U.S. editing has botched this series
larry_darrell | Los Angeles, CA United States | 02/02/2004
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I recommend that you stay away from this set. American green eye shades from A&E's advertizing department cut ten-twelve minutes from each episode so that they could squeeze more fast food ads in to the showings on television. The resulting botch makes several of these episodes unwatchable. Sorry; hopefully Acorn will put these out in pristine form."
Great stories - shame about the U.S. editing
s_j_r | Maryland, United States | 01/08/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"David Suchet as Poirot is always a delight to watch, and I would love to recommend this DVD collection... but there is one major problem, at least as far as I am concerned. These versions were issued in the US and, I suspect, because of the ruthless hacking to accommodate commercials, these stories are each about 10 minutes shorter than the original U.K. versions. This is particularly damaging to Evil Under The Sun: In the edited-down version, characters inexplicably crop up and disappear and threads are left hanging. There is also a tendency to edit out scenes which are intended to exploit Poirot's little eccentricities which make the character so appealing. In the full version it all makes sense, with events unfolding as the director intended, rather than according to the dictates of the hacks who subsequently cannibalized it! If this irritates you even half as much as it assuredly does me, you might want to consider getting a region-free DVD player or a multi-format VCR (because this doesn't only happen with Poirot, but ALL films which cross the Atlantic), and then ordering British-made movies from amazon.co.uk, or any other reputable British supplier - you'll find it's well worth the trouble."
Poirot with minutes cut out for ads
Twotrees | Haines City, FL United States | 01/18/2005
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Thanks for the heads up,Ixion28, on the A&E version of the series. I have only seen the Poirot series on A&E, and I like it enough to purchase the DVD sets. However, I was disappointed to find out that A&E cut out minutes for ads. I am checking into the AcornMedia version."