Your Highness (2011)

Poster for theatrical release

For what it was attempting to achieve, it succeeds.  I loved it.  I'm a huge fan of Natalie Portman, so much so that my daughter is named Natalie because of her performance in Closer, and this film more than fulfilled my guilty pleasure.

The script was funny, the CGI was great, the acting on everyone's part was palatable, and the jokes (sexual, drug related, et al.) never seemed forced or out of place.

There are perhaps two or three lines that felt flat, but for the most part it doesn't deter from the rest of the film, save for one line, the last.  Sadly the penultimate and ultimate lines were horribly delivered.  Off the top of my head, I can think of one other film, same attempt, same delivery, similar circumstances (Robin Hood: Men in Tights [1993]) that manages to finish the film on a high note.

Apart from that, the only other flat part of the film, is James Franco's acting.  I cannot for the life of me, figure out whether his flat delivery is on purpose or whether he is no longer enthralled with the possibilities of acting.  Luckily, the film relies very little on him, and he manages to disappear for a good chunk of the second half of the film.

Watch this movie on a rainy, lazy day, it will cheer you up.  It's not great (a la Princess Bride [1987]) but it is also, by no means, a bad or even average film.  It's really good, and might have fallen prey to the doldrums of cinema-spring, a time when most people, thanks to the warming weather, prefer to go outside for the first time all winter, and most of the studio marketing machines are relaxing after the Oscars, and pushing strong for the summer.

Be weary though, the subject matter is by no means kid friendly (including inter-species pedophilia), otherwise, enjoy.