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 FRED Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
(Please support FRED by using the links below to make any impulse purchases – it helps to keep us going…)
I had no expectations and little knowledge of the first season of Party Down (Anchor Bay, Not Rated, DVD-$29.97 SRP) going in other than it being produced by Paul Rudd and co-starring The State’s Ken Marino as well as the great Jane Lynch. Well, turns out it’s a wonderfully dry single-camera sitcom about a group of LA caterers whose minds are on the non-starter careers as actors and writers. Just watch the set and enjoy. Bonus materials include audio commentaries, featurettes, outtakes, and a gag reel.
Do you have far, far too many items requiring a USB port and far, far too few of them to accommodate all of the gadgets and gizmos you’ve accumulated? Well, the fine folks over at Thinkgeek have heard you crying in the night (to be honest, we all did) and have brought you the mighty USB Super 16 Port Hub ($159.99). As the name clearly indicates, it’s 16 fully-powered USB 2.0 ports. Not only that, it also features a switcher which allows you to change which computer can access the ports. Cool, right? Right.
I’ve spoken many, many times in the past about the wonderful work being done by the fine folks at Twomorrows – those perfect purveyors of pure comics appreciation fun. Well, they continue their relentless drive to release must-have books, and I’ll start with the latest editions of their Modern Masters series of artist spotlights – this time featuring Mark Buckingham & Guy Davis (Twomorrows, $15.95 each). There’s also an in-depth appreciation of artist Sal Buscema titled Sal Buscema: Comics’ Fast & Furious Artist (Twomorrows, $26.95). Finally, there’s a comprehensive look at the live action adventures of everyone’s favorite comics characters in Age Of TV Heroes (Twomorrows, $39.95). Get them all.
If you’ve ever been a fan of Love & Rockets, you must, with all due haste, pick up a copy of The Art Of Jaime Hernandez (Abrams ComicArts, $40.00 SRP), which delves into the history and archives of the notoriously private artist, providing a wealth of artwork and insight.
If you’d like a textbook example on how to take a cheesily fun flick and turn it into a plodding, pointless remake, look no further than Wolfgang Petersen’s Poseidon (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP), which took Irwin Allen’s Poseidon Adventure and made it oh-so-dull. Bonus materials include a trio of behind-the-scenes featurettes and the History Channel documentary Rogue Waves.
For those impatient for Lord Of The Rings in high definition who aren’t willing to wait to get the extended cuts in a few year’s time, the Lord Of The Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (New Line, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$99.98 SRP) contains all three theatrical cuts, with a port of the documentaries originally featured on the standard DVD theatrical edition releases (mainly the TV specials, not the uber-deluxe making-ofs found on the extended sets. The picture and sound are ace, so if you simply can’t wait, or you’re a completionist, by all means get it.
Though I’m sure he was trying his best to make a faithful, impressive adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s massive epic, Ralph Bakshi’s animated Lord Of The Rings (Warner Bros., Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP) is just a boring, ugly mess, marred by poor voice-acting, roto-scoped animation, and a script that forgets its supposed to keep the audience’s attention. This new high-def edition contains an in-depth interview with Bakshi about his vision for the film.
One of the standouts of Playing For Change’s beautiful music documentary Peace Through Music was New Orleans own Grandpa Elliott, who gets an equally beautiful debut album in the form of Sugar Sweet (Playing For Change Records, $12.98 SRP). Just go get it.
Lionsgate has jumped into the catalogue Blu-Ray release pool with a trio of new-to-high-def discs, including David Caruso in Jade (Lionsgate, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP), the goofy fun monster flick The Relic (Lionsgate, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP), and John Milius’s Flight Of The Intruder (Lionsgate, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP).
Warners unleashes another pair of catalogue titles to their Warner Archive Collection sure to satisfy someone’s cult cinema desire – one good and one not-so-good. The not-so-good is the Shaquille O’Neal superhero flick Steel (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, DVD-$19.95). The good is Irwin Allen’s production of The Amazing Captain Nemo (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$19.95), Robert Bloch’s tale of a cryogenically frozen Nemo (Jose Ferrer) revived after 100 years to hunt down a mad scientist (Burgess Meredith) threatening modern-day humanity.
Spend some time with the likes of Peter Cushing in the Icons Of Suspense Collection: Hammer Films (Sony, Not Rated, DVD-$23.99 SRP), which contains 6 of the legendary studio’s chillers. The flicks includes are Stop Me Before I Kill!, Maniac, Cash On Demand, Never Take Candy From A Stranger, The Snorkel, & These Are The Damned.
True story – as a kid, I used to think Simon & Simon (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$49.97 SRP) were actually Simon & Garfunkel. It was years before I could disassociate the two… And Gerald McRaney occasionally sings “Bright Eyes” in my mind. The 4th season set contains all 22 episodes.
It’s pure 80’s sci-fi schmaltz, but the performances by the geriatric cast is what makes Cocoon (Fox, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$24.99 SRP) a flick worth watching at least once. Certainly not for Steve Guttenberg. The new high-def edition features a commentary from Ron Howard, a quintet of featurettes, TV spots, and trailers.
If you didn’t have the cash to pick up the complete series set and are instead going at it a season at a time, then you’ll probably want to pick up the complete second season of Ally McBeal (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP). The 6-disc set contains all 23 episodes, all of which contain the original music.
Since every Stephen King story must eventually be adapted into a film, it was only a matter of time before they got to the short story Dolan’s Cadillac (NEM, Rated R, DVD-$24.98 SRP), about an even-keeled school teacher (Wes Bentley) that becomes a cold-blooded vengeance machine when a mobster (Christian Slater) kills his wife. Bonus materials include behind-the-scenes footage.
A series featuring a female private detective who finds an unlikely partner in a 450-year-old undead vampire, that complicates not only her professional life, but also her long-time relationship with her detective ex-partner sounds like a slam-dunk in these vampire obsessed times, right? Well, sadly for Blood Ties (Eagle Rock, Not Rated, DVD-$39.97 SRP), it came out in 2007, before the craze hit. You can watch the entire series via this 7-disc box set , which also features a behind-the-scenes documentary.
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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