Your Highness

Your Highness

This medieval times-set comedy lets Danny McBride and James Franco don armor and speak in silly accents as they embark on a quest to rescue the bride of Franco's character, who's been kidnapped by evil wizard played Justin Theroux. They do drugs, fight creepy creatures, and encounter warrior woman Natalie Portman in this movie, which has a few laughs, but relies heavily on lowbrow humor. The DVD's extras include a gag reel, deleted scenes, alternate scenes, and a commentary track with director David Gordon Green, McBride, Franco, and Theroux.

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Paul

British comedians Simon Pegg and Nick Frost play a couple of alien-obsessed friends who take the ultimate geek pilgrimage to Area 51 and find an actual alien. Named Paul and voiced by Seth Rogen, he becomes their little stowaway because a shady Man in Black (Jason Bateman) is after him. Fellow funny actors Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, and Jane Lynch also star; if you're a fan of them or Pegg and Frost, you'll enjoy the lighthearted comedy. DVD extras include a gag reel and featurettes on some of the individual actors.

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One more release this week when you read more

Russell Brand was his own biggest competitor at the box office this weekend, as his new film Arthur was bested by his animated flick, Hop that earned 21.6 million and took the top spot for the second week in a row. Arthur settled for second place and a lackluster $12.6 million, followed by fellow newcomer Hanna, which garnered $12.3 million.

Soul Surfer impressively nabbed the number four spot with $11.1 million in its debut weekend, while Insidious finished fifth with $9.7 million. The James Franco/Natalie Portman stoner comedy Your Highness couldn't even crack the top five in its first weekend out, settling for sixth with a meager $9.6 million.

Your Highness may have a marijuana reference right there in the title, but it's not exactly Cheech and Chong in tights. It is, however, an amusing spoof from director David Gordon Green, who reproduces the comedic tone of his last movie, Pineapple Express. He also reunites with a couple of its cast members; James Franco stars as Fabious, a virtuous prince in line for the throne, and Danny McBride plays his brother Thadeous, who's far less concerned with courageous quests and much more into drinking, smoking, and women.

Fabious returns from a quest with a bride, Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel), but their ceremony is crashed by evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux, disguising his handsome face). Leezar kidnaps Belladonna, intending to take her virginity as part of a dastardly plot. Naturally, Fabious wastes no time in embarking on a new quest to get his bride back, and underachieving Thadeous has to step up so he can accompany his brother. This adventure and the characters they meet along the way (including Natalie Portman) set the scene for a raunchy takeoff of the medieval genre. To find out why I found myself chuckling at Your Highness, just read more

James Franco plays the swashbuckling and sexy Prince Fabius in the upcoming Your Highness. When his lady love is kidnapped by an evil wizard, he and his ne'er-do-well brother, played by his former Pineapple Express costar Danny McBride, set out on a quest to rescue her. Hijinks, sword fights, and stoner humor ensue. James was on hand for the movie's recent press day in Beverly Hills, where he talked about gearing up for the movie's fight scenes, the secret to a solid bromance, and why he's still pursuing his college career despite his success as an actor. Here are some highlights:

• On the attention his college career has gotten: "Well, it's hard. It's out of my hands, really. I really went to school for myself, and sometimes I forget that it's not actually a public act. I'm there to learn and better myself and that part of my life is not a performance, but in some ways, it kind of has become material for public discussion, to the point where The New York Times is like, interviewing my teachers. But I don't mind. I'm proud of everything I'm doing. I guess it's just that part of my life is a performance, and I perform as a job, and then part of it's kind of not. But what can you do? I can't control it."
• On why people think he's so busy: "Well, there's also this phenomenon where people do like to announce movies that they think I'm doing that I'm not. Somebody just doesn't have time to do all the movies that people claim that I'm going to do. Or, I have acquired the rights to a lot of books that I love, and I think it helps the writers to sell their books if they announce my attachment. But it doesn't mean I'm going to make the movies in the next year or two or three."

• On brushing up his sword skills for Your Highness: "Danny was the writer, so he conveniently wrote his character as someone who was very bad with swords so he didn't have to train at all. I trained a bit, but I had done literally nine months of training, seven days a week, for Tristan and Isolde, because I was a young actor that didn't know that was insane. And I didn't get to use much of it in that film, so I got to use it in this movie."

For the rest of James's interview, just read more

Danny McBride cowrote and costars in the medieval comedy Your Highness, which hits theaters on April 8. The actor plays the massively lazy Prince Thadeous to James Franco's Prince Fabius. When Fabius's fiancée is kidnapped, Thadeous is forced to go along on the wild ride to rescue her. Along the way, the bros encounter pervy old wizards, fierce female warriors, and even a fabled minotaur. Danny reunited with James in Beverly Hills for the movie's press day recently to talk about getting crude with Natalie Portman, working with Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green again, and which moments had him cracking up on set. Here are some highlights:

• On the hardest scene to shoot: "You know, surprisingly the scene that I couldn't get through was the scene I had to do with Natalie where we're sitting at this table in this tavern, and I have to confront her about stealing this compass. And the way David Gordon Green directs, he is literally right out of frame of the camera. And he stands there and makes you say the most ridiculous things, and you can't really hesitate. You just have to keep going through with it. And in the scene, he's just like, 'Call her a bully and a whore!' And so I just started doing it without thinking about it, and as soon as I looked at Natalie and the word 'whore' came out, it just felt horrible, and I couldn't get through it. I just kept doing it over and over. That weirdly, was the hardest thing."
• On getting Natalie on board for the film: "David had been in talks with Natalie about another project . . and in his conversations with Natalie, she kind of brought up this project and said she was dying to do a comedy and really wanted a chance to work with us. We were thrilled by that, because having actors like James and Natalie — to us, that's what separates this movie. It's not a movie that's just filled with your typical comedians as cast, but with a lot of prestigious actors. And I honestly was really embarrassed to hand Natalie the script for the first time. I was like, 'Should I just go through and take out all this dirty stuff?' I'm nervous to show her this, and David's like, 'No. We gotta let her know what she's in for.' And she was a total champ. The stuff I thought would make her blush, that's the stuff she thought was funny, and totally embraced it. And on the set she never shied away from that stuff. She could definitely hang with the boys. She wasn't intimidated by any of it."

For the rest of Danny's interview, just read more