Region 4 Winners and Losers

    The Region 1 version of this disc sounds identical to this one (even down to having a similarly good transfer), excepting only that the R4 disc is PAL, and the R1 is NTSC. Oh, and unlike this one, it's stuck on the reverse of their version of The Truth About Charlie — ours is a separate disc included in the same box. I prefer having the discs separate, and I dislike double-sided DVDs — single-sided are easier to handle.

    There are several other versions of this movie in Region 1, including a Criterion Collection version that is reported to be rather good. Others are from Delta Entertainment, Madacy Entertainment, Koch Vision Entertainment, VCI/FFI, Laserlight Video, Diamond Entertainment, Gotham Distribution, Unicorn Video, Ventura Distribution, and United American Video — do we get the impression that the copyright has lapsed? I get the impression that most of these opportunistic releases are not very good (they are full-screen).

    I'm definitely in favour of the R4 disc this time. If you were looking for the best copy of this movie, the Criterion Collection disc might be worth a look — it includes a commentary by the director and screen-writer, amongst other extras; the one drawback is that it is not 16x9 enhanced (and it's apparently out-of-print).