I saw it as an adult and I like it okay. I think I like the ideas and quotes more than the movie itself. For some reason my son has been running around shouting “Inconceivable!” No idea where he picked it up. Wasn’t us.
You know, it’s fine to love things that are objectively not great. My husband unironically likes X-Men 3 and I unironically like The Last Unicorn, a movie which features bad singing and a lascivious tree with breasts.
I tried to watch it twice. Both times I literally fell asleep in the middle of it. (To be fair, one of those times I was sick with a cold, but still.) I find it boring and don’t really understand the appeal.
But then again, I love “Xanadu” even though it’s objectively terrible, so I’m not planning on judging anyone else’s taste in movies.
(I don’t like Monty Python movies, either, and get really tired of my fellow nerds incessantly quoting them, but that’s a me thing.)
Xanadu has some good moments. So, I say “not terrible” but hardly a cinematic masterpiece. I gave it a C-.
I went to a ComicCon in about 2018, where Wallace Shawn was presenting with a special guest appearance by Cary Elwes. They talked a fair bit about their work together on The Princess Bride in addition to Young Sheldon and other projects. It was clear they loved working together on the film. So many great scenes, so many great characters and lines, such a fun story, and Rob Reiner as a director to boot. So quotable. “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” I’ve used that one hundreds of times. Miracle Max talking about the king’s stinking son. Andrea the Giant bemoaning the fact that his way is not very sportsmanlike. The Rodents of Unusual Size. So many great moments. Love that moviefilm.
I’ve only seen the movie once and I still use that quote!
That’s true. The soundtrack is awesome, Gene Kelly classes up the joint, and Olivia Newton-John is fun. The rest of the acting, including the male lead, though… ugh.
Going back to the OP…
There was a scene in How I Met Your Mother, where the two guys are on a long drive in a car with a busted cassette player that repeats “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” on an infinite loop. As they listen over and over again, they start by enjoying the song and - after the 100th play - they’re jumping and singing and crying over the song.
I remember, back in the day when you had a half dozen channels to choose between and certain movies would be offered for a re-watch, that there’d be stuff that you’d be willing to watch again, some films that just kept getting better on every viewing, and others that would make you turn to the informercial channel rather than watch that pile of trash again.
The more that you watch the movie and remember the dialogue and the subtle nuances, the more it grows on you. If you watch it once, you don’t have all of that. It’s just “some movie”. Watch it ten times and you’ll have the next line on the tip of your tongue and it’s just so satisfying to hear it come out on screen.
But that was then. These days, we don’t watch the same movie over and over again, because we have to. You don’t need to winnow through the movies that will survive a rewatch and still have something subtle to find in them.
I recall thinking that the movie, Gladiator, was fantastic when it came out. I watched it a second time, on the small screen, and found it to be immensely empty.
I’ve seen the Princess Bride too many times to get anything new out of it. But it’s a movie that improves through it’s 2nd, 3rd, and 4th watches. It doesn’t become Shakespeare, by any means, but it’s rare the movie that doesn’t turn into a stinky fish after the 2nd watch.
“Have fun storming the castle!”
“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
“Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!”
“Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”
“Yes, you’re very smart. Shut up.”
“As you wish.”
“Humiliations galore!”
I probably use one of these every day. It’s a very quotable movie.
A friend maintains that this movie is the most quotable of all movies.
I like the humor in the movie, and the quotable lines. I don’t like the grandson/grandfather part of it at all - I find it smug and pandering to the audience. And the editing. I think there’s a really good movie in there that’s mashed up with a mediocre movie. But I understand why people love it. It’s warm-hearted and funny.
Casablanca and Wizard of Oz are up there too.
“You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you.”
“You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die.”