Your Highness

** stars

When Danny McBride was plugging his epic medieval stoner comedy Your Highness on Conan, he said the original idea for the movie came when him and director David Gordon Green were in film school together. They used to play a game where one would come up with a ridiculous original title and the other must take the title and give it a ridiculous original premise. Thus we have in 2011, Your Highness.

The premise is quite unique. An epic story of two brothers named Prince Fabious (James Franco) and Thadeous (McBride) who embark on a quest to save Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel), the bride of Fabious, from the evil Leezar. The twist? The movie is one long penis joke. While it sounds weirdly funny, it actually fails to produce anything above a forced chuckle.

You should never expect too much from a stoner comedy, because nothing good will come out of that. However, because of low expectations, a stoner comedy does not need much to entertain. Perhaps just a few laughs here-and-there in some unorthodox situations. Yet Your Highness can hardly do that, and instead of using the talents at hand (including Natalie Portman as the beautiful warrior Isabel) too take things to the next level, it almost feels as if the cast is holding back.

In the beginning of the movie, Thadeous is about to be hung by midgets and he survives because his feet hit the ground before the noose can grab hold of his neck. This is a very funny introduction to a character, however the reasons for his hanging are hardly touched upon and it is never brought into light for the rest of the film. Why not try and have a hilarious chase scene where Thadeous defends off midgets with a ridiculous weapon? Instead of using the time period to create uproarious randomness, Your Highness tries to parody the medieval concept itself and thus it is a missed opportunity.