TGME Round 1: The Princess Bride Vs. Terminator 2

[GregMcduck]

How it works: Each poll will be open for two weeks, giving all of you time to watch each film. New polls added every Sunday and Wednesday.

The Princess Bride (1987) vs. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)



The Princess Bride is a film based on the 1973 novel The Princess Bride by William Goldman, combining comedy, adventure, romance and fantasy. The movie was directed by Rob Reiner from a screenplay by Goldman. The story is presented in the movie as a fairy tale being read by a grandfather (Peter Falk) to his sick grandson (Fred Savage), thus echoing the book's narrative style. In a Renaissance-era fairy-tale world, a beautiful woman named Buttercup (Robin Wright) lives on a farm in the fictional country of Florin. She delights in ordering the farm hand Westley (Cary Elwes) to perform chores for her. Westley's only answer is "As you wish". After Buttercup realizes his affection for her, as well as the fact that she returns his love, Westley leaves to seek his fortune so they can marry. He promises to return, but Buttercup later receives word that his ship was attacked at sea by the Dread Pirate Roberts, who is notorious for taking no prisoners. Five years later, believing Westley to be dead, Buttercup is reluctantly engaged to Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), heir to the throne of Florin. Before the wedding, Buttercup is kidnapped by a trio of outlaws: the Sicilian criminal genius Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), the Spanish fencing master Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), and the enormous and mighty Turk Fezzik (André the Giant). Their plan goes well, until they discover they are pursued by a masked man in black.

Cary Elwes and Mandy Patinkin learned to fence (both left- and right-handed) for the film, reportedly spending all their free time during the production practicing with an instructor and with each other. They performed all of the fencing in the swordfight scene; the only stunt doubles used were for the two somersaults.[1] This amount of time spent practicing came in handy for Elwes, who later starred—and used his fencing skills—in the film Glory and in the Mel Brooks movie Robin Hood: Men In Tights, notably against Roger Rees, and even going so far as to call out, 'Parry, parry, thrust, thrust—good!'.



Terminator 2: Judgment Day, commonly abbreviated as T2, is a 1991 action / science fiction film directed, co-written and co-produced by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong and Robert Patrick. Over ten years after Sarah Connor destroyed the original Terminator that was programmed to kill her, two men arrive in Los Angeles from the year 2029. The first is a Terminator identical to the one that Sarah first encountered, while the second is an unknown man. John Connor is now living with foster parents. He has grown up being told by his mother that he would someday lead the remnants of the human race to victory against the machines. Sarah's experiences have significantly changed who she is, making her tougher and more vigilant, but also more desperate to warn humanity about the threat of the future human versus machine war — revelations that lead authorities to commit her to a mental institution, Pescadero State Hospital. Meanwhile, the Terminator and the unknown man eventually locate John Connor. According to the filmmakers, this was intended as a crucial plot twist: the unknown man is not a human protector, as the filmmakers wanted the audience to assume based on the first film. The killing machine from the first film is now the protector, and the other man is another Terminator programmed to kill John. When the good Terminator rescues John, he reveals what is happening. He is a Model 101, reprogrammed by the future John Connor to act as his protector. The other Terminator is a T-1000, programmed to kill him. It is made of mimetic polyalloy, essentially liquid metal, allowing it to emulate anyone or anything of equal size.

Linda Hamilton's twin sister Leslie was used in scenes that required two Sarahs. She is the mirror image of Sarah in the scene where they open up the Terminator's head, and in the scene where the T-1000 impersonates Sarah, she is whichever one is farthest from the camera, alternating between the real Sarah and the T-1000 based on camera position. Another set of twins, Don and Dan Stanton, were used to play the mental hospital security guard and the T-1000 copying him.

Please take the time to watch or re-watch these two films before voting. You can use this thread to post reviews after having watched them, campaign for your preferred movie, or just discuss the movies in general.

[anais.jude]

jebus Greg...decideing these things make my brain explode!

[RoninFox]

This one was easy for me.  Princess Bride wins no contest.

[Tripe]

Just watched TPB a couple of hours ago, let me dig out T2

[gojikranz]

i foresee some intense arguments over this one.  i gotta watch em again before i decide.

[ScottotD]

If it was Terminator 1there's a chance I'd have paused before choosing Princess Bride, Terminator 2 is all lame effects and whiny kid to me.

[Chaos]

Princess Bride: fantastic book, excellent adaptation to a great movie (obviously the book as-is could not be made into a movie, so taking the essential story from the book was what had to be done, and it was done well).

T2: incredibly good CONCEPT and STORY for a movie, but the movie itself was only "pretty good." I agree with Scott's comments re: whiny kid. This is still an 8.5 - 9.0 rating IMO, but not quite on the same caliber as Princess Bride.

So yeah... Princess Bride for me.

[SmilinJackRoss]

Princess Bride for me.

[Tripe]

Well T2 did give Bill Hicks one of his best routines but TPB is a film I'll more happily watch over and over.

[Tyrant]

When I saw Princess Bride, I was a bit underwhelmed. Here there'd been all this hype for years from numerous friends and reviews and what not but when I finally saw it, I didn't understand what was so great about it. Not saying it was BAD, but it just didn't do anything for me. I can understand why it's beloved to other people, however.

Now T2 was a completely different story. It had guns and explosions and (although dated now) kick ass special effects. Before anyone thinks I'm being shallow, I also thought the story and acting was extremely well executed. So T2 gets my vote simply because I enjoyed it more overall.

[Hebs]

This one was easy for me.  Princess Bride wins no contest.

Yay me too!  Go Mandy!

[mrbasehart]

Gonna go with T2 here.  It's not only a really good movie, but it's also a really good sequel, something that's quite rare.  It also wrapped the storyline up pretty neatly (until they undid it again).

[ScottotD]

If it was Terminator 1there's a chance I'd have paused before choosing Princess Bride, Terminator 2 is all lame effects and whiny kid to me.

Also the thumbs up at the end!

[Scrivener]

Just to state it explicitly for everyone:  Princess Buttercup is kicking Arnold Schwarzenegger's butt.

You may now take that off your personal "Top Ten Sentences That Will Never Make Print" lists.  The Internet really is like an infinite number of monkeys, isn't it?

As for my vote ... whoo, I have to think this over.  Back in a week or so.

[bettertomorrowamy]

.....as.........you...........wish.........