Martin Scorsese\'s World Cinema Project No. 4 (The Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV Unlike 99% of reviews of DVDs and Blu-ray discs I write here, Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project No. 4 is a boxed set most of us will approach with virtually no frame of reference. The six feature films in the set emanate from Angola (though made with French money and shot in Congo), Argentina, Iran, Hungary, India, and Cameroon. I've seen other Indian and Iranian films, but am hardly an expert of those country's cinemas, and never before experienced movies from the other four that I can remember. I'm also unfamiliar with the filmmakers behind them save Hungary's Andre DeToth, who eventually had an extensive career in Hollywood. On the other hand, all but one of the films offer stories with universal themes of family relationships, love relationships, and most deal with issues of economic class and people in positions of power exploiting the nearly powerless. And even if one goes i...Read the entire review »

Happy Birthday to Me (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane The Movieirected by none other than J. Lee Thompson in 1981, Happy Birthday To Me is centered around the The Crawford Academy, an ivy league-esque private school. Here, the various students attend classes and socialize, just as you'd expect them to. The so-called 'Top Ten' are the popular kid. Some find love, some don't, it's fairly typical school 'stuff' until someone starts killing people off.The cops do what they can to try and find out who the killer is and why he or she is doing what they're doing. Meanwhile, a student named Virginia Wainright (Melissa Sue Anderson), one of the 'Top Ten,' starts to suffer a series of panic attacks and flashbacks that not only tie into her past, but also the school's present predicament.Happy Birthday To Me is as entertaining as it is predictable. It won't take an especially seasoned slasher movie fanatic t...Read the entire review »