between Benny Hill, Monty Python, Stardust and Labyrinth, with a bit of Willow thrown in.

Danny McBride of Pineapple Express fame (the one in his pants) takes his first lead helm with all the full confidence and spunk that we’ve been waiting for. McBride is Thadeous, a spoilt, childish prince who is constantly in his older brother, Fabious (James Franco)’s shadow. After returning from yet another gallant and noble quest with a new bride-to-be, Belladonna (played by Zooey Deschanel), Fabious incurs the wrath of an evil sorcerer called Leezar (Justin Theroux) who kidnaps fair Belladonna on their wedding day, a virgin that he needs to procreate with and produce an all-conquering dragon. Bone-idle Thadeous is forced to go along on the new quest to recover Belladonna with his brother, but discovers he is also noble and quite the responsible adult when the chips are down. Along the way, he falls for a sexy warrior called Isabel (Natalie Portman), putting a whole new spin on his life.

Your Highness has a lot of daft subtle and observational humour, so it can take its time to stoke the frivolity. Hence, be prepared to get off your comedy high horse and come down to peasant gutter-level mentality to thoroughly enjoy it, as it’s laced with contemporary slang and swear words. In fact, as this is from the director of Pineapple Express, David Gordon Green, there are the running dope and bodily function jokes, too, as well as an obsession with sex organs (cue horny Minotaur), so this may not be to everyone’s taste. However, because it’s sleazier than a schoolboy’s wet dream in parts, the 15 rating is appropriate, where some might have questioned some of its content.

Actually, the most hilarious scenes are the ones between a deadpan Deschanel as Belladonna and the brilliant, scene-stealing Theroux as Leezar, when the flippant remarks and insults fly about as Leezar’s virgin prisoner mocks his egotistical plan. Childishness is definitely on the agenda, emphasised by the appearance of parental figures on the scene – Charles Dance as King Tallious who despairs with layabout Thadeous, and Leezar’s three domineering witchy mothers who are cringingly present when he tries to do the dirty deed with Belladonna.

Oscar contenders who’ve recently been associated with more serious roles, Franco (127 Hours) and Portman (Best Actress for Black Swan) just seem to throw career caution to the wind and have some wicked fun for a change, which is deliciously refreshing as each hams up their caricatures in this. Portman shows that all that ballet dancing has gone to good use, giving adoring fans a long, lingering taste of her curves in one scene. But it’s Franco as Fabious, who is instantly likeable with his endless puppy-dog enthusiasm and sibling love, that drives the film’s proceedings on the whole, allowing McBride to gleefully add the surly underdog humour, with the help of his long-suffering aide Courtney (Rasmus Hardiker). Sarcasm flows freely, too, enabling writers McBride and Ben Best (The Foot Fist Way, another McBride collaboration) to touch on more controversial topics, such as the scene between the brothers and a wise but stoned, bulbous-headed sorcerer who has dubious paedophile tendencies.

Your Highness is quite simply lowbrow, filthy fun that makes no apology for being anything other than that. It’s a true character-driven film as it’s a coming-of-age one with ‘men-children’ growing up in it that worships bromance in spades. Indeed, as the casting is spot on, the different personalities resonate well off each other, which is just as well as the deliveries and some of the script could have been slicker in some cases. McBride has chosen wisely for his first lead project, but helped in part by his co-stars’ recent notoriety and success at various awards ceremonies. Still, the adventures of man-children have had an endless appeal at the box office in recent months (Hall Pass etc), so this enjoyable mediaeval orgy is no exception. Let the silly smuttiness begin…

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer