As far as genre mash-ups go, part stoner-flick part epic-fantasy just seemed like a winning combination. Throw in James Franco, Natalie Portman and the team who brought us Pineapple Express and you have a Hollywood success story.

Unfortunately, Your Highness is terrible and the only merit I can give this film is how difficult it must have been to turn an Oscar worthy cast into wasted talent.

Meet Thadeous (Danny McBride) a vulgar, slack, pot smoking prince who is more than happy to laze about the castle while his brother, and first in line to the throne Prince Fabious (James Franco) embarks on various quests to protect the realm. Accompanying Fabious from his latest quest is the beautiful Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel), whom the Prince plans to wed until she is kidnapped by the evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux). Given a choice between helping Fabious retrieve his fiancée or banishment from the kingdom, Thadeous embarks on an epic quest involving minotaur’s, child-molesting wizards and naked forest elves.

Your Highness is incredibly silly. Its poorly written script relies solely on frequent use of cuss words for cheap laughs. The jokes are crude with no context and frequently border on offensive when based around subject matter like sexual abuse (an ongoing theme throughout the film). According to director, David Gordon Green, there was never a script used on set, and it is evident. Much to my disappointment, sitting through an hour and a half of penis jokes isn’t as fun as it sounds.

The brief enjoyable moments in the film were purely because of the fantasy elements, the set design is excellent, costumes look good and the action sequences are great (the Ghostbuster style special effects were a really nice touch) but the overall product never comes together.

James Franco’s portrayal of Prince Fabious was so odd I had to keep reminding myself he was the competent one out of the two Princes. He never takes it seriously and as a result ends up acting like a bigger idiot than his brother. Danny McBride proves he’s no Seth Rogen when it comes to a leading man in a comedy and the appearance of Natalie Portman as the ass kicking Isabel mid-way through breathes some fresh air into an otherwise stale film.

If you treat Your Highness purely as a fantasy adventure there is some enjoyment to be had, just don’t go expecting the laugh-a-minute style comedy found in Pineapple Express, because you will be disappointed.