The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride is solid for a cult classic. It's funny, the lines are quotable, and there are some entertaining parts. It's not really my thing, but it wasn't terrible.

They probably could've come up with a better title for The Princess Bride. It's not very descriptive. But I guess the whole movie basically is about her. I hadn't ever seen this movie before, which, in certain circles, would be considered crazy. I liked it more than Labyrinth, at least (although that’s not saying much, because I didn't like Labyrinth at all. I even rated it 2/5, which is pretty rare).

The years have not been kind to Cary Elwes. Blech. I had no idea that's who Westley was. My boyfriend told me Buttercup was Claire from House of Cards right before I watched it. I would've been interested to see what I thought about the actress without knowing that. She's pretty recognizable once you know it, though.

I wasn't sure where the movie was going at first. I'm glad they killed off Vizzini early, because he was really annoying. I recognized a lot of the quotes. About halfway through I felt like it might be one of those movies that you only watch so you can reminisce about it later, like Napoleon Dynamite. I wasn't impressed by that half at all, but it wound up getting more interesting.

Buttercup didn't have much faith in Westley, though. She was about to kill herself after what, 10 days? It took five years the first time, and she said she wouldn't doubt him again, but there she went, 10 days later, giving up on him again. I recognized Westley fairly quickly even with the mask. Buttercup seemed to have spent her whole life with him, and she didn't recognize him, so that was weird.

I liked how Humperdinck knew exactly what happened when Westley fought Inigo, Fezzik, and Vizzini. That part was funny. It was kind of weird that the two warring kingdoms were fictitious, and then you would have Australia, Spain, etc. thrown in there. It kind of made the whole thing seem like Axe Cop, where a little kid is just randomly going "this happens, and then this happens, and then…"

I thought the whole grandfather son framing worked well, and I liked seeing Fred Savage. The CG and less-than-stellar costumes got to me a bit at first, but I got used to them. I liked Inigo, and that he got to kill Tyrone. Buttercup was a bizarre name, and I don’t think Westley really needed to go off and make a fortune. Why couldn't they just live happily ever after on the farm after they fell in love?

It's a solid, quoteable, silly old movie. You have to see it just so you know what everyone's talking about, but it's not a masterpiece.