The Princess Bride (The Criterion Collection) [4K UHD]

This movie holds up better than most comedies. This Criterion Collection version is excellent in 4k. I haven't looked at the Blu-Ray that is packed with the 4k. (2 separate disks) My old LG OLED is set so as not to mess with the picture. I admire how well the video transfer came out. I run the sound digitally to a stereo system and I can't fault the audio transfer either.

Awesome movie. Brought back alot of memories.

Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride is an absolute masterpiece, and this 4K Ultra HD release from The Criterion Collection is the definitive, breathtaking way to experience it. If you are a physical media collector or just someone who loves this movie, this set is worth every single penny. At its core, the film tells a beautifully timeless story. We follow the lovely Princess Buttercup and her true love, Westley, a humble farm boy who leaves to seek his fortune but is feared lost at sea after an attack by the Dread Pirate Roberts. The narrative journey of their separation, his unexpected return, and their struggle against impossible odds to be reunited is pure movie magic—perfectly blending high-spirited adventure, sharp wit, and genuine romance. The acting across the entire ensemble is phenomenal. Cary Elwes and Robin Wright have unforgettable chemistry, while Mandy Patinkin and Wallace Shawn deliver lines that have been quoted for decades. But the true heart and soul of the supporting cast belongs to Andre the Giant as Fezzik. His performance is absolutely incredible; he brings such immense warmth, gentle humor, and genuine tenderness to the screen that it elevates every single scene he is in. Criterion has done a spectacular job with this native 4K transfer. Captured with Dolby Vision and HDR, the video quality is pristine. The fine film grain is beautifully intact, giving it a rich, theatrical look. The lush greens of the Florin countryside, the detailed textures of the medieval clothing, and the deep, ink-black shadows of the Fire Swamp look sharper and clearer than ever before. Mark Knopfler’s beautiful, acoustic-driven soundtrack also sounds warm, rich, and completely immersive in the 5.1 surround mix, accompanying the story perfectly without ever overwhelming the crisp dialogue. Beyond the stunning presentation on the 4K disc, Criterion went above and beyond with the physical packaging and supplemental material. The release comes housed in a gorgeous, lavishly illustrated storybook-style digibook packaging that feels incredibly premium on the shelf. Tucked inside is a fantastic 40-page clothbound booklet featuring an essay by author Sloane Crosley and William Goldman's own brilliant introduction to his script. The special features included on the accompanying Blu-ray disc are an absolute goldmine for fans. It is packed to the brim with amazing supplements, including a vintage 1996 audio commentary featuring Reiner, Goldman, and actors Billy Crystal and Peter Falk, an edited audiobook reading of the original novel by Rob Reiner, and a fascinating program on the art of fencing. You also get incredible behind-the-scenes footage, Cary Elwes’ personal video diaries, and archival documentaries like As You Wish that explore the entire production history. This is a flawless release for a flawless film. Criterion has truly treated this classic like royalty. "As you wish" indeed—highest recommendation!

Fantastic movie. Fantastic restoration at the 4K level. Criterion Collection delivering the greats as always. "As you wish."

Edit to original: Reordered recently. They fixed whatever issue they had at release for the 4k disc. Ordered the 4k version. Tried to watch it the day after it came. It looks fantastic in 4k HDR, when it works right. There was an issue with the disc I got. When it got to the sword fight on the cliffs the image started to artifact a little. By the time the fight with Fezzik was over the artifacting was worse and more often, and the sound started to break up. I tried another known working movie to make sure it was the disc and not my player and found out it was definitely the disc. Had it returned and a new copy sent. Same problems starting at about the same time. Not sure if I'll be trying to get another copy any time soon since apparently there was a large bad batch of them and I don't want to waste time and shipping resources trying to find a good copy.

This is the most perfect Criterion Collection DVD with fascinating informative extra features. I love the humor and quality of this movie and Blu-Ray. Wonderful actors, story, and direction.

Impossible to get in the UK so very happy to be able to get it shipped to me by Amazon. Beautiful package. More discs should be this imaginative.

This is the best movie that has ever been released. Everyone should watch this it's that good.

This is a beautiful upgrade to an amazing movie. I love the fabric covered case with the booklet, it is really an elegant touch. I also love the quality of the 4k upgrade. Both the visuals and audio are really well done, and allow me to really enjoy a movie that I absolutely adore. (Not that I would not enjoy it in lower formats, but the 4k upgrade on this is REALLY worth it!) My nitpicking complaint is just from the menu. The music playing on the menu is weird. The menu itself seems lazy. Highlighted items on the main panel are then the "turned-off" colour in the submenu. I realise I am not explaining it well, but since there is no check mark or written notice of settings being adjusted, and the colour-change is the ONLY visual cue to a changed setting, the colour change needs to be consistent, and not reversed depending on which particular menu you are accessing. It feels overlooked and is a bad design. I will not withhold a star for the bad menu design, since the menu is not the important part of this movie. Everything else is top quality, and feels this was really upgraded with care. Even at the expensive price, this is an upgrade that is well worth the cost.

This is such a good offer. The case is so beautiful (the photos don't convey how nice it looks and feels), although it doesn't fit well alongside other blu-rays. Worth it for the Criterion Collection quality.

As other reviewers have already said, this film is a classic but the Criterion 4K release is a disaster. So far I've returned 2 copies to Amazon and will be returning the 3rd copy they have sent me. All 3 copies I received started pixelating almost immediately and quickly worsen to the extent that the disc cripples all functionality in my player. The only way to remove the disc is to yank out the power cord and then (if I'm quick enough!) keep pressing eject upon switching it on again. I also noticed that upon closing the disc tray of my player, this disc causes it to spin so loudly and rapidly unlike any other disc I own, for an extended period of time before the menu actually loads. I realise that by returning it for the third time I am putting Amazon in the position of administering this procedure yet again, for no fault of their own. Amazon's customer service has been stellar. I have also emailed Criterion, who in a typically corporate fashion, fawningly encourage their customers to contact them in case of defective products, because they "care so much" that their customers receive good quality items. Given the cheap, faux book packaging that Criterion manufactured for this release I find that difficult to believe. And given that Amazon have managed to facilitate the return of previous faulty copies I received quicker than Criterion could be bothered to even reply to my emails, I doubt that Criterion give a hoot about what their customers receive or whether it functions. I'm still waiting for a reply from them. We are all waiting for them to admit they released a faulty disc. I've never before received so many consecutive copies of the same product which all failed to work. It's a record for me, and I own a lot of discs. I even tried to be proactive while I waited for Criterion to get up off their rears and see if it was possible to resolve this issue myself. So, for those of you who are fans of this entertaining film and are wondering whether you want to pony up the better part of £40 for this plastic beer mat, in the hope that any problems can be resolved by yourselves:- - Updating my player's firmware to the latest, month old, firmware made no difference. - Spending numerous hours reading the many online forum threads complaining about this release and performing all manner of recommended tweaks and tricks in my player's settings made no difference. Think I'll consider the German 4K release before bothering with another Criterion copy. To confirm to myself that my player (Panasonic UB820) was fine, I tested other 4K discs I owned and they all worked perfectly pre fimware update, post firmware update and they worked whether or not any tweaks were made to the settings. Which is exactly as you'd expect for a product that is fit for purpose. I wonder if Criterion will admit to there being an authoring or manufacturing problem? Luckily we are no longer in the early days of DVD and there are now numerous independent boutique releasing studios out there. Criterion releases are no longer the only shade of "special edition" produced to exacting standards for enthusiastic film fans and collectors. I'll be looking elsewhere for high-end editions and probably only resort to a Criterion release after it has been on release for a while. Even then I'll probably put in the due diligence first and see what the enthusiastic, early adopters are saying. But still, the low quality materials/manufacturing of their releases in recent years has been slowly putting me off their products. Their Princess Bride 4K disc is probably the straw that broke the camel's back for me. These days they seem to like charging the prices that they used to charge for their laser discs, except that in return you now get media that cost pennies to manufacture. Edited 2nd Jan 2024: Just to follow up here in case anybody finds this useful. Criterion contacted me by replying to my email in which I demonstrated the issues with this release. I was asked to return the 4K disc to them and they would send me a re-pressed replacement disc. I obviously did not bother because Amazon resolved this for me weeks ago with a refund and with much less effort required by me. But it seems that the offer to send a re-pressed disc is an admission of some sort of production/manufacturing fault for this title. I've been unable to find any public notification of this. I wasn't motivated to look too hard though. Criterion did not attempt to offer any explanation of what the problem was, nor what caused it. It seems they'd like to simply send newly re-pressed (ie. fixed) copies of the 4K disc to people who experienced problems without any public announcement. That to me suggests that they will continue selling the original faulty pressings that are out there and when customers who experience problems complain directly to Criterion, they will get a re-pressed, 4k disc replacement sent to them. So the only way to get a working 4k disc (if you are one of the unlucky people for whom this disc does not function) is directly from Criterion, and it will cost you some international shipping fees if you do not live in the USA.

Why send me a American region dvd when I am on Amazon Netherlands. That’s just not fair

So UHD (4K) Blu-ray discs are supposed to be region free as a standard that was industry agreed. Knowing this, I assumed that the 4k UHD Blu-ray I was buying was region free and that any HD versions included may be region locked. But no, this is region locked and is worthless in the UK without an appropriate player. 1* is no reflection on the film but reflects them going against an industry standard for no good reason, that actually makes it massively more likely that people will pirate a 4k file of the film if they can't own the physical media, and having features that are inaccessible.