40 replies to this topic

[SecretAgent007]

I may be in the minority on this, but I really like this movie. I can't understand why it has never been released on DVD. Anyone have an idea?

[Bond111]

I only caught a bit of this on television once, and it intrigued me. I too wish it were on DVD because I'd like to see the rest of it.

[DLibrasnow]

Its available on DVD in Region 2. The DVD release also has a 30-minute documentary on the making of it...

I really don't understand why more people do not have region-free DVD players.

[DLibrasnow]

A nice movie, not to own on dvd but good enough to catch on the telly now and then.

It is a fun movie....but I disagree about the DVD comment. I have watched it several times on DVD.

[SecretAgent007]

Where would I be able to buy the region 2 disc?

I'm not sure if the DVD player for my home theater is region free or not. I doubt it. It's about 6-7 years old. Sony has never replaced it will a newer player either, which ticks me off.

opps, just noticed I spelled Protocol wrong in the title of the thread

Edited by SecretAgent007, 18 March 2005 - 11:11 PM.

[SecretAgent007]

I found it on Amazon-UK, but it doesn't say if it is widescreen or not. I would prefer anamorphic. If it's 4:3, I wouldn't be interested. Anyone know what it is?

[DLibrasnow]

[quote name='SecretAgent007' date='18 March 2005 - 18:14']I found it on Amazon-UK, but it doesn't say if it is widescreen or not.

[Bond111]

I really don't understand why more people do not have region-free DVD players.

Barring ebay, where exactly does one find a region-free player?

[Athena007]

I really want to see this film!!! And I've been told I'll love it. If only it were on R1 DVD I would be all over it.

[DLibrasnow]

I really don't understand why more people do not have region-free DVD players.

Barring ebay, where exactly does one find a region-free player?

There are several online retailers that sell region-free DVD players. The one I used is this one:

http://www.220-electronics.com/

Region-free players have also started appearing on amazon as well as more and more people realize how limiting it is to have a R1 player.

[Blofeld's Cat]

I really don't understand why more people do not have region-free DVD players.

Barring ebay, where exactly does one find a region-free player?

Just as a matter of interest, region free DVD players are sold as standard in Indonesia.

[Qwerty]

I really don't understand why more people do not have region-free DVD players.

Barring ebay, where exactly does one find a region-free player?

There are several online retailers that sell region-free DVD players. The one I used is this one:

http://www.220-electronics.com/

Region-free players have also started appearing on amazon as well as more and more people realize how limiting it is to have a R1 player.

Were they previously difficult to locate on amazon?

[Triton]

DLibrasnow, who is good retailer to buy Region 2 movies from and is there any trouble having them ship to the United State since it seems to me that you are circumventing the purpose of the region-coding scheme to begin with? Also isn't the cost of shipping the DVDs from the UK end up costing more than the DVDs themselves? I don't know who a good source is for Region 2 software, or software for other DVD regions, so I haven't been too excited about getting a region-free DVD player.

Pardon my ignorance, but aren't Region 2 DVDs encoded in European PAL format while the video standard in the United States is NTSC? Do region free DVD players have converters that take a PAL signal and convert it to NTSC so that it may be seen on United States television sets? Or is this not an issue?

[Station Domino]

Pretty good movie with a nice Cold War thriller feel.
Funny to see Brosnan as the baddie but he does a great job.

[DLibrasnow]

[quote name='Triton' date='20 March 2005 - 20:18']DLibrasnow, who is good retailer to buy Region 2 movies from and is there any trouble having them ship to the United State since it seems to me that you are circumventing the purpose of the region-coding scheme to begin with? Also isn't the cost of shipping the DVDs from the UK end up costing more than the DVDs themselves? I don't know who a good source is for Region 2 software, or software for other DVD regions, so I haven't been too excited about getting a region-free DVD player.

Pardon my ignorance, but aren't Region 2 DVDs encoded in European PAL format while the video standard in the United States is NTSC?

[Triton]

Thank you very much for the response D! I'm seriously considering purchasing a region-free player.

I don't really want to be at the mercy of Time Warner Video deciding which of the BBC series it wants to license and distribute in the United States or the distribution agreements for films.

I see that The Wild Geese is available on Region 2 DVD from sendit.com, while I wonder if it will ever be released in the United States in Region 1.

Your example of the Sharpe series is an interesting one. For some reason BFS Video thinks that they can charge a premium and extort money from Sharpe fans for the episodes not broadcast in the United States.

Thanks for also verifying the PAL to NTSC conversion. I presumed that the region-free players did this, but I wasn't certain.

[Blofeld's Cat]

I see that The Wild Geese is available on Region 2 DVD from sendit.com, while I wonder if it will ever be released in the United States in Region 1.

Excellent!

Sir Roger even does the commentary track, too!

http://sendit.com/vi...m/7000000087522

[DLibrasnow]

[quote name='Triton' date='29 March 2005 - 01:41']Thank you very much for the response D! I'm seriously considering purchasing a region-free player.

[/quote]

You will not be disappointed Triton. In addition to The Fourth Protocol and The Wild Geese, other movies only available in Region 2 include When Eight Bells Toll, Escape to Athena, Shout at the Devil, Ursula Andress' SHE, Peter Cushings Sherlock Holmes TV series, High Road to China and Lassiter (both hard to find now, bust still available on ebay). There is also the complete Christopher Lee Fu Manchu series, the Sherlock Holmes classic A Study in Terror and all three big screen versions of The 39 Steps etc etc.
Of note is the fact that the Region 2 release of The Battle of Britain sports a Guy Hamilton commentary which is sorely missing from the Region 1 release.
I've also found Region 4 to stock some exclusive DVD releases (and Empire is incredibly cheap on shipping). I've picked up Silver Bears and the Richard Chamberlain versions of Man in the Iron Mask and The Count of Monte Cristo from there.

[quote name='Triton' date='29 March 2005 - 01:41']I don't really want to be at the mercy of Time Warner Video deciding which of the BBC series it wants to license and distribute in the United States or the distribution agreements for films.

I see that The Wild Geese is available on Region 2 DVD from sendit.com, while I wonder if it will ever be released in the United States in Region 1.

[/quote]

In addition to the commentary by Roger Moore the DVD also has a really great documentary on the legendary producer Euan Lloyd who also was behind The Sea Wolves and Who Dares Wins among many other movies.


[quote name='Triton' date='29 March 2005 - 01:41']Your example of the Sharpe series is an interesting one. For some reason BFS Video thinks that they can charge a premium and extort money from Sharpe fans for the episodes not broadcast in the United States.

Thanks for also verifying the PAL to NTSC conversion.

[Loomis]

I really don't understand why more people do not have region-free DVD players.

Barring ebay, where exactly does one find a region-free player?

Just as a matter of interest, region free DVD players are sold as standard in Indonesia.

I'm under the impression (which means I freely admit that I may be wrong) that, here in the UK, region-free players are actually illegal - presumably because the movie studios together with the British Board of Film Cens----, sorry, Classification feel they should have a monopoly on deciding which films UK viewers are permitted to watch on DVD, when they should watch them ("Hey! Don't even think about getting CLOSER on R1 - wait until it's released over here!"), and in which versions ("You'll have to settle for GOLDENEYE without Xenia headbutting Natalya, sunshine!"). I've never heard of anyone in Britain actually getting done for selling/owning a region-free player, though, and, on reflection, I suppose quite a few film buffs in this country have plenty of R1 titles.

Personally, I've always stuck with British R2 discs, since I gather (and, again, I may be wrong) that the picture quality tends to be superior to R1 (on TVs in the UK, at any rate), and there's never been anything I've wanted to own that was unavailable on UK R2. Not that fussed about missing headbutts in films like GOLDENEYE and ATTACK OF THE CLONES, and the usual minor BBFC tinkering on mainstream movies (for instance, the downmixing of the thwacking sound of punches in the Bond films - hey, too loud and the kids'll get ideas), although I know movie geeks who are.

[DLibrasnow]

I'm under the impression (which means I freely admit that I may be wrong) that, here in the UK, region-free players are actually illegal -

You are wrong Loomis, Region-free players are perfectly legal in the UK. Region-free players are available on reputable sites such as Amazon UK and my mother purchased one recently at a major UK electronics chain.

If players were illegal I am sure that neither Amazon UK or electronics chain stores would stock them.

[DLibrasnow]

To illustrate my point. Here is just one of many region-free players available on Amazon UK:

http://www.amazon.co...7662178-8142050

[Loomis]

You are wrong Loomis, Region-free players are perfectly legal in the UK.

I stand corrected.

[DLibrasnow]

No problem.

[spynovelfan]

I'm a big fan of this film, and think Brosnan is very good in it. The film, like the novel, is essentially a reprise of THE DAY OF THE JACKAL (also Forysth, of course), and Brosnan plays the Jackal part: even down to killing in cold blood straight after sex. Michael Caine plays an older, but blander version of Harry Palmer - I wish he'd been a bit more jippy - and the plot's a bit thin to stretch to feature-length. Forsyth padded his book with pages of ridiculous detail about precisely which streets were involved, and weaponry and so on, all of which takes up ten minutes in the film. But it's still a cracker.

Oddly, for a film about bringing a weapon of mass destruction into Britain, the executive producer was Wafic Said, the Syrian arms dealer.

Edited by spynovelfan, 29 March 2005 - 03:45 PM.

[Skudor]

It's a great movie. I remember thinking that Brosnan looked very Bond like in it, despite being the baddie.

[Triton]

For the most part, I thought that The Fourth Protocol was a good movie.

When I first saw it in the theater in 1987, I was particulary impressed by Pierce Brosnan's portrayal of the ruthless Valeri Petrofsky/James Edward Ross. He certainly distanced himself from his Remington Steele image at the time and I begin to view him as a potential credible James Bond and began to seriously wonder what The Living Daylights would have been like if Pierce Brosnan had been cast. Before then, I was convinced that Pierce Brosnan would not have been a good James Bond. It wasn't until years later that I saw Pierce Brosnan as a ruthless character in The Long Good Friday.

I guess my biggest complaint about the movie is the casting of Ned Beatty as a Russian.

[Tarl_Cabot]

I think it's an excruciatingly boring movie. I saw in the theater in 1987 and I walked out and snuck into the Living Daylights for my 4th viewing instead . I later tried to rent it after Brosnan was announced as the new 007 and i must have hit stop about the same place as when I walked out. I failed in two attempts to finnish it. I will say brosnan was very good and for the first time I warmed to the idea of him playing 007; he was cold blooded, ruthless and totally convincing-it's his best performance of his career, imho. But that film was so slow!

[Loomis]

Picked up THE FOURTH PROTOCOL on DVD today for the very reasonable price of

[marktmurphy]

In fact, THE FOURTH PROTOCOL looks (and, in its half-infuriating, half-endearing dullness, feels) a bit like an adaptation of a Gardner novel with Brosnan as 007. 

Ooh- good point! I picked it up too- quite fun, as always. And obviously David Arnold enjoyed it as he ripped off his Egyptian theme in Stargate from Pierce's assassin theme!

So-so stuff, but a must for Brosnan fans, I imagine.

Especially gay ones! "Got a room?" indeed? (The second time Brosnan played a murderer pretending to be gay to lure a victim- see 'The Long Good Friday'. Odd eh?).

[Loomis]

The second time Brosnan played a murderer pretending to be gay to lure a victim- see 'The Long Good Friday'. Odd eh?

Perhaps this "murderer pretending to be gay ruse" is a trademark of director John Mackenzie (BTW, THE FOURTH PROTOCOL isn't remotely as good a film as THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY).