Movie Review: The Princess Bride

I have always loved Princess Bride. I cannot remember the first time I saw it, probably because I was too young to remember, but it stuck in my mind for years afterwards and I have watched it many times in the last few years.

So why do I love it so much? Well, it has everything that you need in a movie – romance, comedy, action and adventure – and it does them all so well. Even though it was made in the 80s and the effects are absolutely terrible, the storyline makes up for it.

The movie starts off with a young boy sick at home playing videogames. His grandfather comes to pay him a visit and brings with a book (The Princess Bride) that his father used to read to him when he was sick. Begrudgingly the boy agrees to listen, complaining at points about how it sounds like just a gushy romance. But before long, the boy is captivated by the story and so is the audience. The story is about a beautiful woman and the farmboy who she falls in love with. The farmboy, Wesley, leaves to find his fortune early on and is kidnapped and killed by the dread pirate Roberts. The woman, Buttercup, pines over him for five years before agreeing to marry the prince of the country, Prince Humperdink. A few days before the wedding, she is kidnapped by a group of ruffians who want to start a war between two countries. What they don’t realise is that the dread pirate Roberts is on their tail and wants Buttercup for himself.

A few weeks ago we realised that two of our friends (Mike and Vicky) had never seen the movie, and so we invited them and Tom and Danika around to watch. Being the adults that we all are, we also decided to make the movie a little more fun by adding a drinking game to it. The rules of the game (similar to the rules of any other movie drinking game) are that when a character in the movie says a specific line, you need to drink. Some of the lines for Princess Bride include (but are not limited to) the following:

Buttercup
Farmboy
As you wish
Humperdink (the prince)
Boo
Inconceivable
Man in Black
My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
True Love
Rodents of Unusual Size

You will find yourself drinking a lot in the beginning and at certain points throughout the movie (at some point, a witch says boo something like 15 times in quick succession). Of course, it’s up to you how much you drink and when, but these are just some guidelines if you feel like watching the movie with a group of friends and playing along.

Either way, drunk or sober, I give the Princess Bride 5/5 as a movie. It has got everything that you need and, even though it is a little bit dated, it is still a lot of fun to watch.