Release Year: 1987

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Family

Director: Rob Reiner

Writer: William Goldman

Stars: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin

You want high adventure? You got it. You want romance? Sure thing. You want giants, miracles, revenge, chases, daring escapes, terrifying creatures, evil princes, swordplay, hilarious one-liners, killer mustaches, six-fingered men, life-sucking machines, senile kings, and silly-sounding clergymen?

Weird, but, uh…as you wish.

The Princess Bride framed as a story-within-a-story—a grandpa reading his grandson a book called The Princess Bride—and the director landed the incomparable Peter Falk to play the Grandpa. Falk (remember him as Detective Columbo?) ties everything together in a big ball of adventure and adorableness. The rest of the cast is made up of comic geniuses.

The Princess Bride works—and has become a cult classic—because it has everything.

Even Andre the Giant.

There aren't many genres it doesn't at least dabble in during its 98 minutes, and it does all of them well. It moves back and forth seamlessly between farcical comedy and a genuine, touching love story, and it even made the list of AFI's 100 Greatest Love Stories and Bravo's list of 100 funniest movies. It can make you cringe, it can make you cry, and it can make you…want to call an exterminator to check out those rodents living in your basement.

The movie did okay when it was released in 1987, but it wasn't a smashing success and fan favorite until it became available on VHS (which was like Blu-ray but without the element of even moderately advanced functionality.)

Since then, it's only grown in popularity thanks to its made-for-sharing hilarious quotes, and most American movie buffs love the film more than they do their own children.

It makes sense—most children aren't nearly as entertaining on repeated viewings.

There are some terribly funny comedies out there, but very few of them can also be called great films. You might bust a gut watching The Hangover, or cry tears of laughter during a scene from Horrible Bosses 2 (although we'd question whether maybe someone is cutting onions in the row in front of you), but let's be honest—we wouldn't exactly put either of those inside a time capsule and shoot them into space so that alien species can get a sense of what we're all about.

But we'd totally put The Princess Bride in there.

It's hilarious, yes, and at times totally ridiculous and silly, but it encapsulates who we are at the same time. It celebrates the breadth of human imagination, it takes a stand in the fight between good and evil, it demonstrates the power of friendship, and it makes us believe in true love. It makes us laugh, but it wasn't intended just to make us laugh. It's a rich, compelling story with characters we grow to love (and in whom we see little bits of ourselves), and does so without resorting to toilet humor or vulgarity. Not that toilet humor and vulgarity don't have their place in movies, but it's a bigger accomplishment when you can craft a hugely entertaining comedy without them.

The Princess Bride wasn't nominated for Best Picture. It's not considered a cinematic masterpiece from a technical standpoint. But it's one of the most universally beloved movies ever made—and good luck finding any film that's more quotable.

We might go so far as to say that happening upon such a film would be…inconceivable.