Just a heads up that the Buy One Get One Free sale at Amazon France ends January 31st.

I ended up grabbing a couple of titles, which is pretty straightforward assuming you have an Amazon.com account.

Just log in like you do in the USA and follow the prompts imagining you are on the USA site.

The titles come out to 19.19 Euro since you also don’t pay tax. Shipping is a little steep at 12.80 Euro, but essentially you are paying 32 Euro for the two discs delivered, around $42 right now.

You are going to want to be sure to get Region Free titles – you can check the Amazon France database – titles with a green background are Region Free.

There are a few nice titles in there including, including Two Brothers and Chicken Run which have English language audio and are coded for all regions.

I also notice that some Sony titles have been added, including The Bone Collector and 13 Ghosts.

Speaking of imports, yesterday I received some great incentives to enable multi region player capability in my home.

A pile of 8 Blu-ray movies arrived from Amazon DE, including some of my favourite movies ever like Fight Club and Leon (The Professional).

Sadly quite a number of these movies are coded as Region B and will not play in my regular US bought Blu-ray player.

I also got a response back from Blu-ray Mods regarding how a player modified with their ‘fix’ will default to being a Region B player, perhaps an inconvenience if you mostly watch Region A titles.

The word is that while the player does default to Region B after the modification, you only have to select Region A once and as long as the player is connected to power (regardless of whether it is On or in Standby), it will retain the Region A setting.

So now with all this incentive, I expect that I will be in a position to test this modification in the near future.

Stay tuned!

I see that Warner is up to its old tricks again, listing a number of popular key titles in France way ahead of time.

Watch for the Academy Award nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button from Warner on August 4th, 2009.

Naturally I fully expect a US release of this well before that time.

Other Warner titles listed already in France include Twilight : Chapter 1 – Fascination July 7th and Yes Man on July 21st, 2009.

Rumour has it that the first three Star Trek movies and Vol. One of the Original TV Series will be released on Blu-ray in Norway.

This is great news for Trek fans and hopefully means we will see these released locally.

I rate this at rumour level though – don’t sell your DVDs just yet!

There are a number of interesting titles that have been listed in the UK over the last week or so, which so far are not listed for release in the USA.

I am thrilled to see that Wallace And Gromit – A Matter Of Loaf And Death is coming from from 2 Entertain Video on March 23rd, 2009.

I am also very much looking forward to Monty Python And The Holy Grail, which will be released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on April 6th 2009 along with Wolf and On The Waterfront as well as Sam Raimi’s The Quick And The Dead on March 30th.

The latter might make a good import since the international release had scenes that were deleted from the US cut.

Also expect Bodysong from BFI Video on March 23rd and Of Time And The City from BFI Video on March 30th, 2009.

Often we see the UK get movies listed earlier than in the USA, but eventually the studios get around to announcing a US release, usually at the same time or often a little earlier than the UK release date.

Every once in a while though, the UK release comes out as planned and the US release never eventuates.

Surprisingly, this latter case is true for the Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher Batman movies.

Right now Amazon UK is shipping Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever and Batman And Robin. The price comes out to around $20 per disc.

The discs are reported to be region free and should play in US players with no trouble.

It surprises me greatly that Warner allowed a ‘Region B’ release to come out prior to a US release, though Warner has announced new DVD versions of these movies and I find it very hard to believe that they would release new DVDs and no Blu-ray versions.

Currently though, Amazon UK is your best bet – the price is not bad and you can use your US Amazon account so it is a breeze.

Look for other interesting import opportunities on the UK Imports page.

I just took a look at what is coming up in France on Blu-ray Disc and saw a number of interesting titles.

As in the UK, you can expect the Tim Burton version of Batman from Warner Home Video on March 4th, 2009.

Perhaps a sign of things to come in the USA.

Also look out for The Silence of the Lambs from Fox Pathe Europa on March 4th, and the French movie Faubourg 36 from Fox Pathe Europa on March 25th, 2009.

Paramount Home Entertainment has Vendredi 13 – chapitre 2 and Vendredi 13 – chapitre 3 from coming on Friday March 13th, 2009. This is no doubt to coincide with the remake of Friday the 13th due out in 2009.

France is a great country for art house cinema and we are getting to the point where some of the smaller distributors there are releasing Blu-ray titles.

Universal Studio Canal Video planning to release the French movies Martyrs on March 3rd and Parlez moi de la pluie on March 17th, 2009.

BAC is planning to release Bernardo Bertolucci movies The Sheltering Sky and The Last Emperor, as well as Japanese classic Zatoïchi on February 17th, 2009.

TF1 has a number of releases planned including the French movie L’empreinte de l’ange on February 19th, the Italian movie Gomorrah on March 5th, as well as the latin American movie The Motorcycle Diaries and the Thai movie The Protector on March 19th, 2009.

I am very excited to see that Trainspotting has been listed by 4DVD for Blu-ray release on March 30th, 2009 in the UK.

A long time ago I recall it being listed for Blu-ray, then changed to HD DVD, and eventually canceled due to the demise of the format, so it is great to see it relisted, even with the long wait.

I see a few other titles of interest – many from Entertainment in Video, offering a potential alternative version to the US releases of these titles.

Expect The Notebook on February 2nd, A History Of Violence on March 2nd, Amusement on March 23rd, and Saw and Saw 2 on March 30th, 2009.

Lionsgate Home Entertainment also has a big list of new releases.

Watch for I’ve Loved You So Long on February 9th, Thick As Thieves on February 16th, The Midnight Meat Train on March 2nd, Repo! A Genetic Opera and Saw 5 on March 9th, W. on March 16th, Green Street 2 on March 23rd, and My Best Friend’s Girl on March 30th, 2009.

You can also expect Space Buddies from Walt Disney Video on March 16th, and Saturday Night, Sunday Morning from BFI Video on March 23rd, 2009.

I haven’t talked about international releases for a while, so here is a quick highlight of some recent interesting listings in the UK.

Icon Entertainment has listed What Women Want, Starter For Ten and Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium for December 8th, 2008, as well as Splinter on February 23rd, 2009

Watch for the miniseries Cranford from 2 Entertain on January 26th, 2009 – note that this will be aWarner / BBC release in the US in 2009 also.

Artifical Eye is planning Chungking Express and Ashes Of Time Redux on January 26th, 2009

From Entertainment in Video watch for The Women on January 19th, Appaloosa on February 2nd, Mutant Chronicles on February 16th, The City Of Ember on February 23rd, and Zack And Miri Make A Porno on March 23rd, 2009.

Momentum Pictures has Disaster Movie on January 19th, and Kill Switch on February 23rd, 2009.

Also watch for How To Lose Friends And Alienate People from Paramount Home Entertainment on March 16th, My Name Is Bruce from Starz Home Entertainment on February 2nd,  Somers Town from Optimum Home Entertainment on January 12th, Karas Collection from Manga Home Entertainment on March 30th and Warlords from Metrodome Video on March 2nd, 2009.

Lionsgate Home Entertainment has announced the Nicolas Cage movie Bangkok Dangerous        for Blu-ray on January 6th, 2009.

This release will also contain a Digital Copy of the movie.

Retail has been set at $39.99, find it at Amazon for $27.99.

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