( CNN ) -- Odds bodkins , but this medieval romp is a strange and sorry beast , a one-eyed monster so starved of mirth it devours its own tail . Insert a modern expletive or three in an affected English accent and that line gives you the gist of the film `` Your Highness '' and its one and only comic idea , which is to recreate the rollicking sword and sorcery adventures of yore , and punch them up with anachronistic vulgarities and stoner jokes . It 's not a very original idea . If you 've seen `` Monty Python and the Holy Grail , '' or Rowan Atkinson 's `` Blackadder , '' you might not be averse to it in principle . Alas , `` Your Highness '' is n't a worthy comparison of such illustrious predecessors . This misbegotten enterprise ­­ -- a collaboration too far between actor/screenwriter Danny McBride ( `` Eastbound and Down '' ) and `` Pineapple Express '' director David Gordon Green ­ -- is such an egregious waste of talent it might send unsuspecting audiences rushing out to give `` Sucker Punch '' a second chance . Maybe Snyder 's folly was n't so bad after all ? McBride and Green go way back . The actor was credited as assistant director on Green 's first feature , `` George Washington , '' and played a supporting role in his second , `` All the Real Girls , '' opposite Zooey Deschanel ­who plays the virgin Belladonna here . Ten years ago these young filmmakers wanted to make art . Now McBride is sticking a dismembered Minotaur 's sex organ in Deschanel 's eager face . How far they 've come ! Then there 's James Franco , as McBride 's good-looking older brother , Prince Fabious , and Natalie Portman as the bloodthirsty archer , Isabel . You might briefly wonder if the movie is n't some hideously elongated Oscar skit gone horribly , horribly wrong , not least because Franco seems to be sleepwalking through this gig too . But even the Oscar telecast seemed shorter in comparison . The pity of it is , there 's nothing wrong with the narrative framework . The brothers are forced on a quest to vanquish an evil warlock ( Justin Theroux , not so bad ) and save Belladonna from a fate worse than death . Let 's note in passing , the film is also very handsomely designed by Mark Tildesley ( `` 28 Days Later '' ) . According to McBride , they pitched it as `` Krull '' meets `` Barry Lyndon , '' which is a better one-liner than anything that found its way into the script . The old school special effects work is artful and amusing , with several affectionate nods to the influence of veteran stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen . A five-headed dragon transfigured from a magician 's hand is especially ingenious . If they had only had the courage of their convictions and stuck with a tongue in cheek tribute to those innocent fantasy movies , they might just have had something here . But the relentlessly smutty , lazy and above all unfunny innuendos ( if a single entendre counts as an innuendo ? ) drain all the life out of it . As for the `` Barry Lyndon '' reference , presumably that springs from the film 's Emerald Isle locations , but Stanley Kubrick must be spinning in his grave . Green and McBride are talented and energetic enough to get past a misfire like this , but that does n't make `` Your Highness '' any less of a travesty . They should be royally ashamed of themselves , and at the very least , sent off to bed after a jolly good spanking .
` ` Your Highness '' is a medieval romp with Natalie Wood and James Franco . He says there 's nothing wrong with the narrative structure . He also says the film contains relentlessly smutty , lazy and above all unfunny dialogue .