Advertisement

Video Movies : ****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor

Share
<i> Reviews of recent releases by Times critics</i>

*** “The Princess Bride.”Nelson. $89.98.

There hasn’t exactly been a glut of first-class children’s movies recently--but this film of author-screenwriter William Goldman’s novel has some of the tongue-in-cheek joy of “The Crimson Pirate.” It is derring-do tempered with wisecracks, with a plot full of heart-stoppingly beautiful heroines, heart-crushingly cruel villains, cliff-top duels over raging seas and a daring threesome who might almost be Musketeers. Director Rob Reiner has less feel for action and spectacle than for humor and character, and the second half is not always up to the first. But in Mandy Patinkin’s Inigo (“Prepare to die!”), the movie has a great, archetypal action hero: Errol Flynn with a touch of De Niro and Robin Williams.

Advertisement