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…
Though they’ve halved the disc count, beggars can’t be choosers when we get another clutch of classic cartoons, fully restored, with Popeye The Sailor: 1938-1940 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP). This second volume of classic Fleischer Popeye cartoons contains another 31 shorts, completely uncut, plus a boat full of extras, including audio commentaries, featurettes, the retrospective documentary Out Of the Inkwell: The Fleischer Story, vintage recordings, bonus cartoons, radio shows, and an interview with Jack Mercer (the voice of Popeye). Now where’s volume 3?
Though seen as one of the lesser lights of the classic Disney animated feature firmament, I was always fond of Sword In The Stone (Walt Disney, Rated G, DVD-$29.99 SRP) as a kid. I enjoyed the magic, the goofball Merlin, and the battle with Madame Mim. The new special edition features a brand new transfer, bonus shorts, and a nice little featurette on the Sherman Brothers songwriting team.
Everybody’s doing it, so you might as well bite the bullet, grab a friend or two, and join the podcasting craze that’s sweeping the net like the flu. Getting the right gear can be a nightmare, but you can eliminate all the guesswork by snagging the Samson USB Podcast Studio ($169.99). The all-in-one kit features the high quality Samson condenser mic, desktop mic stand with shock mount (so your listeners don’t hear you putting down your drink), a USB cable, software, and a lightweight aluminum briefcase with plenty of foam to keep everything nice and safe.
Go under the sea with everyone’s favorite Time Lord in Doctor Who: Beneath The Surface (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP), which collects a trio of storylines from both the Jon Pertwee and Peter Davison years – “Doctor Who and the Silurians”, “The Sea Devils”, and “Warriors Of The Deep”. As per usual with the classic Who releases, it’s packed to the gills with bonus material, including audio commentaries, featurettes, interviews, audio material, and more.
All these years later, it’s interesting to look back on So I Married An Axe Murderer (Sony, Rated PG-13, DVD-$19.94 SRP). It’s proto-Mike Myers, which means he’s not mugging nearly as much, but all of the warning signs of the cheeky chappie to come are there. Overall, it’s not a bad little flick – but it’s certainly no classic.
Here we are in the 9th season of ER (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP) and the only familiar face left from the first season is that of Noah Wylie. This was the season that took Carter to Africa, and set the stage for some important developments down the road. The 6-disc box set features all 22 episodes, plus unaired scenes and a gag reel.
If you’ve been holding off any purchasing any of the BBC’s wonderful Walking With… history series, you can get the whole lot in the new Prehistoric Earth box set (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP). The 6-disc set features Before The Dinosaurs, Walking With Dinosaurs, Allosaurus, Walking With Prehistoric Beasts, and Walking With Cavemen, plus the full complement of bonus materials from the original releases.
Largely forgotten by the public, Beach Boy’s Dennis Wilson’s legendary solo album Pacific Ocean Blue (Sony Legacy, $29.98 SRP) gets a lavish, 2-disc special edition release, featuring remastered sound and a plethora of bonus material. In fact, the bonus material comprises the entirety of the second disc – “BAMBU – The Caribou Sessions”. It’s a fantastic package, and an album worth rediscovering.
I’m usually rather apathetic toward the films of Martin Lawrence, but based on a trailer that actually managed to elicit a laugh or two from me in the theaters a few months back, I decided to give Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (Universal, Rated PG-13, DVD-$29.98 SRP) a shot. Surprisingly, I found it to be a pleasant comedy that managed to avoid many of the over-the-top pitfalls that sink his other films. As to the plot, the short of it is that Lawrence is the titular Jenkins, a successful TV host who returns to his hometown and a family eager to remind him of everything he left behind. Bonus features include deleted/extended scenes, an alternate opening, outtakes, and more.
Rest assured that even a Disneyland uberfan like Dana Snyder would want a copy of The Disneyland Encyclopedia: The Unofficial, Unauthorized, and Unprecedented History Of every Land, Attraction, Restaurant, Shop, and Event In The Original Magic Kingdom (Santa Monica Press, $19.95 SRP). The title pretty much says it all.
If they’re not yet ready for the encroaching adulthood and edgy songwriting of Disney’s Jonas Brothers, then rest assure that today’s kids are watching those fake tweenyboppers, the Naked Brothers Band. For those still-innocent kiddies, the band has a new movie, The Naked Brothers Band: Polar Bears (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP). It has something to do with the holidays. And music.
Rudolph may get all the press, but Rankin/Bass made plenty of other stop motion specials – including one called The Daydreamer (Anchor Bay, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), about the dreams of a young Hans Christian Andersen. Those dreams include “The Little Mermaid”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, “Thumbelina”, and more. The DVD features the original theatrical trailer and a still gallery.
It was during the third season of Dynasty (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$35.98 SRP) that the legendary catfights between Alexis and Krystle Carrington (Joan Collins & Linda Evans) really began in earnest, energizing the show as it became a viewing staple. The first volume of the show’s third season contains the initial 12 episodes, but not a single bonus feature.
If you were essentially to do a remake of Six Days, Seven Nights and replace Harrison Ford and Anne Heche with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, you’ve pretty much got the action romcom Fool’s Gold (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, DVD-$28.98 SRP). Also add in some pirate treasure, some outstanding gambling debts, and a jetski. Yeah, that pretty much covers it. Bonus features include a behind-the-scenes featurette and a gag reel.
Neither memorable nor boring, the best thing I can say about the high school enemy body switch comedy It’s A Boy Girl Thing (Anchor Bay, Rated PG-13, DVD-$26.98 SRP) is that it featured a nice turn from Sharon Osbourne as the mother of one of the characters. I’d certainly like to see her given more character parts. As for the rest of the film – it’s pretty much what you’d expect from these body-swap flicks – lots of “I hate you!” followed by “Oh, now I understand you…” and winding up at “I think I love you…”. You know the drill. Bonus features include a making-of featurette, interviews, and more.
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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Comments: 2 Comments
2 Responses to “Weekend Shopping Guide 6/20/08: I Yam What I Yam, Again”Leave a Reply |
June 20th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
“…one of the lesser lights”?!
My good man, it’s one of the best Disney has ever offered! It’s second only to Robin Hood. I’d take Sword in the Stone and RH over anything else they have ever done. That includes Aladdin, Lion King, Monsters Inc., AND Finding Nemo.
And that’s not just because I think their only-CG-animation stance is a travesty. Sure, it may LOOK “cool”, but it’s downright blasphemous to make every new animated feature CG-only. Frankly, they should be ashamed of themselves. But no, that’s not the only reason SitS and RH are better than their entire library. They’re also different than the typical “somebody gets lost” style of story telling. I mean, that’s practically every one of their movies. It’s been pretty much every single Pixar collaboration.
Sword in the Stone features a downright minuscule cast of characters, relying on solid interaction and story instead of using an ever increasing bunch of flashy faces to spice up the film. And while Robin Hood features many classic characters, it deals with them as they are, and not just reasons to go “Hey, look at that one! Ooh, look, there’s another one! Oh, that one is neat looking!”. They’re not simply crutches for the poor story telling and character development.
And they don’t use tragedy as a gimmick, either, like almost every post-Lion King film. The Pixar films themselves are nothing but outright depression with a candy coating. Take Finding Nemo, for example. In the opening scene of the film, Marlin’s entire family is murdered, but for an egg that grows to be Nemo. Nemo, however, is handicapped. So a single father is left to raise his physically challenged son. Later, that son is kidnapped. In the film, Marlin faces many perils to get his son back. In real life, he would have put a gun in his mouth. However, the two classic films in question don’t rely on the destruction of innocence to tell a dramatic story. No one is being murdered, no one is being tortured, no ones psyche is being rent asunder (Buzz Lightyear). Sure, Arthur is an orphan and is forced to do menial labor, but he also becomes the boy-king of the western world.
Not only that, but both Sword in the Stone and Robin Hood feature downright gorgeous classical animation. Such fluidity and brilliance, drawn by the human hand rather than calculated by a machine.
Truly, the Disney catalog of my generation doesn’t hold a candle to either of those two features.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Why are they releasing So I Married An Axe Murderer again on DVD? I got my copy like 8 years ago…one of the first DVDs I ever bought.