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…
Best known for his groundbreaking comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland and his equally groundbreaking animated Gertie the Dinosaur, Winsor McKay also produced a little known comic strip titled Dream of the Rarebit Fiend. A truly bizarre, wonderfully inventive strip, each outing revolved around the odd dreams of anyone who partook of a Welsh Rarebit (essentially a grilled cheese sandwich). Ulrich Merkel has taken the best strips of the strip’s run (from 1904-1913) and presented them in a gorgeous, truly massive tome – The Complete Dream of the Rarebit Fiend (Available exclusively at www.rarebit-fiend-book.com, $114) that any fan of art, strips, comics, or animation should have upon their shelves. Also included is a DVD featuring high resolution scans of the strip’s entire run, and more. Get this book. Get it now.
There have been plenty of classic animation releases to come down the pike in the last few years, but none have been so hotly anticipated – and fraught with setbacks – as the animated adventures of E.C. Segar’s one-eyed man of the sea. All of that red tape has finally been sheared away, and it is with giddy delight that I was able to dive into the first Popeye, The Sailor Man: 1933-1938 Vol. 1 collection (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$64.98 SRP). Lushly restored and beautifully presented – packed with more bonus features than you can throw a Jeep at – it truly is the first class treatment that the Fleischer series has long deserved. If you don’t believe me, grab your own copy and revel in the magnificence.
It’s been a long time coming, but with the publication of the deluxe, hardcover Art Of Bone (Dark Horse, $39.95 SRP), fans have finally gotten a glorious celebration of Jeff Smith’s epic comic journey. Clocking in at over 200 pages, it’s a collection of rare childhood and college art, hard-to-find one shot stories, and more color & black and white artwork than you can shake a stick at. It truly is a must-have tome, and it makes me wish that Smith would revisit that world, post-haste.
Following up Shaun of the Dead was a tall order, but Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg succeeded in spades with Hot Fuzz (Universal, Rated R, DVD-$29.98 SRP), a fun Brit homage to Hollywood cop flicks. Pegg stars as a London cop banished to the hinterlands by jealous colleagues, who’s then teamed with a witless partner (Nick Frost) before stumbling on a series of suspicious events that uncover the dark underbelly of the seemingly bucolic village. Bonus features include an audio commentary, outtakes, deleted scenes, a featurette on the US promotional tour, and more, but there is a ton of material – including additional commentaries and Edgar Wright’s first film – that were not carried over from the British special edition. What’s up with that?
Long a web-exclusive, now fans can pick up their very own Mythbusters: Collection 1 (Image, Not Rated, DVD-$29.99 SRP) at their favorite outlet of choice. The 4-disc set features the first 12 episodes of Adam & Jamie’s mythbusting exploits, tackling everything from exploding toilets to the legendary killer penny drop. The set also contains the special “Mythbusters: Revealed” episode. Now, where’s my second collection?
Though not often held in the same high esteem as the output of studios like Disney and Warner Bros., I will admit that my childhood was brightened by many a cartoon produced by the Walter Lantz studios, many of which featured his most famous star, Woody Woodpecker. The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) contains 75 remastered cartoons featuring Woody, Chilly Willy, Buzz Buzzard, Wally Walrus, Andy Panda, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, plus featurettes, clips from the Woody Woodpecker Show, and more.
Warners dishes another steamy serving of cinema’s dark underbelly with their second Film Noir Classic Collection (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP), featuring 10 more flicks to watch during a night in with your favorite dame. The dime of essentials this go-round include Act Of Violence, Mystery Street, Crime Wave, Decoy, Illegal, The Big Steal, They Live By Night, Side Street, Where Danger Lives, and Tension. Each flick features commentary and featurettes. Warner, dey treat us film saps real good.
Why has it taken so long for the wonders of the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week to make it to DVD? Imagine my surprise to discover (no pun intended) to learn that the venerable celebration of the ocean’s compelling killers is celebrating its 20th year, as the appropriately titled Shark Week: 20th Anniversary Collection (Image, Not Rated, DVD-$29.99 SRP) illuminates. What more can you ask for on a lazy summer day than 4-discs full of classic Shark Week specials?
Little known in the US (and that’s a damn – but correctable – shame), Rik Mayall’s Alan B’Stard is the consummate politician on the rise – backstabbing, manipulative, egotistical, corrupt, and loveably despicable. His rise through the British political landscape is chronicled in The New Statesman (Image, Not Rated, DVD-$59.99 SRP), the complete series of which is now available in the US, and is a must-see for any fan of British comedy or political satire. If you love The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, or Black Adder… Well, you must pick this up. So do it.
Digitally remastered and featuring a much lower price point than the original megaset release, if you’ve been waiting for the right time to snap up Gerry Anderson’s Space: 1999, the 30th Anniversary Megaset (A&E, Not Rated, DVD-$99.95 SRP) is certainly the time to finally act on that impulse. Featuring all 48 episodes and beautiful transfers, the 17-disc set also sports the original promo spots, vintage interviews, galleries, trailers, rare footage, fan-produced episodes closing up the series’ storyline, and much more. Get it. Now.
As if it weren’t easy enough for lazy schoolchildren to skip reading books and just cram for class by watching the films based on the book, Fox & MGM have taken it one step further by releasing their adaptations bundled with honest-to-gosh Cliff’s Notes of the book – literally one-stop shopping. The initial releases include Lord of the Flies, Anna Karenina, Inherit The Wind, Moby Dick, Henry V, and Jane Eyre (Fox/MGM, $14.98 SRP each).
Nothing makes a lazy Saturday afternoon go by more enjoyably than a classic Ray Harryhuasen flick – especially one that has been as lovingly restored and presented as the 50th anniversary edition of 20 Million Miles To Earth (Sony, Not Rated, DVD-$24.96 SRP). I’m not really interested in the color version, but the original black & white looks simply fantastic, and the bonus features include a commentary with Harryhuasen, (along with Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, and Arnold Kunert), a retrospective documentary, Tim Burton interviewing Harryhausen, an interview with Joan Taylor, a look at the music, galleries, and more.
It’s a veritable CG-bloodbath in director Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300 (Warner Bros., Rated R, DVD-$34.98 SRP), which feels like nothing more than an overproduced, ultimately hollow flick full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. It basically uses the tale of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae – in which 300 Spartans supposedly held their own against the massive Persian army – to provide an effects demo reel. Sad, really. The 2-disc collector’s edition features audio commentary, behind-the-scenes featurettes, a spotlight on adapting Miller’s graphic novel, additional scenes, webisodes, and more.
For more on the true story that Frank Miller drew upon, check out the History Channel’s Last Stand Of The 300 (History Channel, Not Rated, DVD-$19.95 SRP), which examines the origins of the legend behind that epic holding action in 480 B.C.
Flush your mind of all the summer popcorn cinema with BBC’s Henrik Ibsen Collection (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP), a collection of 10 Beeb adaptations of Ibsen’s plays. The 6-disc set features Brand, A Doll’s House, Ghosts, Peer Gynt, Emperor and Galilean, The Pillars Of Society, Hedda Gabler, Rosmersholm, A Meeting In Rome, John Gabriel Borkman, and When The Dead Awaken, plus 8 bonus radio adaptations.
After the middling Crusade and the pathetic Rangers, it was with trepidation and a small amount of desperate hope that I greeted the announcement of Joe Straczynski’s plans to revive the beloved Babylon 5 franchise with a series of direct-to-video adventures dubbed Babylon 5: The Lost Tales (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP). All I can hope, after viewing the disc, is that Joe cares enough about his creation to just leave the damn thing alone. Cheap, sparse, and poorly written, it’s like a sad mockery of what made B5 such a fantastic show. Please Joe… Please… let it go. You created a fantastic universe and memorable characters – stop shitting on your legacy.
Brush up your Shakespeare with a decidedly modern take courtesy of Shakespeare Retold (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP), featuring a quartet of the Bard’s classics – Much Ado About Nothing, MacBeth, The Taming Of The Shrew, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
You can’t get a more flamboyant start to a season than Southfork being in flames to ring in the start of Dallas: Season 7 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP). Pour some lemonade and watch JR earn his title as the most magnificent bastard ever to grace the TV landscape. The 5-disc set features all 24 episodes, plus a featurette on the show’s music.
McGarret & Dano are back on the surfside beat in the second season of Hawaii Five-O (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$49.99 SRP), featuring 24 episodes of Pacific crimesolving that ranges from saboteurs and vigilantes to the villainous Wo Fat. The 6-disc set features all 24 remastered episodes, plus the original episode promos.
While not as fun as the first season, there was still a spunky charm to be found in the second season of Sabrina The Teenage Witch (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$38.99 SRP). Much to Melissa Joan Hart’s dismay, I’m sure, it was pretty clear by now that the true star of the show was Nick Bakay, who provided the voice for Salem the Cat. Never work with animals. The 4-disc set features all 26 episodes.
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
##
Comments: None
Leave a Reply |