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New medieval comedy falls short despite actors’ talent, charisma

April 7, 2011
Isabel (Natalie Portman, from left) Thadeous (Danny McBride), Fabious (James Franco) and Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel) star in a comedy-adventure set in a fantastical world, "Your Highness." (Frank Connor/Courtesy Universal Pictures/MCT)
Isabel (Natalie Portman, from left) Thadeous (Danny McBride), Fabious (James Franco) and Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel) star in a comedy-adventure set in a fantastical world, "Your Highness." (Frank Connor/Courtesy Universal Pictures/MCT)

When I found the new flick “Your Highness,” on Wikipedia and saw the cast list, I was confused — to say the least.

“Your Highness,” a slapstick comedy opening in theaters Friday, boasts nothing short of an A-list, powerhouse cast.

In the film, the underachieving Prince Thadeous ventures into the wild with his handsome brother, Prince Fabious, to prove his worth as royalty.

Danny McBride, known for his role as Kenny Powers on HBO’s “Eastbound & Down,” leads the all-star crew as Prince Thadeous, accompanied by the film’s love interest, Isabel, played by this year’s Academy Award winner for best actress, Natalie Portman.

James Franco, who co-hosted the Academy Awards — although he hardly seemed awake to remember it — plays Prince Fabious, and Zooey Deschanel, who broke my heart in “500 Days of Summer,” also joined the cast as Fabious’ not-so-bright fiancé.

You might be catching on to why confusion was my knee-jerk response when seeing Deschanel, Franco and Portman on the cast list for a film relying on raunchy innuendos to please the crowd of stoners who barely made it out to the theater.

The feeling was like hearing Kim Kardashian’s new single on iTunes — it’s people I genuinely like partaking in things that do not make sense.

But I thought, what the heck? If McBride and the film’s director, David Gordon Green, were cool enough to visit MSU three weeks ago for the movie’s first public screening, I should give the film a chance.

It wasn’t the worst movie I had ever seen, but in retrospect, I would have rather spent my evening finishing my ISP homework.

On a positive note, the acting was pretty awesome. McBride was believable as the blundering, honest-to-a-fault antagonist, Portman did what she does best by putting men in their place and being gorgeous on screen while Franco had a handful of laugh-out-loud moments to be proud of.

But if I’m honest with myself, I’d rather tie myself up in a room with a screeching Rebecca Black than sit through another screening. It might be because I’m not 16 years old and into fart jokes, but the film just didn’t do anything for me. The one-liners were subpar, and I thought the lackluster storyline was random.

It kills me to say it, but “Your Highness” falls way short of the hilarious blockbuster I was expecting. And if I were Portman, I’d stick to playing the schizophrenic dancer type — her career depends on it.

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