The Mafu Cage (Special Edition) (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane The Movie:Based on the play by Eric Wesphal and directed by Karen Arthur, The Mafu Cage has had an odd and checkered release history, as the supplements on this excellent disc will relay in some detail. It did well when it played Cannes but then failed to find a theatrical audience before being dumped to VHS in a version running about seven minutes shorter than its theatrical counterpart. Scorpion Releasing brought it to DVD years back and have now seen fit to give the movie a nice high definition upgrade in its proper, full length, one hundred and one minute version.The film tells the bizarre story of two orphaned sisters, Ellen (Lee Grant) and the younger Cissy (Carol Kane), who live inside a massive mansion decorated in odd African style décor. Since their father has passed away, Ellen has been in charge of Cissy, who has grown up without a proper guiding influence an...Read the entire review »

How About Adolf? (Blu-ray) by Jesse Skeen This German import, titled Der Vorname in its native language (literal translation being the first or given name) is one of those comedies where an innocent dinner party gets out of hand from a conversation. Somewhat insecure professor Stephan (Christoph Maria Herbst) who prides himself on being right all the time is married to Elisabeth (Caroline Peters). Elisabeth's underachieving brother Thomas (Florian David Fitz) and her longtime friend Rene (Justus von Dohnanyi) arrive at their house one evening for dinner, and Thomas announces that his girlfriend Anna (Janina Uhse) and he are expecting a son to be born soon. Everyone wants to know what they plan to name him, so he first makes them guess a few hundred potential names before revealing that they've decided to name him Adolf. Yes, as in Adolf Hitler. I don't know the history of that name myself but it seems ever since that particular perso...Read the entire review »