Alexis blogs

When I returned from a short stay at my mom’s house this week, I threw some of my old VHS movies in a shopping bag, toted them back to my apartment and stacked them up on the floor underneath the DVD shelf of my TV table.

Among them was Disney’s 1993 version of “The Three Musketeers,” starring Charlie Sheen, Oliver Platt, Chris O’Donnell, Tim Curry and the “24″ guy.

Now, I know this isn’t a particularly good or remarkable movie. It’s just kind of a fun flick. But when I was 10? I loved this movie. I watched it about every day for goodness knows how long. I knew all the lines. I annoyed my friends by explaining the (rather uncomplicated) plot. To this day, I get a little burst of favorite-kid-movie glee when I see a “Musketeers” actor in any other film, and I still identify each and every one of them from their roles in this movie. (Yes, even Charlie Sheen. Yes, even Tim Curry. I was too young to know “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”) The opening credits of “Kinsey” (O’Donnell, Curry, Platt) practically had me cheering.

So tonight, after years of letting it demagnetize on the shelf, I popped the tape into my hybrid VCR/DVD player and watched it again.

At first, I was rusty. A few characters popped up that I’d forgotten about. (”Look, it’s eyepatch dude! Hey, it’s the squeaky-voiced guy with the wanton sister!”) Then it all came flooding back. I knew how all the extras would be killed off. I could anticipate each line before it was spoken. There were even one or two “Oh, NOW I get it!” moments. And a couple lines that I still can’t make out, even after all this time.

I enjoyed watching it this time just as much as I did when I was 10. Granted, much of this enjoyment was due to some MST3K-style heckling, but don’t worry. Nobody else was around to witness my dorkiness.

So I’m curious. What’s your dumb movie that you memorized when you were a kid? And if you haven’t watched it in a while, watch it now. It’s so much fun.