The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride.
1987 20th Century Fox & Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Starring: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Chris Sarandon, Mandy Patinkin, Christopher Guest, André the Giant, Wallace Shawn, Peter Falk, Fred Savage, Billy Crystal, Carol Kane, Peter Cook
Director: Rob Reiner
Available from Amazon.

A sports-obsessed youth (Savage) is sick in bed one afternoon, so his grandfather (Falk) comes over to read him the book that his father used to read to him, and what he read to the kid's dad during illnesses. The boy is initially concerned that the story he's going to hear is a "kissing book".

Everyone knows the story: Buttercup (Wright) lives on a farm in the country of Florin with the farm hand Westley (Elwes) to perform chores for her, which he always answers with "As you wish", which comes to mean "I love you". They fall in love, and Westley leaves to seek his fortune so they can marry. Instead, Westley is attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts and believed dead. Five years later, a reluctant Buttercup is engaged to Prince Humperdinck (Sarandon), but she is abducted by a trio of outlaws: Vizzini (Shawn), Inigo Montoya (Patinkin), and the massive Fezzik (André).

Vizzini and company are pursued by the Prince and his soldiers, as well as a mysterious man in black, who outpaces the royal rescue party. We learn that Montoya is seeking to avenge his father's death at the hands of a man with six fingers on his right hand, complete with his prepared speech that probably doesn't even need to be listed here. The masked man defeats Montoya, Fezzik, and tricks Vizzini into drinking poisoned wine, and reveals himself to be Westley, who was made the Dread Pirate Roberts' apprentice. They make their way to the Fire Swamp, but end up captured by Humperdinck as well as the six-fingered Count Tyrone Rugen (Guest). Buttercup agrees to return with the Prince in exchange for Westley's freedom, but he's instead sent to Rugen's torture chambers. We soon learn that Humperdinck arranged Buttercup's kidnapping in order to blame a rival country and starting a war with them. Oh, and it would be even better propaganda if she was strangled on her wedding night.

On the day of the wedding, Montoya and Fezzik learn about what's going on, and seek out Westley to kill Rugen, but there's a problem: he's mostly dead, thanks to Humperdinck. With the aid of a magician Miracle Max (Crystal) and his wife, Westley is revived, only very, very slowly. He is still present for the invasion of the castle, where Montoya finally gets his revenge, and the wedding is disrupted long enough for everyone to get away on horseback.

Highly, highly, highly recommended film, but you probably already decided that for yourselves.