Cinema Paradiso Reviews 

Fantastic service - allow you to have a 'holiday' and obtains world movies, thus giving choice and not telling you what to watch like the Main Platforms i'e' independent films form Iran etc, documentaries. The Global ones limit your mind. I have been with them for many years now.

I have been renting DVDs since the days of Lovefilm and I find the service to be excellent and about £4 cheaper than Standard Netflix (1080 HD) for better quality blu-ray discs provided that you are happy with just 2 discs per month, which I am.

Cinema Paradiso has a very large range of TV series and films available and the films tend to have better reviews, on average, than those available from the streaming services which is my main reason for staying with them.

It seems strange in this day and age to receive discs through the post, but provided their prices remain competitive, the service and quality of media remains good, I will remain with them.

Bogus. In need of investigation. Ditto others experiences, be sure to get postage receipts when returning discs to this company…

In principal, the service should be great, but in practice it fails miserably! The turnaround time is simply not good enough! When I return a disc they always receive it the next day, (barring Sunday's of course) everytime, like clock work. EVERYTIME! However, when they send one out it can take 3, sometimes 4 days. This means your paying for a full months subscription but realistically only getting 1 disc a week, if your lucky - and with the recent price hike, it isn’t cheap! Sometimes you won’t even receive a disc, it “mysteriously” goes missing.
(I have a great postal service in my area, no complaints)
This seems to be a regular complaint by many members (as you can read below)
Call me sceptical, but it seems to be their business model - stretch the membership out for as long as possible.
Also, I must add, there has been a few times when I’ve had to write an email for whatever reason, and it’s always an excuse or a defensive response, never any sort of courtesy or positive solution.
I’d love to see their membership numbers.
Someone at the top really needs to read these reviews, work on the floor, talk to their staff and implement a new strategy before it’s too late. Unless of course everything is going to plan.
A shame really.

After over a decade of being a loyal customer I got an email today explaining that they are cancelling my subscription due to too many lost discs, unless I pay £20 to compensate for the lost disc. I would pay if I had actually lost the disc. The issue is that Royal Mail failed to deliver two discs in 2024 which I reported as lost/undelivered. Cinema Paradiso are basically putting the blame of the customer if RM fail to deliver a disc. Bonkers. Oh well. Goodbye then

Have had a somewhat patchy experience with this company over the years but on balance positive as compared with others however i now feel that I may well be reaching the final round up being faced with continuing rising cost yet unfortunately not having access to a number of titles I want---although only time will tell. In the meantime would have given a more favourable score had it not been for the very steep increase in the subscription this year

I really really want this to be great and do well however just disappointed by the service. Had a new release in my list for weeks at no 1 even paid for an extra disc to get it sooner and they consistently send no 2. I enquired and they said it’s with other people. I return discs priority mail and it takes about 3 days for a turn around so most you get if lucky is 3/4 discs a month and that’s if you send Monday and first thing. Will keep my membership for a couple of weeks to see if things might change which I hope but I feel it’s a very laboured and slow service which isn’t really cheap in this climate.

It's a good service and I think it is important to keep physical media alive. However the price increases over the last year and a bit have almost doubled my subscription payment. It's not sustainable and is no longer value for money. A great shame.

I've been a member of Cinema Paradiso for many years now and apart from one very negative experience (see my previous review) it has been very good....until now!

The price increases have been ridiculous, culminating in an email in October 2024 confirming another double digit increase in the price AND a reduction in service from three discs to two at the same time.

I wasn't best pleased, but I love the service and decided to continue.

Within a couple of weeks, the service has now completely fallen over. The postal service in my area is generally very good, but it's now taking 3-4 days for discs I post to be received back with them and another 3-4 days for the replacement discs to get back to me.

The service now costs £30 and I'm in danger of only getting 5-6 discs a month for that. I'll miss the better picture and sound quality that comes from 4K discs, but it's actually cheaper to rent from Apple now, and certainly much less hassle.

It was good whilst it lasted...

I have been with Cinema Paradiso for 11 years or so . Delivery of discs has been random for the past year or so . Increasingly , l have not received discs and they don’t get them back when l post them back . They have cancelled my subscription tonight unless l pay them back for the lost discs .
It is not me but Royal Mail … very poor and cynical service, l feel.

No customer service support whatsoever.

After years of reliable service they suddenly refused to accept my credit card despite me trying several times to follow their useless instructions. Due to lack of a response from them I have no option but cancel my subscription and look at streaming services. Or buy the dvds, which to be honest, are just as affordable these days.
You'd think in the current climate of a deluge of streaming options they'd look after their customers a little more.
This is no way to run a business (unless you're looking to run it into the ground)

Having joined Cinema Paradiso about a month ago I have found their service excellent. Their library of titles is extensive & exceeds those found on comparable streaming services. Highly recommended.

Just been notified of a 50% increase in rental charges, within 30 days. This is no longer a viable option. It would be cheaper to by the DVD's used! I think we will see the end of this business model of DVD rental. What a shame!

An ideal way to rent 4K Blu-ray movies and they have a massive library. You do run into the odd defective disks that skips but their customer service is very responsive and will typially ship out a replacement fairly quickly.

On joining the DVD/Blu-ray rental company they immediately withdrew £25.98 from my account, £15.99 on 7th October 2024 & £9.99 on the 11th October2024.

They display titles in their rental library which they know they don't have to encourage you to sign up so they can take your money and then when you complain they tell you money is not refundable.

Below are 2 examples from Emails I received from the same person first saying they have a certain disc then after withdrawing funds from my account saying they have not got this disc.

Hi Nic,
Thank you for contacting Cinema Paradiso.
The Blu-ray format is available so the title can be added on Blu-ray to the Saved list.

Best regards,
Inge
Customer Services

Hi Nic,
Thank you for contacting Cinema Paradiso.
Blu-ray version is not available, however, you can add it to your Saved list so when/if it becomes available it will be moved to your My list.

Best regards,
Inge
Customer Services

I have been a subscriber since Lovefilm died due to a takeover by Amazon who cared about profit, not films. I am constantly amazed by their turnaround. When I post back DVDs, I receive an email the following day acknowledging receipt. The next day an email arrives telling me what they are about to send next, which duely arrives the same day or the following morning. I maintain a list of around twenty titles, and frequently receive ones from the top four positions of my list. Together with the choice from thousands of titles in either dvd or blu-ray, including a vast range of World Cinema titles, most in their original language, how could you consider renting elsewhere.

Good website, good selection of films, all let down by poor turnaround times. Used the 14 day free trial to give the service a go and just about managed to get two discs in that time despite watching each disc the day it arrived and posting it back early the next day. Returned discs were always received back the day after I posted it, but discs being sent out to me took 4 to 5 days each time to arrive. I can't justify the monthly price for 3 to 4 films a month based on the slow service.

They sent me a foreign film with no subtitles. When I complained they simply said it did have subtitles. They lied. When I further complained they ignored me. Horrendous customer service. All looks fine until you encounter a problem with this lot and then they show their true colours.

The last of its kind postal DVD rental in the UK. I've been a subscribed member for 5 years now after seeing an advert for it on Facebook. Possibly the first (and only time) that an ad on there has been of interest to me. I'm very happy with the service and the turnaround time of rentals being sent out. Using Royal Mail sometimes it can take longer due to weekends and bank holidays, but I've found getting two disks at a time subscription and sending them back separately circumvents any issues of having nothing to watch. There was a small price rise this year, but it's the first time in 5 years it's increased and unfortunately costs for EVERYTHING in the household have increased. You can curate your "watchlist" and put in priority order, or if other people use your account you can make separate lists and choose how many from each list are send out when being despatched. This is very much a one of a kind service these days and I hope it will be around got many, many more years to come. If you love films this is the only place to find EVERYTHING. Forget streaming, get some fresh batteries in your remotes and get the popcorn out!

Superb choice, beats platforms.