pro-bassoonist

Both.

Pro-B

Michael Corvin

No doubt. But will this be worth buying? How big is her roll in it? I can't imagine any place near me would have this to rent.

Brett

I don't know how much screen time MB has, but I believe that this has been requested at nicheflix by several people, so hopefully Mark will carry it and then it will be rentable by us in Region 1, who aren't ready to commit sight-unseen.

Michael Corvin

I will have to check out this nicheflix. Good service?

Brett

Let me start by saying I have no stake in the site, I'm just a happy customer. I've had great luck with nicheflix. It usually takes 2-3 days for me to get the discs, so slightly longer than Netflix, but that's becasue they only have the one hub in Indiana and I am in Massachusetts.

My membership has saved me from buying some non-R1 stuff that would have definitely regretted spending $20 or more on, and has introduced me to some stuff that I probably would have otherwised missed. They are usually really good about getting member requests and there is a forum on the site to see what other members recommend and/or are requesting.

You can see what titles they have to offer without joining, I also recommend reading through some of the posts about the site on dvdtalk and on their own forum to get more info and to get a rough estimate of what your disc transit times might be.

You could always sign up for their free trial if/once they get Mission Cleopatra. But if you have a multi-region capable player, then its definitely worth checking out, there's some great stuff that is not otherwise available to rent here in the US.

toddly6666

They had a free screening of Mission Cleopatra a bunch of years ago in NYC. This movie is awsome! I grew up reading Asterix (and Tintin) and this is an exact representation of the comic. If you haven't read the comic, this movie should inspire you to become one.

The UK DVD release is a definite buy, not a rental...Although Nicheflix is the best online DVD rental service in the world, it will take too long to rent this movie from Nicheflix.com, because it will be on everyone's queue...
Monica Belluci has a fair share of screentime throughout the movie - maybe 20 minutes worth?...she is definitely the hottest version of Cleopatra on the silver screen...

Buy it!!!

eXcentris

If by "exact" you mean overblown slapstick representation that included kung-fu and dancing to James Brown tunes you'd be right. Astérix creator Uderzo hated it and didn't want a 3rd film made at the time. Don't get me wrong, it's still a fun film which manages to capture some of the comic book spirit. But it was more a vehicle for the antics of the Canal + collective of comedians (Jamel Debouze et al) than a faithful adaptation of the comic.

pro-bassoonist

I will try to run a review for DVDTALK....(and the film is rather well-made)!

Ciao,
Pro-B

pro-bassoonist

On a side note the title has an excellent price (only 6.37 Pounds after VAT) at Amazon.UK.

Pro-B

toddly6666

eXcentris,

Did you see the first Asterix movie? It was a total piece of crap...this second one is a totally entertaining adaptation....the recent Asterix books haven't been that good since Underzo has ran out of steam. I definitly think the Mission Cleopatra movie is better than any of Underzo's recent Asterix books (the last 4-5 ones)...

Michael Corvin

Thanks for the input guys.

eXcentris

I'm not contesting the fact that the 1st film was crap or that the 2nd one was an entertaining adaptation. It is however far from "exact" or faithful to the spirit of the comic for the reasons I stated above. Moreover, Asterix and Obelix are almost secondary characters in this film and the only other character you see from the Gaulois village is the druid Panoramix.

Dai

According to Amazon.co.uk, the following DVD's are to be released on Aug 15th:

Asterix
Asterix and Caesar
The 12 Tasks of Asterix
Asterix and the Big Fight
Asterix and the Gauls (Sept 19th)

List price on amazon is £9.99, but they have them up for pre-order for £7.49.

No cover art or any details available.

This is the same date that the Mission Cleopatra DVD is supposed to be released and by the same company, Optimum Home Entertainment.

According to Bensonsworld.co.uk, there's supposed to be a box set as well, but they have them listed as 'Rescheduled' with no release date.

Sendit.com has them listed as 'Deleted' (delete date as Jun 05) but still list a release date of Aug 19.

Play.com has each individual title listed for £7.99 or the box set for £23.99. There release date states November 14, 2005.

The box set contains:

12 Tasks of Asterix
Asterix & Cleopatra
Asterix the Gaul
Asterix & Caesar
Asterix & the Big Fight
Asterix in Britain

flixtime

Did anyone else have this - "Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra" - on pre-order via Amazon.uk? I had a pre-order, and then the release date was pushed back, and after the release date passed I was informed they would need some time to get it in stock, and then it went to an on-site listing of limited availability, and just now I received an e-mail stating that it was cancelled from my order and that the item is unavailable. Yet, I see it apparently available from other UK sellers. What gives?

toddly6666

My order of Mission Cleopatra DVD was cancelled from Amazon.co.uk too. What the hell???

Are there any UK DVD online stores besides Amazon that have this Asterix DVD in stock and sell this DVD and ship it to the USA????

flixtime

CD-Wow has had it listed for sale for a long while now. That's why I'm curious as to what is going on with Amazon.uk. I probably should have gone with CD-Wow in the first place but I went with Amazon.uk because I was picking up some other things too (another of which has seen a really long delay as well). This DVD is out there right, can someone please confirm they've ordered and received it from CD-Wow? I've had some recent frustrations with purchasing non-R1 DVDs and I don't want to order it from CD-Wow only to find out there is yet another issue. And yeah, I wish we here in the U.S. had a greater choice of UK e-tailers with which to work; I'm not too enamored with Amazon UK as of this moment in time.

pro-bassoonist

As far as I am concerned....I can confirm that the UK Pathe disc is delayed yet again. I will be very careful with the disc which CDWOW offers as it might be the Benelux cheap version.

Pro-B

toddly6666

What is this Cheap version? Is it worse quality or will it not work on a multi-region dvd player? I thought there is only one UK DVD release of Mission Cleopatra...well, I just ordered it from CD-Wow...

pro-bassoonist

Well, I am looking at the cover of the disc which CDWOW offers and it looks like the UK-to-be-released version....but I don't quite now how accurate that is. I have seen in the last couple of months that they, CDWOW, had started offereing Dutch/Benelux discs of European films...and as you well know they don't offer English subs (about 99%) of them...but this certainly looks to be the newly announced UK disc. So, I guess until you get the disc you would never know for sure. Why not email them and see what they say...whether or not this is the new uk version? I find it strange that CDWOW will have the disc in stock and Amazon.uk won't.

Pro-B

edit:
what price do you get on your screen> in $.

toddly6666

Pro-bass,
well on the CD-Wow site, it said it has English subtitles and is anamorphic...that's all i care about - is CD-WOW pretty truthful about their DVDs if the site states that a DVD has English subtitles?

I paid about 18 dollars for the DVD including free shipping supposedly!


I feel like an idiot for waiting so long for this Asterix DVD from Amazon, since finding out that this DVD has been available from other UK DVD online stores since mid-July. Well, at least Amazon UK just shipped my Kustirica's Life Is A Miracle DVD which I've been eagerly waiting for all year...

pro-bassoonist

Well, don't feel so bad about waiting for so long. I had it on pre-order as well (I actually bought the French unsubbed disc when it first came out (not the collector's edition).
With this said...I think that many of the stores that ship UK product have their listings messed up. The dvd was not availbale in July...unless someone got preliminary copies of some sort...but I doubt it. Last year when Asterix was supposed to be released in the UK Benson's claimed that they had it in stock...and at the end they canceled all pre-orders. I am not quite so sure what the problem is with it but it will be nice that you, and others, will finally get an English friendly version.
(On a side note there is a very "revealing" making of...that shows a lot of the sets and...Monica Bellucci....which as I understand is not on the UK disc).

Let us know if you actually get the DVD!

Pro-B

DirkUSA

Howdy,
I ordered the DVD on August 9th from CD-WOW and I recieved it about a week later. It's the English Pathe DVD, 16:9, you can pick either French with English subtitles in the menu or just English. Both audio tracks are 5.1.
I hope this information helps.

Regards,
Dirk

flixtime

Thanks for the information. Your post was the final push I needed to go ahead and place an order with CD-WOW. I recently checked the status and my order has already been shipped.

This whole thing is rather curious. We've got at least one confirmation that it is the UK Pathe release being offered (and shipped out) by CD-WOW and yet Amazon.co.uk cancelled our orders.

Brett

It's back on Amazon.co.uk again, with a price of 7.49 GBP (inc VAT) (£9.45 shipped via airmail excl VAT) and a release date of November 14th.

So probably still cheaper from CD-WOW with one of the various discount codes that's always floating around.

DirkUSA

I finally found the time to watch the DVD and it seems that there are 2 versions of the movie on the DVD. If you pick French Audio you get burned in English subtitles and the credis are in French. If you pick English audio the movie starts with a Miramax logo, which doesn't show up when watching the French audio version, and all the credits are in English. I assume they have the movie twice on the DVD.

Regards,
Dirk