A nice DVD to add to your family's video stronghold. But if you've already got the two-disc edition . . .
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As you wish?
I dunno. If I had my druthers, I think I'd rather have everything from the two-disc "Buttercup" or "Dread Pirate Roberts" editions that were offered last summer PLUS the three brand-new documentaries on this 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition, which also includes "The Official Princess Bride DVD Game."
Then again, these days it's all about choice . . . and disc space. And multiple editions to sell multiple copies.
Conspicuously absent from this celebration is Rob Reiner, who was all over the two-disc releases, including a full-length commentary. So I suspect that in his mind, he'd already done an anniversary edition.
If that's so, then it's been a bit of a turnaround for Reiner, who complained on one of the 2006 bonus features that "The Princess Bride" wasn't marketed when it first appeared in theaters, and he was afraid that it would become another "Wizard of Oz." Meaning, a great film that fizzles at the box office and becomes a classic only over time. In the case of "The Princess Bride," that happened when it was released on VHS. While it's not exactly the yellow brick road revisited yet, new cast interviews rolled into the bonus features confirm that it has indeed become a classic. Everywhere the stars go, people still talk about the film. That's not bad, for something made 20 years ago, and Mandy Pantinkin, who plays Inigo, the Spaniard wanting revenge on the man who killed his father (Christopher Guest), isn't ashamed to get teary-eyed over it.
I was going to save this for my "bottom line," but why wait? If you don't have this title, in your collection already and you have a budding young princess or swashbuckler in the family, this a nice DVD to add to your family's video stronghold. But if you've already got the two-disc edition from last year, I don't think there's enough here to recommend buying this one too--even though every time MGM reissues the film, it seems to look better. My bottom line is that I can't wait for the Blu-ray to come out. That's the one critics will probably tout.
No more rhyming, I mean it!
(Anybody want a peanut?!)
By now you're probably familiar with the story. A grandfather (Peter Falk) visits his sick son (Fred Savage) and insists on reading him a story that has all sorts of excitement in it. The story also has kissing . . .
Inconceivable!
. . . but the grandfather persists. Folklore and Fairy Tale expert Jack Zipes is onboard for this edition, and the renowned scholar calls "The Princess Bride" a "fractured fairy tale" in the tradition of those old "Rocky and Bullwinkle" entries, adding that it's also a gentle spoof of "true love" that still has a tremendous feel-good ending. This film tries to have it both ways, and miraculously succeeds in poking fun of the genre while also reveling in the romantic, fairy-tale structure.
The story concerns Buttercup, a village girl who gets her kicks out of life from ordering around a farm boy named Wesley (Cary Elwes), who says "as you wish" each time he obeys. Of course, he really means "I love you," as she comes to learn, but he leaves to find his fortune and is later rumored to have been killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts. Meanwhile, Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) has announced that Buttercup is the peasant woman he'll marry, which inspires three hooligans . . .
Let me put it this way. Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates? MORONS.
. . . to kidnap the princess-to-be and make it look like the work of a rival kingdom. It's these three goofballs--Wallace Shawn as the "brains," Andre the Giant as the brawn, and Patinkin as the swordsman--that make this tale the tongue-in-cheek success that it is. Their interaction is hilarious, especially with someone following them--and not just the Prince and his six-fingered henchman. It's the Dread Pirate Roberts (Elwes), who has to be stopped even if it means having the giant throw gigantic rocks at his head.
My way is not very sporting.
The tone is flat-out perfect in this film, with the cast somehow managing to juggle the comedy, romance, and adventure, while the cutaways to the grandfather reading the story reinforce that this film is a celebration of storytelling itself.
Have fun stormin' the castle!
Billy Crystal and Carol Kane are hilarious as Miracle Max and his wife, Valerie, who help revive Wesley for the film's big finale. There's enough in this movie to hold a young boy's interest--R.O.U.S's (rodents of unusual size), giants, screaming eels, pits of despair, cliffs of insanity, fireswamps, torture, quicksand, and swordfights that rival any of the swashbucklers--and there's enough kissing, damsels in distress, and true love to keep little girls happy. In this way too, "The Princess Bride" manages to have it both ways, and it just seems to get better with every passing year. In a previous documentary, Patinkin called it "The Wizard of Oz" of our generation. And that's not an inconceivable way to describe it.
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