This is one of the precious few “date” movies that I could bear to sit through.
I went through an irrational period in my life when I let my memory get the better of me and in talking up The Princess Bride I went a little overboard with zealousness, if that is indeed a word.
That is at least what TOG tells me, but what does he know?
The Princess Bride is probably the coolest kids movie that isn’t animated, and it holds up well for adults.
There, I said it.
The Princess Bride is a fairytale told by a Grandpa to an initially cynical young boy who has stayed home sick. Initially the boy, played by Fred Savage in his “other” role. The story revolves around a romance between a young farmhand named Westley and a young woman named Buttercup, who with a name like that was always going to be a fairytale character, or a stripper.
So being a fairytale Westley is taken by a notorious pirate named the Dread Pirate Roberts, presumed dead. This depresses Buttercup somewhat, who has only recently decided that he is eternally in love with the boy, and she had decided to marry him.
Buttercup is thereafter kidnapped by a trio of kid’s movie-awesome, Fizzick, Vizzini and Inigo Montoya. Fizzick is the mostest awesome Andre the Giant, (sadly now deceased). I am not sure if he tried to be funny or just deadpanned his way to eternal coolness, but either way he is hilarious in this from the first line he utters until the last. Inigo Montoya is also supercool and has possibly the most honourable and single minded quest in film history, and even Vizzini, the weasely self-dubbed genius who masterminds the kidnapping operation, is awesomely annoying.
So after this set up rather than worry about putting events in order, I thought I’d list a grab-bag of the noteworthy events and scenes that face Westley, Buttercup and the gang:
– Shrieking eels.
– Left handed sword fights
– Vengeance
– Death by poisoning
– Quicksand
– Killer giant rats
– Torture
– WWF wrestlers in Robin Hood style outfits
– A six fingered man
– Vendettas
– Being revived from the dead.
And furthermore, this film has a myriad of quotable lines that hold up after watching the film time and time again, not least of which is “Inconthievable”, (should be inconceivable but must be said with a lithp).
So to summarise I heartily recommend that even the cynical among you take a break from torture porn (hopefully only watching it) and pointless movie cliches, and watch a kid’s movie where the finale simply involves; storming a castle, stopping a wedding, saving the damsel, avenging a father’s death, reviving the dead and finding “twoo wuv”!
You might even enjoy it.
Final Rating – 8.5 / 10. I am old, cynical and overly critical. There is no way I should like this so much, yet I just do.
