Rated/Unrated DVD

[Bilbo Fraggins]

What's the difference between Rated and Unrated films.
Just found 2 titles, exactly the same, exactly the same price, but one was rated, other was unrated??

Cheers

[Calzor Suzay]

I assume you mean Region1 disks and I've wondered myself, a guy at work told me once that the unrated film was the one shown at the cinema after the American film board had inspected etc and the rated one was where it had been re-edited and re-classified for DVD publication. Pretty much like our 18 rated films on say VHS are more edited than the 18 rated film shown at the cinmea but I'm not sure how true this is as it's second hand info. BTW I think customs by law are allowed to confiscate all unrated films as a result I think quite a few sites won't ship or give a big disclaimer when shipping internationally but don't quote me on that :)

[Bilbo Fraggins]

not far off at all m8.
Just got this info from http://www.709online.com

Simple answer: not much
Less simple answer: Usually just a few scenes e.g.
- Road Trip Unrated you get to see breasts and a few extra seconds of the shower scene.
- Pitch Black Unrated you see a few extended dialogue scenes and a bit more gore.
Unrated just means it hasnt been rated by the MPAA ("Motion Picture Assciation of America" I think) because unlike the UK, only theatrical releases have to be rated by them, not DVD/VHS releases. Although this is the case, most DVD's are rated because some stores refuse to stock Unrated material. Its important to note that this makes little difference to us UK customers importing R1 titles though, the MPAA are now basically more draconian than the BBFC and therefore an Unrated DVD from the USA is closer or identical to the release me get at cinemas and eventually on DVD. So always get the Unrated version, but dont expect too much from it as its likely to be fairly similar to the UK release. (Pitch Black Unrated R1 DVD was basically identical to the UK theatrical release for example)

Hope to find out more info on the customs bit, sounds like a valid point to me.

[[HB]RugRat]

UK Customs should treat all imported DVDs the same as technically they are all unrated unless they have BBFC certificate.

Except for p0rn which breach different (obscenity) laws. But I would't know anything about that :)

[WildWayz]

Hmmmmm

DVDEmpire refused to send me American Pie Unrated 'cos apparently customs would seize it :/

--WildWayz

[[HB]RugRat]

very, very strange. they sent it to me with no probs - DVDEmpire too.

The whole situation is ludicrous - our govt claims to be on the side of the consumer and yet it allows corporate wh0res like FACT to set the agenda for what we can and cannot buy by stopping retailers importing R1 discs - when will common sense prevail?

probably never as long as there's a dollar to be made (at our expense).

/rant off.