13. The Princess Bride
20th Century FoxA year after directing Stand By Me, Rob Reiner served up an altogether different kind of movie which appealed to children of all ages, The Princess Bride. From real-world contemporary America he took us back to a fairytale realm of an imaginary distant past, creating what is arguably one of the finest fantasy comedies ever made. Carey Elwes stars as the gallant hero Westley who sets out to rescue Buttercup the Princess (Robin Wright) from the clutches of the evil Prince Humperdink (Chris Sarandon). Playful from start to finish and never taking itself seriously, The Princess Bride is also a surprisingly sophisticated film with more than a hint of postmodernism that was surely completely lost on kids in the 1980s. It's a rare thing for a film which thoroughly entertained you as a kid to emerge even better on viewing it as an adult, and in this respect The Princess Bride reminds us of more recent children's movies such as Toy Story which are equally concerned with entertaining grown ups.