Review of The Princess Bride (1987) by Wayne K — 26 Aug 2015

When you hear nothing but good things about a movie, you naturally expect to also join the choir when the credits begin to roll. But when this film finished I was actually lost for compliments. It was nowhere near as funny or exciting as I'd been lead to believe.

It has a very pedestrian pace, the great jokes, of which there are a fair few, are unevenly distributed, and so many scenes go on for so long without as much as a giggle. I actually found myself getting very frustrated at some moments, whether it was through the near-constant dialogue, the pointlessness of many scenes, the lack of laughs, or that the film often appeared so happy with itself that it didn't need to make the effort.

I wanted to like this film, I really did. I don't know anyone who's seen it that didn't love it. But for me, it was slow, annoying, smug, and largely bereft of the comedy that it's so often praised for.