Anyone know where to find Russian movies with a region 1 encoding and English translations and/or subtitles?

(Specifically looking for Lichny Nomer ("Countdown" in U.S., I rented it from MoscowFlix already, and it was only the foreign language version that wouldn't play in the DVD players. It worked in my computer, but didn't have any English.)

There are a $#!tload of good Russian movies out there, where have you guys found them?

One thing you can do is download DVDShrink and copy the movie to your hard drive, then burn to a DVD. This will remove any region encodings.. Very simple to operate:)

You can take your DVD player to big electronic stores (by my Best Buy does it), and they can reprogram it to make it work with foreign films. I think it cost like $15.

Slim

Look here for your DVD player and it should tell you how to change it to play all regions. It's usually very simple when you know which key strokes to use on your remote. Works most of the time. I did it in Russia to be able to play DVDs I brought over with me.

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

I found Russian movies that work on Ebay for relativly cheap. They work in my DVD player, and of course, being Russian movies, you always get at least 5 movies per disk

Thanks all, I'll try some of the remedies listed.

Slim,

Buy one of the Phillips DVD players, the newer ones with Divx, that support DVD-+Rs. Most of the time, as it was mentioned above, you can reprogram the region code to 0, to make sure that all the regions play. Also with Divx, if you burn an .avi movie to a DVD, you can just play it mon your DVD, without it being converted to a DVD disk.

Good luck,

Mike.

Thanks guys...

I don't have the money for Elena's AOS, where am I getting the money to buy a new DVD player???



That said, I got my state taxes back already and my feds are supposed to come in tomorrow. Plus, I just got a $700 refund from my auto dealership, seems they overestimated the cost of my payoff and refunded me the difference. So, there is money for a new DVD player afterall!

I'm a cheap-skate though, so I'll probably have one of my buddies get me one without region codes. I don't know if they have Phillips or not, but usually the ones that "fall off the truck" are pretty good at playing bootleg movies. It's crazy how that stuff works; you buy a $500 top-of-the-line model, and it won't play burned discs or anything. You buy a $35 "open box" item, and it'll play everything. I guess when you buy bootleg movies, a bootleg player helps!

Elena and I have been ordering movies through netflix, some of them are a bit strange but no biggy I dont always understand the plot lines but I made her watch Buckaroo Banzai and Monty Python so I think that makes us even.

I watched "чистилище" (Purgatory) this weekend, or should I say "attempted" to watch this movie this weekend, and I've gotta say, I was quite disappointed.

It could've had something to do with the fact that I had just watched "300" at the theater (AWESOME MOVIE!!!) but I don't think it would've mattered either way. This movie had next to no plot, other than to show that war in Chechnya is very chaotic and barbaric, noisy, etc. I don't know if it was the over-dramatized action scenes, or the fact that it seemed like I was watching a soap opera, but either way, this was a horrible movie. I actually fell asleep about mid-way through, and that's unheard of for me during a war flick. Especially one about a topic that sparks my interest. I usually watch a movie all the way to the end, just to see if maybe the conclusion ties it all together, but this one was just too bad to finish. After watching real footage from Chechnya posted on the web, this movie came nowhere near exposing the atrocities of that conflict or imitating the reality of it. I felt like I was watching a war movie on Lifetime.

I watched "9 рота" last weekend, and that was a first class war drama/action flick. If you have one of these internet movie order deals and you're looking for a good Russian war flick, skip Purgatory, and go with Company 9.

I downloaded my regions converter from the net. here

My favorite Russian flic is Nochnoy Dozor, or "Nightwatch"
Fantastic special effects, and an interesting counter-message to hollywood and madison avenue.

I found a Russian video shop in my city and found myself holder Peter FM in my hand. He told me it was a code 5 DVD. I asked him if he had any code 5 DVD players and he sold me a Phillips and taught me how to recode it to be a code zero machine. Now it plays my Russian videos and my American videos just fine.

Lets see I think this may become Russian movie review thread so I will put in my two cents.

Moscow cries no tears - older movie set in the 50's or sixties, a bit hard to follow and a song that I cant seem to get out of my head, the wife thinks this if funny but it is driving me mad...

Crimson sails - older movie, decent plot, a little silly and the girl in it is crazy insane. Kind of fairy tail story.

Railway station for 2 - Elena likes older movies, kind of cheesy plotline, guy takes a trip, goes to eat lunch at a rail stop, refuses to eat the swill, refuses to pay, misses his train, falls in love with rude waitress kind of funny dialogue, and the acting is not great.

Burnt by the Sun - The russian version of Ishtar - extremely long with little to no plot or point to the movie. Very propaganda based movie - only redeeming feature is the main character Kotov is the boyfriend of the woman in Railway station for 2. All I know is that if I could have walked out of the theater I would have. Elena kept waking me up because I was missing this cinematic gem of a movie. Never again... I have lost 3 hours of my life I will never get back.

Well that is about all for the 4 movies we have watched so far. If anyone else has any recommendations or warnings Id love to have them.

I guess we all have our likes and dislikes. I have watched "Burnt by the Sun" twice, (by choice actually) and rather enjoyed it. By the way it did win the Oscar as best foreign film when it came out.

I have a half dozen Russian movies but will have to check back to see the names and what I enjoyed.

I have seen plenty of Oscar winning movies that were not good so I dont often go with the academy's recommendations. I have also seen non nominated movies that were better than anything that won an award.

I can not argue with that one bit. Sometimes I think the Oscars are run worse than the USCIS

That may be true but they make decisions every year- the same cannot be said for USCIS.
Can you imagine what would happen if the academy sent out an RFE for best picture or best actor!!!!
That would be funny as heck.

Yes, but think what a sorry state of affairs if 4 or 5 of us had to get dressed up and go to a big party where one of us would be called to the front and handed a visa.

The worst part two is those who were not called to the front would have to start all over with another project (fiancee)

"and the visa goes to....."

You guys are funny!


I loathe the Academy Awards. Sundance, Cannes, etc., have much better movies and are acually voted on by people involved in the biz, not some academy made up of mysterious people nobody knows. (Same goes for the MPAA, who are those people?)

When I met Elena in Moscow, they were having something to the effect of their SAG awards their. I didn't go, but I saw all the pomp and circumstance... which for Moscow meant a few extra security guards at a one block street closure.

That's pretty much how it goes for tourist visas and for some people who can't prove a bona fide relationship on a K1 or K3. The one's that went wife shopping in a big catalog usually.

How many stories have you read one here during a successful interview the VJ fiancée got to see one more other applicants get rejected at the interview window?

I do remember reading quite a few of these.

Most of us would much rather hear about the "other person" who was rejected.

Yes, but the question is: Why were they rejected?

I was sort of saying that as a joke meaning that we would rather hear about the "other" person who was rejected than have it be us who was rejected. (been there and done that by the way)

Usually on a K-1 or K-3 it is very, very unusual to get a complete rejection. After spending way too much time reading VJ I have seen it happen once. What does happen in a number of cases is a blue slip known as a 221-G which has the official title "intent to deny" For anyone who does not know they will ususally list what the want to see to reconsider. Most often it is more "proof of relationship". Othertimes it may be a missing document. They give 60 days to supply the needed proof. If it is not done then the file is returned to NVC and the only option is an appeal which may take a year. Most of the 221-G's are approved at the Embassy after submission of additional evidence.

The biggest problem with the visa process is the human factor. How the interview goes can vary a lot on the CO your fiancee gets.

True it always depends on the CO, and the mood they are in but because of past abuse they can no longer trust people to tell the truth and be honest. What has happened to the immigration process is they are making rules for the rare exceptions and the strange and it just creates more buerarcracy(sp). I went into the local application support office for the biometrics appointment and the strangest thought occurred to me, why dont they do the interviews there? Its only 15 minutes away and it seems by the number of biometrics people waiting that there is more than enough work to keep a few people busy. It seems so silly that when we get out interview that I will drive 3 hours to detroit and wait 4 hours or more for an interview that should only take a few minutes.

If I were president I would make a point of streamlining the process so that people who wanted to be here could be here and shouldnt be here arent and those who have overstayed leave, it works with house guests why not immigration.

Think 9/11. All those fellows were just legal visitors learning to fly commercial aircraft. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Slim,

Try www.memocast.com for Russian movies. You dowload the AVI file inexpensivly and can watch on your computer or burn to DVD. You can do a search with English subtitles as a search option.

If you have and problems with it just ask as I've been using it for some time now...

John

So I finally broke down and bought a new DVD player.

It's nothing fancy, a Coby for $20, off of E-Bay. In the ad for it, it said "all region" and when I finally got it, (I paid for it over three weeks ago... it never came, I threatened the negative feedback and pursuit of a refund through PayPal, and the guy finally sent me a "it's on the way" e-mail and tracking number for the UPS shipping, which I paid $18.36 for. I know, a $19.99 DVD player and $18.36 for shipping. What a rip! But, it was still the cheapest one on E-Bay at the time. So anyway...) it wouldn't even play my Russian movies!!!

What a crock of $#!t. I got back on E-Bay, demanded a full refund, and surprise, surprise..... no response!!!

But, then I remembered neonred posted that link for the hack codes. I checked it out, and my model was on there. Punched in a few keystrokes (had to attempt it several times, the remote isn't exactly "top notch") and voila I was hearing Russian cursewords before I could even select an option from the menu.

So, let's get this going again..... anyone seen any good movies lately? Any recommendations?

We just watched Мастер и Маргарита again. Not sure if you can find it in stores, but you may have luck here: http://www.torrents.ru I'm not encouraging movie piracy though.

Wow. Netflix has two versions of Master and Margarita! That was the best novel I've read in a long time.

They were able to take the sort course cause they didn't have to worry about learning to land the plane.

Lets see,
Watched Little Vera, not bad a little heavy though.
Masters of Russian Animation 1 and 2 both pretty good but I lost interest after awhile.
Disc 1 of a 4 disc movie that I dont remember the name of - ah just looked it up And quiet flows the Don Disc 1, only saw the second half Elena started watching before I got home.
Winter Evening in Gagry - If you like tap dancing alchoholics you will love this hehehe. Very good movie, enjoyed it very much.
Last night we watched Peculiarities of National Fishing - Oh My God, funny funny funny, For anyone living in michigan this is Escanaba in da Moonlight russian style. Im sorry but the Escanaba thing is a very michigan thing Jeff Daniels owns a theater in northern part of michigan and wrote a play he turned into a movie, lots of funny uper (YOU-per) stuff.
Also so House of fools which I may have mentioned in another thread, one flew over the cuckoo's nest type humor. Good movie though. Hope this helps slim, some day you and I are going to have to get our Elena's on the phone, with each other hehehe.

Enjoy

I started watching Peculiarities of National Hunting on Saturday night. I barely made it through the first scene though, as I was pretty tired. Hopefully I can watch it again soon. Maybe tonight!

The one thing I've noticed about Russian movies thus far is they tend to be long. Extremely long! Hopefully I'll find a few more that don't take over three hours.

Watched "Lichny Nomer" yesterday.

Not a bad movie, just seemed a little weak. Worth watching, but it was something like a Russian James Bond flick that wasn't as cool. It was extremely predictable, and the story was straight off something you would see conjured up on CNN. Terrorist plot to blow up dirty bomb gets foiled by superman FSB agent. (Yawn.) Throw in the groups name, Ansar Allah, and the "head terrorist" that just happens to wear a white turban, pants, and shirt with a camo jacket over it, ring any bells? (Double Yawn!!) Then the sub-plot that the superman FSB agent's own daughter is one of the hostages, the Americans, through NATO, have to save the day outside of Russia, and the connection between a big-business guy and the terrorists. (Triple Yawn!!!)

There were some pretty decent action sequences, and this was a watchable movie. I can't say it was "great" or anything, but it wasn't bad.


Thus far, Okhota na piranyu was the best Russian action flick I've watched.

You should watch The Return.

Netflix actually has a Russian section. You might get some ideas from there.

Cool. I'll check that out. Thanks.

I saw "Возвращение" It was good, not an action movie, more independent-like. Would also recommend it.

Another movie I liked was "Олигарх" the American title is "Tycoon-A new Russian" Has anyone else seen this?

Yes, It was a good movie. Blockbuster has it

The only recent Russian movie I would sincerely recommend is the screen version of Dostoyevsky's Idiot, by director Vladimir Bortko. Superb performances and very good script adaptation; I believe the film would impress even those who haven't read the novel.
It's a 2-disk miniseries, 10 episodes. Netflix has it.

torrents.ru is the best. But I don't think they have subtitles though... And you have to have BitTorrent program to download them.
If you buy a licensed disk with a movie on-line or in a store in Russia they usually have the subtitles and work everywhere. Just check the description.

Another classics is Интердевочка. 2 parts, the first one is funny, the second one is sort of sad, but the movie might be helpful, it might explain a lot... And the direction and acting is high-class. Sort of melodramatic, though...

Is that supposed to be an Oxymoron? Licensed disks in Russia! LOL, they are right behind China when it comes to piracy.

Ирония судьбы, или с лёгким паром! is still and will always be my favorite. Haven't seen "Олигарх" yet, maybee on the flight on Sunday.

Yes, it's true, the situation is really bad there with piracy (so I hear), but it's still possible to buy a LICENSED RUSSIAN DISC.

I haven't seen that yet, but I am definitly gonna check it out

I used to like it too (like most Russians who celebrated many New Years in the 70s-80s), but as I grow older I find myself more and more irritated with the lead character Zhenya. What a wimp. And he's supposed to be the archetypal Good Guy.

This movie was horrible!!!!

It could've been done in 12 minutes, but it took like 3 hours! It was so long, it had two discs! My wife explained it to me, then when we went to watch it, I had to take a nap in the middle because it was so long. I was expecting it to be over in about an hour since the plot wasn't very complex. I hardly ever sleep through movies, but so far, of the 6 Russian movies I've watched, I've slept through 3 of them. This was one!

All in all, I haven't been very impressed with Russian cinema. I guess I was spoiled living in Korea, where cinema rivals Hollywood's best. I'll keep at it though. Gotta learn Russian somehow!

If you want to get some good sleep get a hold of the 4-100 discs containing the series Quiet flows the Don, like watching the rise and fall of the Roman Empire in the original Latin. Get a hold of some caffiene or Meth you will need it. Elena is telling me the man who wrote it won a nobel prize, probably for curing insomnia. hehehe