The Princess Bride

We watched The Princess Bride in class and I must say I enjoyed it very much. The story was campy enough to make up for the very obvious movie sets and plaster rocks. Andre the Giant stole the show with his role as Fezzik; all of the characters in the movie were wonderfully silly. The set design seemed very low budget, as there was often gymnastic landing pads on the ground for the actors to visibly jump onto and nearly every prop seemed to be made of painted plaster. Many of the backdrops were very obviously painted and placed far too close to the camera and thus were easy to identify right away. However, the silliness and the bedtime story aspect made up for the set design. The story is a classic, with many memorable and famous lines like: "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to die." and "As you wish." I like the concept of breaking in and out of the story to focus back on the grandfather and the little boy, and it's especially funny to see all the old posters and 80s memorabilia lining the walls of the little boys room. The beginning opens up to a not-so-subtle plug from Nintendo, which no 80s kids movie is complete without.
The production quality of the film was decent, as I said it seemed a little low budget for the stunts and set design. It felt a little like The Labyrinth with David Bowie and it seemed like the director did their best to add just the right amount of campiness to soften the low budget feeling, but not too much to make it a true cult classic. The camerawork was rather well done, there were some very well-defined shots and landscapes that felt very solid and well-planned.
The film leaves you with a very sweet and sentimental feeling, much like a bedtime story. A very easy watch for when you are home sick or had a bad day.