Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves UHD [Limited Edition] [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

Product Information

Kevin Reynolds' 1991 Box Office hit is a rip-roaring old school action adventure with prime Costner, prime Rickman and prime Freeman tearing up the screen. Back in 1991, Kevin Costner ruled the cinematic landscape and with his filmmaking partner Kevin Reynolds in hand for this and Waterworld, the two seemed unstoppable. The film shot just after he finished Dances With Wolves, and followed it into cinemas the next year. ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES comes to 4K UHD™ Blu-ray™ in a variety of Limited Edition / Steelbook sets, on November 28th, from Arrow.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Limited

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves dazzles in a 4K restoration, accompanied by a king's ransom of insightful bonus features. In these happy times, a star with that pedigree could make whatever the bloody hell they wanted to and what Costner wanted to tackle next was a take on Robin Hood. Throughout we see that the Christians around Azeem are initially dismissive, or even outright prejudiced, but he wins them round.

Explosions of fire, catapults, and sword clanks all make the correct sounds and come across all of the speakers fluidly. The only downside comes in the opening sequence, where the extra resolution makes the fact the Jerusalem street was shot in a studio look a little too obvious, but otherwise this an exemplary restoration. There is 172 minutes worth of bonus features in addition to the two vintage commentary tracks and the extra twelve minutes for the extended cut. Morgan Freeman is astute choice for the part, brining his customary gravitas, and giving good account of himself in the action, considering he was around 53 during shooting. Where the film was arguably always less convincing, and where that is absolutely exacerbated by the passage of time, is in the casting of Robin Hood himself.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves UHD [Limited Edition] [Blu-ray

Helmed by director Kevin Reynolds (Waterworld, The Count of Monte Cristo), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves pays homage to the past while transforming the famous outlaw of Sherwood Forest into a movie icon fit for the 1990s. At 143 minutes even in the theatrical cut, it can feel long, but once it hits those action beats it’s fantastic fun, and Rickman, Freeman and other performances besides still power it on to be a great entertainment, if not quite Robin Hood a la Raiders. Films are not usually made like this one anymore, which is an experience rather than showcasing a few big action sequences and sewing them together with characters. This is an archival EPK piece that tackles cast and crew interviews and on-set footage and is hosted by James Bond himself Pierce Brosnan.This is one of my childhood films, had the toys by Kenner and my mum played the Bryan Adams song to death! Be interested to hear about picture quality on this, have the bluray ultimate edition and that is way too grainy for my liking. Yes, it's a film almost overshadowed by its hit song's own music video, but it is a bloody good romp nonetheless and - rather curiously - a pretty fun companion-piece to Costner's later water-themed adventure, Waterworld, also from Reynolds.

ROBIN HOOD: Prince of Thieves (1991) 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray ROBIN HOOD: Prince of Thieves (1991) 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Prince of Thieves is grand scale theatre, frequently ridiculously over the top, boasting larger-than-life characters, enthusiastic performances, epic action and a hell of a score to round it all off. What this transfer improves on accurately is fine detail, the elimination of crush in the blacks and some wonderful DOLBY Vision HDR that brings forest and fire tones alive like never before. It’s not a subtle film, there are shifts in tone from violent set pieces to laugh-out-loud comedy but if you sit back and go with the flow, you will get a very enjoyable action adventure and you can see why it did so well at the box office. But it would be the Morgan Creek, Kevin Reynolds directed feature that would snag Costner and beat them to release with a severely truncated and harried production slate.

With his Moorish companion Azeem (Morgan Freeman), he joins a band of rebels hiding out in the forest to do battle against the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) and win the heart of the fair Maid Marian (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), cousin of the absent King of England. Arrow's 4K release delivers faithfully impressive native 4K video, with Dolby Vision HDR, a solid pair of audio tracks, and a decent swathe of extra features on the 4K disc itself, with the set available in a variety of Limited Edition flavours that vary only in accompanying packaging, steelbook alternative packaging, and physical paraphernalia within the box itself. proceedings, but the film has an undeniably modern style that may in fact have led to some of that aforementioned critical umbrage. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Arrow Video with a 2160p transfer in 1.