a blend of blandness and bloodiness

Rating: 1/10 (25 May 2005)

For an adult, this movie is way too bland and tasteless. There are only two relatively snappy and enjoyable scenes (the poison duel and the fight of Inigo and Westley). Most of the rest of the movie is simply uninteresting. The good characters are too characterless, and the villains are too unconvincing (perhaps with the single exception of Vizzini). The plot is soapy and overstretched. The props are cheap looking.
Now, you might say, this can be said of a lot of other movies too. Why 1/10?
Because for its target audience - kids - the movie is not simply average. It's outright disgusting. The torture scene alone is enough to get this movie banned from my family video library. It's so senselessly, meaninglessly cruel that I couldn't watch it myself, let alone show to my kids. The sick obsession with bloody vengeance ("Prepare to die! Prepare to die! Prepare to die! Prepare to die!" ad infinitum) is immoral almost to the point of absurdity. The entire movie is just a painful, endless gallery of people (both "good" and "bad") beating and killing other people by various means. There's no beauty or catharsis in any of this. Just blood.
And you say this is a "family classic"? Are you serious?
Now, British cinema seems to always have had a certain feel for cruelty, but when Monthy Python does it, it's at least funny. Here, it's not funny at all. It's just plain ugly.
I'm having serious difficulty trying to imagine a normal sane person who can watch this movie without skipping... let alone _enjoy_ it.