American Pie 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

American Pie 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Paul Weitz's raunchy and racy coming of age story, 'American Pie (1999)' arrives on 4K UHD in this 'American Pie: Limited Edition SteelBook 4K' courtesy of Universal. The film focuses its attention on a group of young men, Jim (Jason Biggs), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), Oz (Chris Klein), and Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), who have made a desperate pact to lose their virginity by prom night. Tara Reid (Vicky, 'The Big Lebowski') Alyson Hannigan (Michelle, 'How I Met Your Mother'), Shannon Elizabeth (Nadia, 'A Home for the Holidays'), and Natasha Lyonne (Jessica, 'Poker Face') round out the cast. The film is also noteworthy for accelerating Jennifer Coolidge's ('The White Lotus') career, due to her highly memorable, though small, role. All of the legacy on-disc supplemental material has been brought forward here. A Blu-ray disc and a Digital Code Redeemable via Movies Anywhere are also included. Please scroll down to the 'Special Features and Extras' section below for a discussion of the new SteelBook.

American Pie 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For a comments on the 2160p presentation of the feature film, please follow this link.

American Pie 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For a comments regarding the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that accompanies the film, please follow this link.

American Pie 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Just as the overall plot of the film is simple and to the point, the same holds true for the design of the SteelBook which keeps its focus on a very specific moment in the film. The cover holds a still of Jim (Jason Biggs) nervously inserting his fingers into the warm, freshly baked apple pie which his mother left for him on the kitchen counter. The film's title is to the left, printed in white, and set at a jaunty angle. The back cover holds an image of the pie after it was ruined and rendered inedible after Jim utilized it for something other than its intended purpose. Universal's logo is in the bottom left corner, and a product code sits in the bottom right. The spine holds the film's title in white with Universal's logo at the bottom. The background color of all three exterior surfaces of the SteelBook is a bold red. The pie tin boasts some silver metallic highlights. Spot gloss has not be used, and the SteelBook does not contain any embossed or debossed elements.

Opening the SteelBook, the tabs on the left secure the Digital Copy. On the right side, the 4K UHD disc and the Blu-ray disc, each containing the feature film and bonus material, are stagger-stacked, each on its own hub, with the 4K UHD disc on top. Removing all of these contents exposes a two-panel still from the film of Jim and his father, played by Eugene Levy, as they discuss how they will handle the issue of the ruined pie which sits on the table between them. It's a straightforward design that perfectly captures a key moment from the film.

All of the legacy features have been brought forward for this release, with no new on-disc material added. For an accounting of these on-disc extras, please follow this link.

American Pie 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

That American Pie would go on to spawn a number of sequels and become something of a springboard to launch the careers of several of those in its cast is as unexpected and surprising as the film itself. Many films have gone down the same road that American Pie treads with far less funny, endearing, and enduring results. Yet, some 26 years later, the raunchy comedy that could is remains as much a part of our collective movie vernacular as ever. Most of the jokes still land, the cringe-inducing moments still induce cringes, and the real lessons learned by the high schoolers are still important. Modest gains are to be found in Universal's 4K UHD release of the title, though the overall darkness of some of the scenes is concerning to my eye. For fans of the film who are anxious to upgrade it to the latest home video format, and with appropriate caveats in mind, the simple but effective design used for this SteelBook earns the American Pie: Limited Edition SteelBook 4K a cautious recommendation.