Wowowow has it been a while since I’ve done a movie review.
The last time I did a review was maybe Insurgent? I don’t even know anymore since I don’t keep track of them all (and while, yes, I did watch a few movies, I just didn’t feel like writing a review on them).
But we’ll begin this venture back into the movie reviewing world with The Princess Switch.
And we’ll ring the new year off with that as well.
Everyone has been talking about one of the newest Christmas movies created by Netflix starring Vanessa Hudgens who plays Stacy, a chef who enters a baking competition in Belgravia. While in Belgravia, she crosses paths with Lady Margaret, the Prince’s fiance and someone who looks exactly like her, and is convinced to switch roles with the Duchess for two days.
We’re quite inaccurate aren’t we?
I was expecting Lady Margaret to be a Princess? Apparently, she turns out to be a duchess who is engaged to a Prince, which doesn’t actually mean she’s a Princess just yet. If we’re going to be more accurate can we at least call the movie The Duchess Switch or The Royal Switch and not The Princess Switch? It’s a little misleading, Netflix – people are most likely expecting an actual princess, not a princess-to-be.
It was cringe-worthy.
I’m going to go out of my way to say The Princess Switch is super cringy in regards to acting. Most of the characters feel stiff and unnatural in their roles as if they all got gathered together in a Christmas basket and thrown into a globe with little instructions.
There were some cute parts though.
I apparently have a thing for royal romances in movies. It was cute to see Stacy and Prince Edward finding out they enjoy being together as a couple, despite the unawareness of everyone. Some of the scenes, however, felt more natural than the others and I could go down with this ship a little.
It was bad enough that parts were funny.
The cringe-worthiness and awkwardness were so much that it began to be funnier for me as the movie progressed. Stacy’s switch with Lady Margaret is hilarious since, despite the obvious clues to everyone who knew Margaret throughout the movie, they all turned a blind eye. While some of the characters knew (Kevin’s daughter) or were suspicious (the King), it was an easy few days for the two to switch places.
Sophia started blogging in February 2012 for the hell of it and is surprisingly still around. She has a GIF for nearly everything, probably listens to too much K-Pop and is generally in an existential crisis of sorts (she's trying her best). More of her bookish reviews and K-Pop Roundups can be found at The Arts STL.
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haha I loved the Princess Switch! But I’m happy to watch trashy rom-com movies at any point! Agree that it was cringy in some places though!
I was actually kind of curious about this movie, but not enough to desperately want to watch it. It makes me think of the adult versions of It Takes Two and The Parent Trap. I’m sad it wasn’t the most enjoyable movie, but I’m amused by the fact that some things were so bad they became funny.
I agree with your entire post! It really was cringy and honestly I don’t know how no one found out.. Especially Kevin?? Sorry but you can’t impersonate someone you’ve known for a couple of days :’) not so well that a lifelong friend doesn’t know there’s something wrong. But aren’t all Christmas movies a little bit cheesy and cringy?
I may check it out just for the cringe factor, but I expected nothing great anyway. Tori @ In Tori Lex
Great review! I didn’t watch this one because I’m not a huge fan of the role-switch trope. But I was super curious, did the prince know they switched? Because that would be super weird if he didn’t! Netflix seemed to think that I would either really like this movie or they thought everyone else loved it because it kept pushing it on me over the Christmas Season. It was always the first one on my recommended list and when I finished a different movie it would give me an ad for this one! Sorry you didn’t like it more, but at least you were able to laugh at it 😀
No, he didn’t! No one suspected they switched aside from the occasional weird look because of their actions! >_> I think it’s because everyone else has been watching it and it’s the Christmas season, so Netflix decided to shove The Princess Switch. They’ve been promoting it a lot as well on social media, though.
“Most of the characters feel stiff and unnatural in their roles as if they all got gathered together in a Christmas basket and thrown into a globe with little instructions.” YES YES YES YES YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES OVER. Trash. just so much trash this movie. ttttttttttttttrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaassssshhhhhh.
Funny story: I legit thought I watched this movie and when I was on Netflix this weekend I had an out of body experience of confusion. Turns out one of my favorite youtube movie/tv show creators did a video last month??? it was enough that I felt that I “watched” the movie in its entirety. It was cringeworthy. Yikes.
ANYWAYS great review and I would love to see more movie reviews in the future if you feel like writing them!
Aww, Kal. <3 I used to do some in the past, so maybe I'll bring them back depending on the movie??? I don't know, depends on the mood, haha.
*coughs* I want to do a Mulan live-action from China, sooooo.
Is it bad that I kinda liked it? I decided to watch it before Christmas just to kill some time but I don’t know what it’s about these twin switches that I like. It also gave me childhood feels since HSM was one of my favorite movies back in the day. I actually felt it was kinda weird that the best friend didn’t notice that she wasn’t her even when he started having feelings for the duchess. Also his daughter was a little too happy bout the switch.
Not at all! This movie seems to be a hit or miss with a lot of people. HSM was one of my favorites as well since I practically grew up with it. I also agree with his daughter being happy about the switch – I thought she would be a little less… happy at first? I don’t know.
Ah, I think I’ll love this one when I get around to it! Great review!
Hope you enjoy, Olivia!
The Princess Switch sounds like it would be fun to watch with the cringy acting. Sometimes they are the perfect movies to watch!
I almost watched this and then, nope, not my thing. Sorry it was cringy!
Sometimes cringe worthy is fun. 🙂
I agree!
Oh my! I get what you mean when the acting is so bad you find it kind of fun because …what else can we do right?
I heard a lot about this one over Christmas Sophia and I must admit, I didn’t find the time to sit down and enjoy Christmas this year but hoping next year to start watching all those cringeworthy movies throughout December. I love the cheesy ones with the bad acting so if you have any romance movies in general to recommend, I’m all ears!
Aww, I hope you get to them as well! I didn’t find much time either to watch all the movies everyone talks about, but maybe next year? I generally don’t watch many movies, but if I watch any, I’ll be sure to let you know! 😀
Ahhhhh, my little self LOVED Swan Lake and I think I even own Rapunzel? I know I have Swan Lake for sure and watched it maybe weekly as a kid so you’re not alone. I don’t have much experience with cheesy Christmas movies, though, so I can’t say if I want to avoid more in the future.