10.23.2017

Movies: The Princess Bride

At the risk of being incredibly unpopular, I have to say . . . I only kind of like this movie.

The Princess Bride came out when I was 11. I didn't see it then. I've watched it maybe twice in my life, the first time while I was an undergraduate. Maybe it was the hype (everyone always saying how wonderful this movie was), or maybe it was the venue (someone's apartment; I was with a church group), but it just didn't enthrall me. It failed to charm me the way it seems to have charmed so many others. I didn't find it funny or clever or, well, much of anything.

I didn't hate it. I just didn't love it much either.

Later my husband sat me down to watch it again in the belief that I'd somehow just not fully absorbed it properly. But I had the same feeling the second time. He adores The Princess Bride. I . . . don't.

I only bring it up because I'm behind on my podcast listening and just got around to Pop Culture Happy Hour discussing the 30-year anniversary of the film. They gushed as per expectations, in particular over Cary Elwes, whom I've never found attractive, so he really doesn't do anything to boost the movie for me. I find a lot of the famous quotes just plain annoying, but that might be from repetition.

I've never read the book either. Maybe I'd like it more?

Sigh. I think, really, I'm mostly indifferent to The Princess Bride. I couldn't invest in any of the characters, and I didn't feel any chemistry between the leads. I did like the bits with Peter Falk and Fred Savage, if that counts for anything. ::shrug::

2 comments:

Christine Rains said...

The Princess Bride is a movie I still enjoy, but I think it's more that I feel nostalgic about it. I watched Labyrinth the other weekend, and I'm finding I feel the same way. I knew every word to that film when I was a teenager, but nowadays, there's nothing on TV or on film that I feel that obsessive about.

M said...

I agree that there's nothing I feel as drawn to, and I have to wonder whether it's that I grew up and my world expanded, or whether it's because there is so much more content now that it's harder to latch on to anything. Or both? The media cycle is much shorter now than it used to be. Franchises expand that cycle by putting out a bazillion sequels, but those don't capture [me] the way good original content does or did.