The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Quick Stop Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…

In all the madness that was Comic-Con 2006, I plum forgot to put up last week’s shopping guide – THAT, my friends, is just how insane San Diego’s annual geekfest has become. So here, now, is 2 weeks worth of stuff…

Before the legendary film and wonderful TV series, Paul Reubens first introduced the world to Pee-Wee Herman via the HBO special The Pee-Wee Herman Show (Image, Not Rated, DVD-$14.99 SRP), an absolutely hilarious document of the live show originated at Hollywood’s Groundlings Theater in 1981. Puppets, music, cartoons, colorful characters and more were the order of the day, in an homage to the classic kiddie shows of the 50’s and 60’s. Center stage, though, was Reubens as Pee-Wee, a whirling dervish of a man-child whose infectious enthusiasm for the world he inhabits sucks the audience in hook, line, and sinker.

It’s no Brisco County, Jr., but Bruce Campbell still shines in the all-too-brief run of Jack of All Trades (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP), as a Zorro-esque American Spy named Jack Stiles who is sent to the tiny East Indies island of Palau Palau by Thomas Jefferson and must work to thwart the advances of Napoleon’s France in that region of the world. Teamed with a local British agent and inventor, Emilia Rothschild, Jack occasionally dons the garb of the masked Daring Dragoon to aid in the fight against America’s enemies. The 3-disc set features all 22 episodes, but sadly no extras.

Reno’s finest return for the complete third season of Reno 911! (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$26.99 SRP), which finds our favorite deputies released from prison after being framed by the corrupt Reno D.A., and briefly dumped into civilian life. Back in uniform, there’s an awkward appearance on a kiddie show, a SARS scare, a new Hummer, a new deputy, and more. Bonus features include over an hour of outtakes, action figure promos, audio commentaries, and even some easter eggs.

It’s been a long, long, LONG wait for the Steven Spielberg-produced Warner Bros. cartoons to hit DVD, and while Tiny Toons is still MIA, fans will be eagerly snapping up the first volumes of both Animaniacs and Pinky and The Brain (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$44.98 SRP each). The 5-disc Animaniacs set features the show’s first 25 episodes, plus voice artist Maurice LaMarche interviewing his fellow castmates in the bonus feature Animaniacs Live!. Meanwhile, Pinky and The Brain advance their plans to take over the world with 4-discs and 22 episodes, plus an interview with Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche (Pinky & The Brain) and voice director Andrea Romano. Must have more!

If you were to infuse the touchy-feely, golden-hued “embrace me!”-ness of Steven Spielberg into the sci-fi/fantasy anthology structure of The Twilight Zone (you know, soften all the edges) you’d get Amazing Stories (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP). Packed with stars both established and nascent (including Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, John Lithgow, Charlie Sheen, and Kiefer Sutherland) and helmed by directors like Joe Dante, Robert Zemeckis, and Spielberg himself, it was a mid-80’s experiment that ultimately proved too expensive for television. The 4-disc first season set features all 24 episodes, plus deleted scenes.

Warner’s aptly named Tough Guys Collection (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP) features 6 hard-boiled flicks from the studio’s golden era, starring the likes of Cagney, Robinson, Raft, and O’Brien. The films in question are Bullets Or Ballots, Each Dawn I Die, G Men, San Quentin, A Slight Case Of Murder, and City For Conquest. Besides being newly remastered, the set is also loaded with commentaries, vintage newsreels and featurettes, cartoons, and much more.

There are only so many ways to document a live concert experience on film. Leave it to the Beastie Boys (Michael Diamond, Adam Yauch, and Adam Horovitz) to reinvent the hoary genre, distributing 50 DV and Hi-8 cameras to fans and letting them document the Boys’ October 2004 concert in Madison Square Garden as they saw fit. Painstakingly edited together by Yauch, Awesome, I Shot That! (Velocity/Thinkfilm, Rated R, DVD-$29.99 SRP) is a thrilling, altogether new way to take in an event, infused with the energy of fandom and supported by a band who truly gets that the future is about empowering the audience. The DVD features a band commentary, a cappella vocal tracks, a “hidden detours” featurette, world tour intros and shout-outs, and much more.

You’re not going to get a more definitive document of the production and legacy of John Carpenter’s legendary horror flick than Halloween: 25 Years of Terror (Anchor Bay, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP). The 2-disc set features the in-depth documentary itself, plus panel discussions, galleries, a tour of the filming locations, extended interviews, on-dept footage, and more. Also hitting disc in remastered “Divimax” editions are Halloween 4 and 5 (Anchor Bay, Rated R, DVD-$19.95 SRP each).

I’m a big fan of the recent trend (gaining momentum at numerous studios) of getting plenty of relatively niche catalogue titles out fast and easy via themed box-sets. Case in point is the first volume of the Will Rogers Collection (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP), featuring a quartet of the legendary wits feature films, including Life Begins At 40, In Old Kentucky, Doubting Thomas, and Steamboat ‘Round The Bend. What could have been simple bare-bones releases instead sport audio commentaries, restoration comparisons, Fox Movietone news footage of Rogers, and the A&E Biography “Will Rogers: An American Original.”

Trek fans will be pleased to know that Titan Books has begun collecting the long out-of-print late-80’s comic book adventures of the crew of the Starship Enterprise, featuring the crew of both Kirk and Picard. The latest volume of the original Star Trek collects Peter David’s The Trial of James T. Kirk (Titan Books, $19.95 SRP), while The Next Generation contains Michael Jan Friedman’s The Battle Within (Titan Books, $19.95 SRP). Even better, all the Trek releases feature interviews with castmembers.

I love it when one of those often-bastardized childhood mainstays finally gets its proper treatment on DVD, and I’m happy to add the first volume of the newly remastered, completely uncut Ultraman (BCI, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) to that list. The 3-disc Series 1: Volume 1 features the first 20 episodes in their original form, plus interviews with the English dub team (who also voiced the original Speed Racer, a monster encyclopedia, the U.S. opening credits, and an 8-page booklet.

They’ve released the pilot and a best-of cross-section in the past, but Universal finally decides to do it right and begin releasing season sets of the original Incredible Hulk series, starring Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as his green-skinned, purple-pantsed alter-ego. The complete first season (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) features all 12 episodes (including the 2-hour pilot film, with commentary from writer/director/producer Kenneth Johnson), plus a bonus episode from season 2 (“Stop the Presses”).

Okay, I can understand giving Road House (MGM/UA, Not Rated, DVD-$19.94 SRP) the special edition treatment – Crow T. Robot was right in his assessment that the Patrick Swayze as consummate bar bouncer flick was cinema gold, and busting kneecaps if bastards ever touch a person’s car is legitimate wisdom to live by. The new edition features an audio commentary from director Rowdy Herrington, “On the Road House” featurette, “What Would Dalton Do?” documentary, and a pretty damn funny “fan” commentary from Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier.

However, I can’t understand the purpose of Road House 2 (MGM/UA, Rated R, DVD-$24.96 SRP), which stars Jonathan Schaech as an undercover DEA agent and… oh, who cares? It does, however, feature Jake Busey, who is morphing ever more into the spitting image of his father, sans the legitimate crazy.

It’s always unfortunate when a browse through a film’s “Art Of” book reveals designs and concepts far better than those that finally wound up on screen. An excellent case in point is The Art of Superman Returns (Chronicle Books, $40.00 SRP), a nicely illustrated book loaded with artwork far more engaging than what we got in the film itself, not the least of which was Superman’s costume. If you don’t believe me, pick up a copy of this handsome volume and see for yourself.

It’s taken a few years and a few tries, but we’ve finally gotten a definitive special edition release of Some Like It Hot (MGM/UA, Not Rated, DVD-$24.96 SRP). Looking and sounding pretty damn spiffy, it’s also packed with a new audio commentary (with both Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), a pair of newly-produced documentaries, retrospective featurettes, a pressbook gallery, and the original theatrical trailer.

The improvisational comedy Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story (Shout! Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP) is the story of Bobby Dukes (Rob Corddry), a one-time Paintball hero who becomes a pariah when he cheats during a championship competition (he wiped the paint off and continued playing). Gone for years, he returns a changed man bent on assembling a team and reclaiming his lost honor. Bonus features include both cast and filmmaker commentaries, outtakes, deleted scenes, and Bobby Dukes’s video diary.

Before movie stardom beckoned, Clint Eastwood was Rowdy Yates in Rawhide (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$49.99 SRP), the classic Western series making its long-awaited arrival on DVD. The 7-disc set features all 22 episodes, plus a bonus episode from Season 2.

I know, in the rational part of my brain, that I really shouldn’t like Benchwarmers (Sony, Rated PG-13, DVD-$28.95 SRP). In fact, I should think it’s a tacky trifle of a lightweight comedy. Unfortunately, its underdog story of a trio of grown-up losers (Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Jon Heder) who form a 3-man Little Legue team in order reclaim the pride they never had as bullied nerds when they were kids. It’s a slapstick comedy with the same kind of Bad News Bears meets Dodgeball meets Revenge of the Nerds] meets Baseketball heart that always sucker-punches the little logic man in my head. The DVD features audio commentaries, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and more.

I don’t know how it happened, but creator Aaron McGruder managed to turn his funny, socially-relevant strip The Boondocks into an airless, unfunny cartoon on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block. If you don’t believe me, just try and sit through the 15 episodes contained in the complete first season set (Sony, Not Rated, DVD-$49.95 SRP). It’s unfortunate, because I really dig the strip… I just wish its spirit had survived the adaptation. Bonus features include audio & video commentaries, a behind-the-scenes featurette, deleted scenes, animatics, unaired promos, and storyboards.

With nothing but survival on his mind and living on the societal fringe in Johannesburg, a young man named Tsotsi (Miramax, Rated R, DVD-$29.95 SRP) steals a car in the night. In the backseat, however, he finds a baby that may very well be the key to his redemption and the key to a better life. Intense and captivating, it’s a drama I won’t soon forget. The DVD features an audio commentary with writer/director Gavin Hood, deleted scenes and an alternate ending with optional commentary, a making-of featurette, and Hood’s short film The Storekeeper.

Leave it to VH1 to assemble collections tying into their “We Are The 80’s” branding (Sony Legacy, $11.98 SRP each) that strike all the right (yet so wrong) guilty pleasures. The artists getting releases in the initial batch are Loverboy, Eddie Money, the Bangles, Scandal, A Flock of Seagulls, Bow Wow Wow, and Rick Springfield. How sad is it that you are, at the very least, intrigued by what tracks are on each disc?

There are some things that are lost but are treasured when found, and then there are some things that deserve to be lost. In the latter category falls the increasingly mediocre John Kricfalusi’s attempt to resurrect Ren & Stimpy as an “Adult Party Cartoon” – unfortunately, most of the “adult” humor falls into the scatological and sexual category. The 2-disc Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$26.99 SRP) contains the complete Spike TV run, plus interviews and episode intros.

I first saw the now iconic multiple personality drama Sybil (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP) – based on a true story and starring Sally Field as the titular woman whose life is shattered into multiple pieces as a result of a tortured childhood – in my high school psychology class. The story is just as powerful today, if only for Field’s memorable performance. The new collector’s edition features a retrospective documentary, a Sybil therapy session, and Sybil’s paintings.

Amanda Bynes flirts with Just One of the Boys and Ladybugs territory in She’s The Man (Dreamworks, Rated PG-13, DVD-$29.95 SRP), with a mad plan to get on the high school boys’ soccer team by dressing up as her twin brother Sebastian. And then she proceeds to not only win the big game as Sebastian, but fall in love with the star forward. Oh, the shenanigans that ensue!. The DVD features an audio commentary, deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, a gag reel, a music video, and more.

At least Warner Bros. is relatively upfront that their Television Favorites collections (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP each) – a bargain-priced disc featuring a handful of episodes from a given series – is a way of testing whether demand exists for seasonal releases of the series featured. The latest shows to get their shot at the brass ring are the TGIF standby Step By Step and the Linda Lavin classic Alice. Go vote with your wallets, people!

And finally, let’s wrap things up with a look at the latest Pirates of the Caribbean booty you can lay your grubby mitts on, courtesy of the fine folks at Master Replicas. Not only can you still get Elizabeth Swann’s cursed necklace ($15.00 SRP), but also Jack Sparrow’s ring ($15.00 SRP) and Davy Jones’ key ($15.00 SRP). Arrrrrrrrrrr…

So there you have it… my humble suggestions for what to watch, listen to, play with, or waste money on this coming weekend. See ya next week…

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