Stardust

Stardust. A beautiful movie not loved by everyone. I wouldn't see it when it came out in the theater since it sounded like a remake of the Princess Bride which is our family's favorite movie. We've since seen it at least 3 times on video and again last week. A long way to go before it catches up to Princess Bride but it shows promise.

We first saw Princess Bride as a television movie when we were visiting in Augusta about 6 or 7 years ago. Normally, I would have made the boys read the book first but I lost that struggle when I wanted to see Spencer Tracy in The Old Man and the Sea so made the boys read the book. They didn't mind the book but hated the movie. They still haven't read the Princess Bride but love the movie.

Dad taped it for us on VHS while we sat in the living room and watched it. If anyone ever wondered why the living room was such a gorgeous deep burgundy and obviously painted by a professional drunk it's because I happened to show up at the house once years ago when Mom and Dad were going away for the weekend. They asked me to paint the living room. I said sure and as soon as they left I realized that the color they had picked out was going to require two coats. Hah! Not after I went to the paint store. Actually, I didn't start on the beer until I decided to paint the sun room next. Wasn't it a lovely minty green? I almost choked to death afterwards because I celebrated with a lunch at the Cafe Natural. They were still learning to cook and had dumped an entire jar of bay leaves in the eggplant dish I had ordered.

Dad loved to hold the remote while watching TV so he could mute the commercials. I do too, and feel like the Duplex comic where the dog walks in and asks Eno why he's holding a calculator while watching TV. Eno replies, "I couldn't find the remote." Men gotta hold something.

The same commercial came on at each break during the Princess Bride. Dad would try to mute it but we wanted to watch it. It was a young man tossing pebbles at a second floor window. A woman comes to the window and thinks he's trying to romance her but he's really trying to knock down the box of crackers that's resting on the window sill. When he finally does and the woman realizes she was tricked, she drops a flower pot at his feet. Very funny. We still watch the taped version that Dad made for us just to see the guy throw the pebbles at the window.

Now watch Stardust and tell me that it's possible it's a remake of Princess Bride since it's remotely possible that Dad wrote to somebody in Hollywood a few years ago and said, "Hey, my son, Leonardo, likes movies with guys throwing rocks at windows. Why don't you humor him?"