I can't answer the question about region 2 DVDs, but the similarities between Zero Effect and Sherlock Holmes are not a coincidence. The film review The Zero Effect–Out of the Dung Heap and Into the Rose Garden points out many of the similarities between the two.
The Zero Effect ... is based on the great Sherlock Holmes short story A Scandal in Bohemia by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film stars Bill Pullman as Daryl Zero (Sherlock Homes), a gifted but strange private detective who is socially awkward and inept. His “Dr. Watson” is portrayed as Steve Arlo (Ben Stiller). Zero keeps himself locked in his apartment where, like Holmes and his violin, he composes dreadful songs on his guitar and subsists on a diet of tuna, Tab, and amphetamines (Holmes’ drug use included morphine and other narcotics).
Paralleling A Scandal in Bohemia, Zero is retained by Gregory Stark (Ryan O’Neal), a wealthy man who hires Zero to investigate who is blackmailing him. During the investigation Zero ventures outside of his apartment encountering Gloria Sullivan (Kim Dickens). Gloria is based on the character Irene Adler, the only woman who had the wit to outdo Holmes, and he admired her for it. Sullivan is the blackmailer (like Adler) and as the film progresses, they begin to fall in love.
The similarities between the characters Zero and Holmes:
- brilliant detective
- strange personality
- social awkwardness
- lives alone
- faithful sidekick
- plays a musical instrument
- drug use
are also shared by another TV character inspired by Holmes.
