1 Star
Oft when thou knowest a thespian to possess the gift of comedy, ye be of great faith that his craft will ne’er perish. Tis most grievous news I herald, then, as both scribe and spectator of the filmic arts dear to our hearts: Danny McBride’s new movie totally blows.
Why? Imagine reading the above paragraph over and over again for 102 minutes. Such is the equivalent of watching this one-joke spectacle of modern crudity in medieval times. Even with a top-notch cast rehashing the same languished punchline, the film never manages to rescue its poorly written self from comedic peril.
The story centers on a lazy pot-smoking prince named Thadeous (McBride), who joins his dashing brother Fabious (James Franco) on a quest to save Fabious’s fiancé from the clutches of the evil sorcerer Leezar.
This movie could have worked as a stoner film full of adventure, but instead fizzles as an adventure film full of weed. The plot is so clichéd and ridiculous, but we are asked to take it seriously in order to take the characters not-so-seriously. Perhaps director David Gordon Green would have had time to parody the adventure genre if he wasn’t so caught up in pot and penis jokes.
It would have certainly precluded criticism of the film’s cheesy special effects, which are never suggested as being deliberately awful. Lightning bolts and force fields are sketched onto the frame, as though Green had hired the same visual artists from “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.” At least such inauthentic fare was excusable in 1993.
If there’s anyone best suited for dishing out cuss words in a medieval era, it’s the endearingly abrasive McBride. But his lines flat-out suck. He alone evinces all the potential that was forgone by this obviously half-assed script. And what’s worse is that he wrote it himself.
I’ll confess that I wasn’t high watching this “stoner movie.” But even stoners have better things to do with their money than see this flop.
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