Knowing modern fairy tale that sits between affectionate spoof and poor B-movie

Rating: Null/10 (16 March 2002)

When a man visits his sick Grandson, he keeps him amused with a fairy tale. We find that the beautiful Buttercup has lost her true love and years later has agreed to marry the evil Prince Humperdinck. She is kidnapped by three mercenaries but is later rescued by a mysterious masked man. When she discovers the identity of the man she faces a dilemma between returning to her intended or staying with true love. When the decision is made for her Wesley must fight (with a little help) to win her back.
There is something about this film that requires you to be in the right mood to watch it. The story is pitched as a standard fairy tale and it feels like a B-movie, if it was played straight. Happily Reiner adds spoof and comedy to the mix that allows the fairy tale to follow the traditional routes while poking fun at itself. The story is still nice, but really it's the knowing comedy that makes it.
The comedy is generally consistent  gentle rather than cruel. The film uses unlikely fairy tale mechanisms (like having the ideal thing to hand when needed or the idea of honour etc) with a knowing wink to the audience to let us know it's not serious. It also uses comedy cameos by the bucket  some work well (Billy Crystal, Wallace Shaw) and some work less well (Peter Jones and Mel Smith are unused). And the rest of it is full of absurd humour. Most of it hits the mark  but if you're not in the mood of this type of silly affectionate humour then you'll probably dislike it.
Elwes is good  he looks like a handsome B-movie actor and plays it like such, while also spoofing himself. That's why he was so good in Hot Shots too. A young Robin Wright does the wide-eyed damsel in distress so-so, but she doesn't get the same comedy as the others and feels a little dull. Mandy Patinkin is really good in a hammy role and has a good character. Shaw is hilarious in a small role and even Andre the Giant is good  if a little hard to understand at times. The villains are well played by Guest and Sarandon  indeed they have the best characters as they don't play it for laughs as much as the others.
Overall this is an enjoyable little film from Reiner  it doesn't have the development or the sharpness of much of his other, funnier work but as a gently affectionate spoof it works just fine if you're in the mood).