For my eighth birthday party, some school chums and I went to go see an exciting new film by the name of Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. The movie revolves around a bunch of breakdancers fighting to save their local community centre from the bulldozers. It ends triumphantly with our heroes victorious, and as the credits rolled my best friend turned to me and said "I'm so happy I could cry!" That's kinda how I feel about the announcement of a new DVD box set collecting both Breakin' movies and the grittier 1982 Wild Style, as well as a bonus disc that includes "The Elements of Hip Hop" and "Beat Street Battle: Rock Steady Crew vs. New York City Breakers." All of it contributes to an illuminating and very amusing look at a very different era of hip hop.

Across the pond and 50 years prior, Jean Renoir was shooting Boudu Saved From Drowning. The film, later remade as Down and Out in Beverly Hills, about a bookseller who rescues a tramp and tries to bourgeois-ify him, is out this week in a feature- and interview-packed Criterion Edition. » Mark Slutsky