The Princess Bride

I distinctly remember my best friend's mother championing this film, more than once. She suggested we watch it one day we were over there (probably being annoying, probably wanting nothing other than to make a mess in the kitchen and then watch Clue for twelve hours straight), so we did. And loved it. Down the road some years, during a heated discussion between our mothers and us over the unsightly makeup I'd chosen to wear lately, Lorene asked us if we thought "that actress from The Princess Bride" would ever consider wearing teal or blue mascara . . . and this is turning into another story entirely, but you get the picture.

The Princess Bride, 1987. Directed by Rob Reiner.
Starring: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon.

"A classic fairy tale, with swordplay, giants, an evil prince, a beautiful princess, and yes, some kissing (as read by a kindly grandfather)." (IMDB)

This film never gets old, never. I love Fred Savage in it, love the way his room is decorated, and always loved that he got to eat lunch in bed while he listened to the story. Also, the action is great, the characters are endearing, and I love the way everything looks, especially Buttercup's princess-y dresses. There are obviously some nice effects (fire swamp), good action scenes (sword fight, torture) and the dialogues are witty and timeless: "You seem a decent fellow; I hate to kill you!"/"You seem a decent fellow; I hate to die!" or "Sleep well, and dream of large women." Or "There's a shortage of perfect breasts in the world, it'd be a pity for you to damage yours . . . "

It's fun. And for the record, my very favorite scene (s) are all about the drunken swordsman, Inigo Montoya. Here's a link to the sword fight, since embedding was disabled by request.

http://youtu.be/k7zvffHu_wo

Seriously

One of my all time favorites. I saw this when it originally came out on video; my mother of course forbade me from seeing it in the theaters as I was only in about fourth grade. . . come to think of it, she also freaked out when she found me watching the music video to the theme song "fright night" when it was on MTV. . .

Jerry Dandrige. PRINCE HUMPERDINK. Now that I can consider myself more of a middle aged filmgoer, Chris Sarandon was ***kind of *** hot. I get that he's really supposed to be all suave and lecherous and everything getting all these hot skanks to slink on into his fangs. . . but he's a little bit gruesome at the same time, and not just because he's a vampire. Did that little touch of physical affection between him and the roommate Billy at the end kind of confirm the fact that he's gay? and has therefore been fooling us all along? The mother actually says something about this to Charlie Brewster when they discuss the new neighbor, doesn't she?

The scariest part of this for me was always the part where Dandrige calls Charlie from next door, Charlie picks up but says nothing. Dandrige says, "I know you're there Charlie, I can SEE you. . . " then a super fast zoom out Charlie's window into Dandrige's to show that he is indeed, STANDING THERE STARING RIGHT AT HIM. Christ.
Another enjoyable part is Dandrige's beaming smiley reaction after waiting outside the door to hear Charlie screaming at the discovery that Amy has been bitten. Gross.

"Cut it out Evil, NOT FUNNY!"


Plus, that whole scene with the Vampire-Evil WEARING THE RED RAGGEDY ANNE WIG as Charlie's Mother is fricking hilarious. Really, really great stuff. Mmm-MMM! His dinner is in ithe oven!

Super Sweet film that I HIGHLY Recommend for any fan of 80s (comedy) horror.

Nice Marcy Darcy as Amy, too.