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…
Has it really been over 10 years since the two Traveling Wilburys albums went out of print? A glorified garage band featuring pals George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and the underappreciated Jim Keltner on drums, it’s a rocking, relaxed jam amongst friends and equals, whose sole intent was to have a great time making music on the fly. It’s just that wonderful effortlessness that comes to the fore while listening to the newly remastered 3-disc special edition of The Traveling Wilburys (Rhino, $29.98 SRP), which contains both albums plus a bonus DVD featuring rare home video footage from the recording sessions, as well as all the band’s videos. I wish more musicians could rediscover the fun of making music with your mates… and I miss the Wilburys.
As good as the first Hellboy Animated film was – and it was wonderful – Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron (Starz, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP) trumps it just in its sheer storytelling weight. Harpies, hellhounds, a werewolf, a vampire, a goddess, and even a haunted house – plus the addition of John Hurt reprising his big screen role as Professor Bruttenholm – all of that and more await you in this fantastic small screen adventure with big screen sensibilities. Bonus materials include behind-the-scenes featurettes, interviews, and an audio commentary.
What better way to show off dad’s new high definition TV than with the HD editions of Planet Earth (BBC, Not Rated, HD-DVD-$99.98 SRP, Blu-Ray-$99.98 SRP). The BBC’s massive documentary series Blue Planet was a truly impressive, stunningly beautiful exploration of our natural world. Planet Earth, however, easily trumps it. Spanning every continent and natural environment, it truly is the definition of jaw-dropping. From the summit of Everest to the open ocean, it’s… well, it’s incredible. I can’t get the scene of a great white shark literally jumping out of the water to seize prey out of my eye. This is also the first release to come along that I think truly merits purchase on either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, as it was shot entirely in HD, and the already mind-blowing visuals positively pop off your screen. Really, if stores were smart and wanted to move HD-Players, they’d put this series on a loop. Bonus features include over 90 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, plus a 150-minute documentary that explores the possible future of the planet.
Or maybe your father would be happy with a dose of classic Carson, namely a pair of new releases featuring more classic Johnny moments from the king of late night (R2, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP each). The Best of The Tonight Show: Stand-Up Comedians is 2 discs worth of legendary stand-up acts that graced the Tonight Show stage, while The Best of The Tonight Show: King of Late Night packages the bonus specials originally found in the Classic Carson collection. Hi-yo!
Just in time for Paul Newman’s latest announcement of his intention to retire from acting comes a pair of 2-disc special editions of some of his finest work – The Hustler and The Verdict (Fox, Not Rated/Rated R, DVD-$19.98 SRP each). Filled with audio commentaries, featurettes, photo galleries, scene analyses, trailers, and more, it’s enough to make Minnesota Fats look like a toothpick.
The fine folks at Twomorrows publishing have proven themselves again and again to be the torchbearer for those who love comics, and they’ve added to their already impressive celebratory catalogue of ever lovin’ comics appreciation with a much-deserved spotlight on inker Joe Sinnott (the man who was just a vital part of the early success of Marvel as Kirby and Lee). Brush Strokes With Greatness: The Life & Art of Joe Sinnott (Twomorrows, $17.95 SRP) is packed with more art than you can shake a Ben Grimm stogie at, plus an interview with the man himself, tributes from his colleagues and fans, an intro from Stan Lee, and a piece at the end from Mark Evanier. Click here for a preview.
While the films have been available previously, they weren’t completely remastered and packed with bonus materials (including a previously unavailable flick, to boot). The set in question is the must-have Sergio Leone Anthology (MGM/UA, Rated R, DVD-$88.98 SRP), containing the entire run of Clint Eastwood’s gunslinging “Man With No Name” – A Fistful Of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, and Duck, You Sucker. Get it!
The Duke’s birthday may have passed, but there’s still tons more releases to feature, and they make the perfect Father’s Day gift for dear old dad. Case in point is both volumes of the John Wayne Collection (Republic Pictures, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP each), contains eight classics your pa will love to have on his shelf, including Sands of Iwo Jima, Flying Tigers, Wake Of The Red Witch, The Quiet Man, Dakota, A Lady Takes A Chance, Rio Grande, The Fighting Kentuckian.
Just 8 years after her first novel in 1930, Nancy Drew leapt top the big screen with the first of four films starring Bonita Ganville as the intrepid young sleuth. All four of those films – Nancy Drew: Detective, Nancy Drew: Reporter, Nancy Drew: Trouble Shooter, & Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase – are features in The Original Nancy Drew Movie Mystery Collection (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP). The 2-disc set also features the theatrical trailers for all 4 adventures.
Fox has raided the vaults for a ton of quite sweet titles for their “Cinema Classics Collection” – Don Ameche & The Ritz Brothers in The Three Musketeers, Jack Benny in Charley’s Aunt, Ernest Borgnine in the deep sea odyssey The Neptune Factor, Irwin Allen’s Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea & Fantastic Voyage, and Danny Kaye & Gene Tierney in On The Riviera (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP each). All of the discs feature bonus materials like audio commentaries, vintage promotional shorts, featurettes, trailers, and more.
Not to get up your nose with a rubber hose, but the complete first season of that Sweathog odyssey, Welcome Back, Kotter (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP) has now entered the digital age. The 4-disc set features all 22 episodes, plus a retrospective featurette and the original screen tests. Truly, it’s more John Travolta and Gabe Kaplan-y goodness than you can possible imagine.
For a moment, let’s imagine a perfect world, where world peace reigns, children are happy, and Michael Bay’s Transformers doesn’t exist. It’s far easier to imagine a wonderful world like that while listening to the 20th anniversary edition of the original soundtrack to Transformers: The Movie (Sony Legacy, $11.98 SRP), in all its glorious 80’s cheesiness. From Stan Bush’s “You Got The Touch” and “Dare” to composer Vince DiCola’s score (in all seriousness, his “Unicron’s Theme” is a great piece of music), it’s almost enough to wipe Bay’s crap away.
A decidedly mustachioed Dick Van Dyke is a very disturbing thing, as his continual attempts to inject some kind of folksy levity into the homicide cases that litter the 2nd season of Diagnosis: Murder (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$49.99 SRP). The 6-disc set features all 22 episodes of Van Dyke as the sleuthing Dr. Mark Sloan and his homicide detective son (played by Barry Van Dyke). Why can’t we have an audio commentary or two?
While the ads made it look like Blood Diamond, Primeval (Hollywood Pictures, Rated R, DVD-$29.99 SRP) is actually a “based on a true story” horror flick about a 25-foot-long man-eating crocodile that cut a bloody swath through the African jungle. Here, a foolish news crew sets out to uncover it. Did I mention they were fools? But c’mon… Giant crocodile. Bonus features include an audio commentary, behind-the-scenes featurette, and deleted scenes.
Chris Cooper is compelling as real-life double agent Robert Hanssen, whose long term deceit funneled U.S. Intelligence secrets to foreign enemies and made Hanssen wealthy. In Breach (Universal, Rated PG-13, DVD-$29.98 SRP), Ryan Phillipe plays Eric O’Neill, who is assigned to Hanssen and is determined to draw him out and expose him in a potentially lethal tete a tete. Bonus features include an audio commentary, behind-the-scenes featurettes, a featurette on the true story, and deleted scenes.
Leaving Magnum behind, Tom Selleck returns as police chief Jesse Stone in a pair of TV movie adaptations of author Robert Parker’s best-selling Jesse Stone mysteries, Night Passage & Death In Paradise (Sony, Not Rated, DVD-$24.96 SRP each). New to the small town of Paradise, Massachusetts, Stone soon has his hands full, and Selleck is in top form.
Chuck Norris returns just in time to fulfill all of your Texas Rangering needs with the complete third season of Walker, Texas Ranger (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$49.99 SRP). The 7-disc set features all 26 episodes in glorious Norris-vision.
I still don’t know how I feel about filmmaker Eric Steel’s documentary The Bridge (Koch Lorber, Rated R, DVD-$29.98 SRP), which documents over two dozen suicides from atop to Golden Gate Bridge, plus plenty of near-fatal moments, that were all captured on film. Even though the piece features interviews with families, friends, witnesses, and even those who attempted the plunge, the whole affair leaves a bad, voyeuristic taste in my mouth. Bonus materials include a behind-the-scenes featurette.
They certainly don’t hold a candle to the original theatrical shorts, but the new adventures featured in the second volume of the Tom & Jerry Tales (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP) certainly aren’t as offensive as some of the latter-day revivals of classic characters tend to be. Honestly – they’re not nearly as bad as you think they are.
Suspend the soapiness of Melrose Place at 35,000 feet and you have the loveably trashy UK “drama” Mile High, whose second season is now available via a pair of box-sets (Koch, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP each). Each 4-disc set features 13 episodes, for a total of 26 stories featuring the crew of Fresh Airlines.
Can you believe that Star Trek is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year? It’s quite frightening to think that time has flown by that quickly – and that the Age of Geeks has been around that long. Either way, fans and geeks alike will want to make sure they find their very own Captain Kirk figure, seated in his command chair (Art Asylum/Diamond Select, $22.99 SRP). Every home or office needs a little bit of Shatner, just to spruce up the place.
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…
-Ken Plume
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