The inspiration for so many later blockbusters.

Rating: 7/10 (20 August 2016)

The disappointment that I had with this movie I think can be attributed to how many people copied off of it. From what I have gathered, this was the first time anyone had done a non- traditional fairy tale and people loved that. But now, Disney does that every time it adapts a fairy tale. All of the elements of Princess Bride can be found in either the Shrek movies or one of the Disney "fairy tales with a twist". So Princess Bride hardly felt revolutionary to me after seeing so many movies that modeled themselves off of it. It's really too bad, because I think I might have really enjoyed it if not for that.
The story follows many of the conventions of a fairy tale, so that was a little disappointing. There were plenty of good scenes, though, and much of it was amusing or at least entertaining. The action choreography was pretty good for what it was. Low budget, or at least not huge budget like we see today, but still pretty exciting and not that violent. The turns are not exactly predictable, but they aren't devastatingly unexpected. They just sort of happen.
I think I was also expecting there to be more of a Monty Python or Men in Tights feel to it, which there was a little bit. But a lot of the movie had a surprisingly serious tone to it, enough that there were many times when I didn't know whether I was supposed to laugh. In some ways, this isn't bad. It can be kind of annoying to have the jokes hold up a "laugh" sign next to them. But it decreases the entertainment level a little.
All things considered, it's well crafted. I wouldn't say that it's anything you should study as an aspiring filmmaker, but the people who worked on it did a good job. I wouldn't recommend that you watch it if you don't think you'll like it. You can only enjoy this movie if you go into it with an open mind. It's a good family movie, but most kids under about 8 won't appreciate it that much. Overall Rating: 7.3/10.