...it just felt like the filmmakers weren't that aware of the material they were spoofing. This could've been a stellar parody of sword and sorcery fiction, but its potential just wasn't reached too well IMHO.
Are you kidding me? I'm a fan of the fantasy genre, and I don't get that at all. In fact, when I was watching this movie what I thought was amazing is that if they edited out the Minotaur's penis and dubbed in new dialogue, they could sell this movie as a serious sword & sorcery flick and it would
still be better than most of the fantasy stuff that has come out recently. For instance, compare the Minotaur in "Your Highness" to the Minotaur in "Immortals". Both movies came out in 2011. Immortals was a fantasy movie with a huge budget, but their minotaur was just a big guy with cowhorns on his helmet. Immortals didn't even have their minotaur in a proper labyrinth, and it was supposed to be the story of Theseus, for crying out loud! And the scene in Your Highness where they fight the hydra is better than anything in most "serious" sword and sorcery movies I've seen in a long time, including Immortals. Like those craptacular Narnia movies, for instance. Or how about Eragon?
I think part of the reason I found this movie so funny is that I've sat through so many crappy fantasy movies lately, and it was great to see them finally get the roasting they deserve. They even parodied Ray Harryhausen's mechanical bird Bubo, from the original Clash of the Titans. (A movie I loved, by the way.) You have to be old-school geeky to catch a reference like that.
Another funny thing about people who hate this movie is when they try to imply that they are somehow too intelligent or sophisticated to find it funny. They write nonsense like "Every sentence used the F-word" or "Some of us need more than penis jokes to find a movie entertaining." First of all, it makes me wonder if these idiots have actually seen the movie or if they just read some bad reviews and are trying to jump on the bandwagon. Secondly, they sound like a bunch of prissy old grannies writing film reviews for a church newsletter.
Humourless prudes indeed!
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kaurico
12 years ago
Great post and great defense.
I'm watching the scene in the labyrinth where the Minotaur is about to rape the squire and Natalie Portman plays the flute... this is classic! Then whatshisface tries to saw the horn as a trophy. This stuff is gold. The set design alone sets it apart from the Wayans type parodies and into something really unique and special. This film will be so well regarded as cult classic but ten years from now. Can't wait for all the negatives to have to review again ywars from now and accept the genius of the comedy. I mean, 'Belladonna' as the Princess in the Tower? For most guys, 'Belladonna' is the name of a really dirty Pornstar and never the name of a deadly nightshade plant. This is adult, male, entertainment, and I bet all the female actresses would have loved acting in this because it is executed well and they would have had a lot of fun on set. The naysayers who think acting is about regurgitating Shakespeare and can never see that it is ripe for taking the piss out of are sorely out of touch. I gave this movie 8/10.
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