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…)
It ended before its time, but fans can now pick up the 3rd and final volume of John Byrne’s Next Men: The Premiere Collection (IDW, $50.00 SRP), which collects issues 21-30 in an oversized, hardbound presentation. Oh, and that whole “ended before its time” thing? IDW has convinced Byrne to bring the series back. Huzzah!
Nobody does fantasy drinking quite like the inhabitants of Middle Earth, and you can booze up in the same style with the Lord Of The Rings Etched Bar-Ware, allowing you to get a pair of pint glasses etched with the logos from either the Prancing Pony or the Green Dragon ($29.99), or a single large stein etched with same ($29.99). Now you too can drink a dwarf under the table.
If you’re like me, you have far too many wires and plugs in your life. From cell phones to mp3 players and gaming systems and bluetooth headsets… There’s a seemingly endless list of devices in need of charging or communication. And if you’ve ever tried to travel with that mess of cables, you know how frustrating it can be. Eager to streamline things a bit, I went hunting for a solution – And found the fine folks at Gomadic. Gomadic has designed a system of standardizes chargers that are universal for nearly every device, meaning one wire for everything. How do they manage this? By introducing an exchangeable tip system. That means you have small tips specific to each device, which can then plug into the universal wire – wires available for car charging, USB, wall socket, or even multiple devices at once. This is brilliant. After recently purchasing an HTC Incredible Droid phone, I was kitted out with tips, wires, and even universal in-cupholder/adhesive device stands for the car (equally brilliant, equally useful). The bottom line is this – Go explore Gomadic.com, and make your life a whole lot easier.
Essentially a combination of both the rated & unrated editions in one disc, the Hangover: Extreme Edition (Warner Bros., Rated R, Bly-Ray-$35.99 SRP) also adds a CD sampler and an album of wedding photos, while retaining he same bonus features as the previous releases.
Another catalogue title makes its way to high definition with the release of David O. Russell’s Three Kings (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP), whose political satire on the first Gulf War is even more powerful today. Bonus materials include a pair of audio commentaries, additional scenes, featurettes, and interviews.
While it’s not the American adventures of Derren Brown I would hope for, the second season of The Mentalist (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP) is still a fun little procedural, starring Simon Baker as the titular former “psychic” aiding the California Bureau of Investigation. The 5-disc set contains all 23 episodes, plus featurettes and deleted scenes.
It came and went at the box office with barely a gurgle, but the big screen outing for DC Comics’ Old West-ern vigilante Jonah Hex (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$35.98 SRP) is an ok little flick, carried along mostly by Josh Brolin’s take on the grizzled bounty hunter. Bonus materials include a pair of featurettes and deleted scenes.
Supplement your recent Blu-Ray Beauty And The Beast purchase with the definitive making-of book – Tale As Old As Time: The Art And Making Of Beauty And The Beast (Disney Editions, $40.00 SRP). As you can probably guess, the copiously illustrated tome presents an inside look at the film’s creation.
Flawed in conception and just plain boring in execution, it’s little wonder that Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$59.99 SRP) only made it 2 seasons, the second of which makes its home video debut featuring all 13 episodes, plus audio commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and outtakes.
When reading Walt Disney: His Life In Pictures (Disney Press, $14.95 SRP), which is a pretty quick read, but loaded with amazing, often rare photos, I’m reminded of those famous people biographies one would find in an elementary school library. It’s great for kids, but animation buffs and Disney fans will want it for the photos.
Criterion has always done right by Ingmar Bergman, and they continue to treat his catalogue with exquisite gloves in this era of high definition. Bergman’s The Magician (Criterion, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.95 SRP) looks and sounds beautiful, and features a 1967 video interview with Bergman, a rare audio interview, and a massive supplementary booklet.
Mill Creek has been steadily releasing a slew of budget-priced titles that are must-have for someone who wants a quick, cheap way to load up on TV series, documentaries, or cult films. On the cult side of things, you can get the 16-film Fists Of Vengeance: Martial Arts Collection (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP), the 12-film Ten Thousand Ways To Die: The Spaghetti Western Collection (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP), and the 12-film Rare Cult Cinema (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP). For documentaries, you’ve got the series Birth Of Flight: A History Of Civil Aviation (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP) and Native America: Voices From The Land (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP).
Take an okay 80’s cult film (The Lost Boys) and make a wrongheaded attempt to catch lightening in a direct-to-video bottle and you get an awkward sequel like Lost Boys: The Thirst (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP) which brings the vampire-fighting Frog Brothers back for another round. Bonus features include a trio of behind-the-scenes featurettes.
As sci-fi horror goes, Splice (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP) is engaging enough to at least keep your interest, with all of its Frankenstein-like creation of life that goes awry, but the real reason to watch is the performance of Sarah Polley as the creature’s laboratory “mother”. Bonus features are limited to a behind-the-scenes featurette.
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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