Pleasant enough fantasy adventure aimed at family audiences

Rating: 6/10 (12 May 2014)

I hadn't even heard of The Princess Bride until very recently. But evidently it has something of a good reputation and I am guessing that it may have been a sleeper hit that gained its reputation over a number of years as opposed to a film that hit the mark on initial release. Having seen it I'm still not entirely sure why this one has gained the reputation it has, as it didn't really seem all that remarkable to be perfectly honest.
Its story takes the form of a sweet natured traditional adventure narrative. It's set in a fantasy land but unusually is told from the perspective of the present day with scenes of a grandfather reading the title book to his ill grandson. It has a strong romantic subplot and has very clear morals, with no grey areas. Consequently its simplicity makes it very well suited to children. But it can appeal quite well to adults too because it does have a lot of humour. It's helped in this area quite a bit by having a very good cast. There are too many to mention but my favourite character was the evil hunchback played by Wallace Shawn. The scene where he has a battle of wits with the hero over a poisoned drink is the funniest and best moment in the film for me. So all-in-all, it's certainly a likable enough movie but one probably, in fairness, not aimed at me. However, I cannot avoid not commenting on its weakest aspect because it was so, so terrible I couldn't believe it. The music. Oh, deary me, the music. For a film with some evident production values on screen it was completely bizarre that the soundtrack was so horribly tinny, like it had been composed and performed on a Casio keyboard!