www.makemkv.com

Maybe your VLC doesn't work because it needs Java 1.8 for many BluRays. Then again it should still work, but only playing back the main movie itself.

MakeMKV only removes AACS, no BD+, no Region Lock or other BDJ-features.

VLC defaults to being set to region B, if you are in another region you’ll want to change that: http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=132677

Region coding is not stripped away on Blu-rays during ripping like it is with DVDs as they work very differently.