My wife and I got Fang (now 6) to watch this a couple of weeks ago. He saw the case with Robin Wright looking princessy, read the title, and declared it the single most girlie thing he’d ever watch in his life. He complained to beat the band. “It’s going to have kissing, and princesses! I hate princesses!”
He loved it. He now wants me to teach him to fence.
A Princess Bride is one of my top three movies, right next to Zombieland and Kung Fu Hustle.
Basically, I like it for all the reasons others seem to - it’s sweet, it’s funny, the dialogue is excellent and the actors are spot on. It’s simply a lot of fun to watch.
It’s a good movie. Monty Python is funny. It’s sad that incessant quoting (at length!) put s many people off on both.
They have had many different releases of the DVD, and one was special “Princess Buttercup” and “Dread Pirate Roberts” editions.
**Watch it & we can talk.
**
ETA: Don’t really mean to be brusque, but it’s one movie. Not a damned trilogy that you actually need to read.
[spoiler]Absolutely. He doesn’t take pleasure in it, it’s just what has to be done to avenge this terrible injustice - the evil little shit has to beg for the mercy he never granted Domingo Montoya (or anyone else), offer money, power and then die.
Inigo doesn’t get his father back, but the world is made a better place.
Fuck, I have tears in my eyes right now.[/spoiler]
The OP has never seen The Princess Bride? Inconceivable!
(Okay. I can now go about the rest of my day knowing that we got that obvious bit of posting out of the way.)
Or you could have just read post #8.
The book is a satire of fairy tales, written by someone who remembers loving fairy tales.
The movie is a parody of fairy tales, made by a whole lot of people who remember loving fairy tales.
Exactly. Either you get it or you don’t - and if you don’t, totally cool. But if you do, you got to see a great movie (IMHO) AND understand why it gets quoted so much…
…and don’t tell me if you haven’t see **This is Spinal Tap **- another Reiner quote-monster. Trust me, it goes to 11.
See Post #8. I don’t think that phrase means what you think it means. 
I love the book, I love the movie. A romance for the un-romantic.
I have The Princess Bride and Labyrinth in my movie collection not because I think they are great movies, but because nearly every woman I’ve known since high school has LOVED both of these movies.
TPB is fun and does have loads of great lines, but it’s just kind of grin-funny, IMO. But chicks totally dig this flick, so I’ll watch it whenever necessary without complaining. 
dhkendall, I’m geeky enough that I’ve played in a D&D game where we all played as ourselves and calculated each other’s personal stats. And I hate hate HATE this movie.
Admittedly, I came to it in an unsympathetic frame of mind, but I found nothing to like about it. The dialogue and characterization are so arch and self-consciously clever that the whole movie feels fake. It has no emotional depth. The movie just feels like a bunch of guys doing shtick.
Very nice. I love the movie but IMO the book is even better.
The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies. I’ve now purchased about five different copies of it - three for myself to get better releases, and two I’ve given as gifts. And now I have to get it again in Blu-Ray.
In my opinion, it’s the exact opposite of a movie that dates itself, or that you remember more fondly with age and then are disappointed when you see it again. Every time I watch the movie, I’m reminded of why I love it. It gets better with repeat viewings - especially when you’re watching it with someone who’s never seen it and you get to see them fall in love with the movie for the first time. That’s been the case with almost everyone I know.
It’s not a slam-bang, 500 million dollar epic. It’s not totally cynical, or totally twee. It’s cynical enough to allow the more cynical among us to let go and enjoy the story, but not so cynical that the story itself lacks emotional impact. So it works on many levels - the story is sweet enough to make you tear up in places - the quotable lines come at you fast and furious like a Monty Python movie. The jokes and sight gags work. The action scenes are some of the best ever filmed. The plot builds towards several conclusions that are immensely satisfying. And the rodents are of unusual size.
A lot of other movies from roughly the same group of people have tried to find the balance between satire and story that the Princess Bride achieves - This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman and a few others. None have achieved it quite as well. Spinal Tap is a great parody, but the story is pretty much rendered emotionless by the zaniness of the characters. Some of the other films have main characters that are too unlikeable or too crazy to develop sympathy for. All are good films, but The Princess Bride is still sitting right at the top of the pack of movies in this style.
Not seeing this movie is one of the classic blunders - like starting a land war in Asia.
What Smeghead said. You could have subjected yourself to a more in-depth reading of the thread.
Or, put another way: never go in against a Cecilian when depth is on the line.
I don’t think a week goes by without my husband or I saying to the other, “Yes, you’re very smart. Shut up.”
I think it works because it strikes balances so well. It’s homage and parody, comic and dark (“to the pain” is one of the bleakest concepts ever, and yet also framed in an amusing way), romance and adventure, modern and old fashioned.
Now, no more rhyming now, I mean it!
I read the book and liked it. I watch the movie (or parts of it) any time I see that it is on. I am always am entertained by it. That is not true for many things on repeat viewings. Beyond that, I’ve never found it very worthwhile to try to figure out why different people like different things. HINT: It’s because they are different people.
Nitpick: Sicilians should never be gone up against. “Cecilian” describes most of the characters on “Northern Exposure,” who were basically harmless – unless there was a level of meaning to your post that I missed, in which case, good one!
ETA: Further research indicates those were “Cicelians.” “Cecilian” obviously refers to Dopers. D’oh.
Doesn’t leave much time for dilly-dallying.