I am in the US and was surprised to see my copy from Amazon.co.uk arrive today. It only shipped 4 days ago. Anyways I did not do my research about the movie being region locked.
After a bit of work I was able to rip the bluray contents with a free program from DVDFab called "Passkey". It basically decrypts the security on the disc then allows you to extract all the files. What you are left with is the Bluray file structure, with one folder containing all the video files.
Then you can just watch it from your PC, or put the video files you want on an external drive and plug that into the PS3 or whatever media player you have (most Bluray players also allow playing from a USB drive).
My thoughts on the film: I love it, always have. As a kid who would rent this from Blockbuster frequently (mid-late 90s), me, my siblings, and my neighbors all loved it. It's a lot of fun and never gets boring. As for not being too much like the game, that was not an issue at all for me and my friends. In fact, we just loved the fact that someone made a movie out of a video game we all liked. Just the fact that a movie company made this huge production about one of our beloved game characters felt great.
It's a weird film and has its flaws. Really though it's incredibly entertaining and fun to watch. It has everything from car chases to ballroom dancing.
The Bluray is amazing. For those who don't know, the DVD we've had for years from Disney is just a 4:3 letterboxed laserdisc transfer, just like what Lucas did for the original versions of Star Wars on DVD. So it looks like garbage and on top of that you had to stretch it.
This Bluray just looks insanely well done, like if Criterion did a Super Mario Bros release. Some studios will add digital noise reduction filters to take out some grain, but the picture will lose definition. For this one you will notice some grain, but the film is beautiful. One of the best looking Blurays I own. It was like I had never seen the film before.
The documentary is over an hour long and features interviews with so many people involved in the film, it's really astounding. I had heard glimpses about the production being a mess, but to hear firsthand accounts from directors, producers, writers, and actors about how the film came to be and what went wrong is very cool.
Mad props to Second Sight films for releasing this and giving it the all star treatment Disney never would.
