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…)
The epic films of David Lean are an essential part of any cinematic library, and the first to make the transition to high definition is the sweeping Doctor Zhivago (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP), and it looks and sounds absolutely incredible. Just to add icing to the cake, it’s packed with bonus materials, including an audio commentary, a new retrospective, a making-of documentary, vintage featurettes and interviews, the theatrical trailer, and a sampler CD of Maurice Jarre’s score.
Robots are cool. So is brushing your teeth. Go with me on this… When you combine a toothbrush and a tiny little motor, you get the uber-cool BristleBot Toothbrush Robot ($7.99), which you can race against each other (after personalizing it, of course). It’s small, it’s cheap, and it’s fn. Ace.
I’m always leery of a new take on Hamlet (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.99 SRP), but when it was revealed that the young Dane would be played by David Tennant and Claudius would be played by Patrick Stewart, well, I knew I’d have to give it a spin. And it is worth a viewing. Bonus materials include an audio commentary and a making-of featurette.
It’s been a few months and the new series has been hitting our shores, so hat means it’s time for another clutch of classic [Doctor Who] DVD releases. This time, we get a pair of Jon Pertwee adventures – The Monster Of Peladon (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP) and The Curse Of Peladon (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP). The 3rd release is a Tom Baker outing, The Masque Of Mandragora (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP), and all 3 are packed with bonus materials including audio commentaries, interviews, featurettes, and much more.
Using the Poppinsonian maxim of a spoonful of sugar, Paramount has dipped into their catalogue for a trio of new-to-Blu-Ray releases, the first of which is the aforementioned sugar – Saving Private Ryan (Paramount, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP). [Ryan] looks & sounds better than any previous DVD release, and the 2-disc special edition contain an introduction from Spielberg, making-of featurettes, historical featurettes, and a documentary on WWII combat photographers. The medicine is a pair of less than stellar flicks – Harrison Ford in K-19: The Widowmaker and Kurt Russell in Escape From LA (Paramount, Rated PG-13/R, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP each). [Escape] is featureless, but [K-19] carries over an audio commentary, a making-of, and a trio of featurettes.
Presented by Sir John Gielgud, Six Centuries Of Verse (Acorn, Not Rated, DVD-$69.99 SRP) is an epic exploration of English-language poetry through the centuries, featuring performances by the likes of Anthony Hopkins and Julian Glover.
While the new Blu-Ray edition of Tombstone (Hollywood Pictures, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP) retains the making-of featurette, trailers, storyboards, and TV spots of the most recent DVD special edition, the high-def debut of Armageddon (Touchstone, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP) is barren compared to the bonus-heavy Criterion edition of yore, giving us only a music video and trailers. Such a shame.
The comedy isn’t terribly nuanced, but there is a sucker punch level of laughs to be had from Leigh Francis’s grotesque creations in The Complete Bo’ Selecta! (Channel 4, Not Rated, Region 2, DVD-£29.99 SRP). The box set contains all 3 series plus the holiday special, filled with the likes of Keith Lemon, Avid Merrion, The Bear, Craig David, and more. Also available is the tribute special Cha’mone Mo’ Fo’ Selecta: A Tribute To Michael Jackson (Channel 4, Not Rated, Region 2, DVD-£12.99 SRP).
Universal dips into the vaults for the latest in the Backlot Series, The Barbara Stanwyck Collection (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP). The 6 films included are [Internes Can’t Take Money], [The Great Man’s Lady], [The Bride Wore Boots], [The Lady Gambles], [All I Desire], and [There’s Always Tomorrow].
You remember [The Santa Clause]? Where Tim Allen assumes the mantle of Santa Claus and family-friendly, heart-warming hilarity ensued? Well, replace Allen with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and make the former wrestler the titular mythical creature of Tooth Fairy (Fox, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP). Yeah. You heard me. The 3-disc set contains an audio commentary, behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and a standard DVD copy of the film.
Their marriage may not have been the happiest, but there’s no doubt that both Carole King and James Taylor knew how to write a song, which is evident on their recent reunion concert disc Live At The Troubadour (Hear Music, $19.98 SRP). And, because you know you want it, there’s also a bonus DVD of the concert, for those who want to see all of the water under this ex-couple’s bridge.
The films are good, but Universal’s new Blu-Ray/DVD flipper discs are still an unwelcome abominations – which is a shame, since the trio of catalogue titles – Out Of Africa, Traffic, & The Jackal (Universal, Rated PG/R/R, Blu-Ray-$26.98 SRP each) – deserve better treatment than this. Each film ports over the bonus films featured in the previous standard DVD editions (but [Traffic] is lacking the extensive materials found on the old Criterion release).
Recently re-released as a Blu-Ray special edition, the Colin Firth version of Pride & Prejudice (A&E, Not Rated, DVD-$19.95 SRP) makes its standard DVD debut in a 2-disc edition featuring the same bonus featurettes found on the high-def version.
David Lynch’s adaptation of Dune (Universal, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$26.98 SRP) is one of those glorious, overblown, disastrous fantasy flicks that seemed to come fast and furious in the 1980’s. The new high-def transfer is certainly impressive, and while the film is tedious at best and certainly off-putting, the new edition should make fans happy, as it ports over the deleted scenes and featurettes from the standard DVD special edition.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world where technology has failed and mankind is living by a thread after a plague sweeps the land, Survivors (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$79.98 SRP) was creator Terry Nation’s take on an oft-told tale, but a well told take nonetheless. This new box set contains the complete run, plus a documentary and photo galleries. It’s gotten a release because the modern day remake is hitting DVD with Survivors: The Complete Seasons One And Two (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP), a slicker, if not better, update. Bonus materials include featurettes and profiles.
Featuring rare footage from his own personal collection, Andy Kaufman: World Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion (Microwerks, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP) is a documentary about the most controversial – and some say professionally destructive – period of the late comedian’s career. Regardless, it’s an interesting look into the mind of an original.
In the mood for a mildly entertaining romantic comedy with likeable actors that won’t cause upset and will quickly wash off after it’s all over? Well, then It’s Complicated (Universal, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$36.98 SRP) is for you. Starring Meryl Streep & Alec Baldwin as a divorced couple on good terms who begin to rekindle their romance – which is rather awkward for his young wife and Streep’s new beau (Steve Martin). Bonus materials include an audio commentary and a making-of featurette.
Remember that surprisingly chilling horror film a few years back about a team of female spelunkers who are hunted by subterranean creatures during an expedition gone wrong? You know, [The Descent]? Well, now it all gets a bit naffer with The Descent Part 2 (Lionsgate, Rated R, DVD-$28.98 SRP), which finds the survivor of the original film forced to go back into the caves, by the local sheriff, on a search mission for her missing companions. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, and a storyboard gallery.
I’m not a fan, but there are plenty of kids who adore the little red monster and will probably happy tap along with Sesame Street: The Best Of Elmo 2 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), which contains almost an hour’s worth of the furry bastard. Now where the DVD release of Kermit’s best bits?
A surprising and welcome arrival on DVD is the second volume collecting On The Road with Charles Kuralt (Acorn, Not Rated, DVD-$39.99 SRP) – the Emmy-winning travelogue that featured Kuralt, a motor home, and destinations and personalities across the breadth of the United States. The 3-disc set features 18 episodes, plus updates.
While not as funny as some of their previous television incarnations, there’s still plenty of fun to be had in the second season of Tracey Ullman’s State Of The Union (Eagle Media, Not Rated, DVD-$19.93 SRP), which finds her playing 53 different characters rooted in American life. Bonus materials include deleted scenes, featurettes, sing-alongs, and more.
Cross Doo Wop with [The Sunshine Boys] and you have The Dukes (E1, Rated PG-13, DVD-$24.98 SRP), a pretty fun little caper comedy about a down on their hells Doo Wop group who decides to stage a comeback – only this comeback involves stealing 35 pounds of gold. The cast – Robert Davi, Chazz Palminteri, & Peter Bogdanovich – are clearly having fun. Bonus features include an audio commentary, interviews, and deleted scenes.
It’s a bit disconcerting as you try and process the age difference in the 70’s-filmed [Honeymooners Specials], which brought the cast back together for one last spin as The Kramdens and The Nortons, but once you get into it, the old magic is there. The Second Honeymoon (MPI, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP) finds Ralph and Alice renewing their vows on their 25th wedding anniversary, while Valentine Special (MPI, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP) is pretty self-explanatory. Both discs also contain rare parody skits.
Translated from its smash Broadway run and bringing Andy Griffith and Don Knotts together on screen for the first time, No Time For Sergeants (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP) is one of those comedies that I’ve been waiting eagerly for, and this remastered edition is a welcome arrival.
With Memorial Day right around the corner, Warners has dipped into the archives for some manly men classics to release as part of their TCM: Greatest Classic Films Collection. The first, TCM Classics: Westerns (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$27.98 SRP), contains [The Stalking Moon], [Ride The High Country], [Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid], & [Chisum]. TCM Classics: War (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$27.98 SRP) sports [Battle Of The Bulge] , [The Dawn Patrol], [Gunga Din], & [Operation Pacific]. I just wish both releases weren’t on those damn flipper discs.
By the time we reach the Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1980s collection (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$26.98 SRP), we’ve pretty much reached the border between nostalgia and embarrassment, as the offerings on hand in this 2-disc overview of the decade’s animated offerings includes the likes of Mister T, Chuck Norris, Ed Grimley, Thundarr, and The Biskitts. At least there’s a little featurette on the history of Thundarr.
Tony Stark becomes a teenage superhero in Nickelodeon’s Iron Man: Armored Adventures (Genius, Not Rated, DVD-$29.93 SRP), which I assume is a change meant to appeal to kids – although why one would think they couldn’t identify with a 30-something multibillionaire arms manufacturer, I’ll never know. The 4-disc box set contains all 26 episodes, plus storyboards and original sketches.
See a man do some incredibly foolish things to his body in the name of adventure in Man Vs. Wild: Season 4 (Discovery, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP). The man in question is crazy survivalist Bear Grylls, and the 3-disc set contains all 13 episodes, plus extended scenes and a preview episode.
It’s another quarter of episodes to entertain the kiddies with Go Diego Go!: The Great Panda Adventure (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP) which – in addition to adventures with pandas, lemurs, koalas, and beavers – also features a pair of videos from the Fresh Bat Band.
It seems like there’s been a couple hundred editions released, but the new special edition of Dirty Dancing (Lionsgate, Rated PG-13, DVD-$29.98 SRP) sports a brand new, damn spiffy video transfer that makes the film look better than it ever has in any previous release. Bonus features include audio commentaries, featurettes, documentaries, a tribute to Patrick Swayze, outtakes, interviews, music videos, and much more. A Blu-Ray edition ($34.99 SRP) is also available, with identical bonus materials.
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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It’s been a long, long, LONG wait, but the fine folks at Cinematic Titanic make a strong return with their road-tested riff of the awkward merging of both Kung-Fu AND Blaxsploitation, all wrapped in a model of poor filmmaking and worse acting… I give you 
I’ve never owned a good cooking knife in my life. Usually, I’ll hack meat and vegetables with a steak knife, ’cause that’s all I’ve got. Every time I’ve tried to buy a better knife, I’ve always chosen poorly, and wound up with a quick-dulling instrument that just sends me right back to my trusty serrated hacksaws. Well, now I’ve seen the light – and it’s not metal. No, it’s 
It’s not a kiddie movie, but I certainly saw it as a kid, and I still love the anarchic blackness that permeates one of the most offbeat holiday flicks to ever hit screens, 
No one rants with quite the same vigor – and accessibility – as Charlie Brooker. Like a cross between Mark Twain and a riled wasps nest, Brooker’s regular column in the Guardian is an ongoing social commentary that inspires equal parts knowing laughter and sympathetic bile. Don’t believe me? Pick up the latest collection – 
How sweet is it that we’re actually a dozen volumes in to the The Complete Peanuts? What seemed like it would take forever to accomplish – the presentation of the entire run of Charles Schulz’s classic strip – now seems to be flying by, as we can all dive into 
If their continued collections of Peanuts weren’t enough to earn Fantagraphics the love and adoration of comics fans the world over, then their beautiful collections of the EC Segar strips starring his cantankerous, shambling sailor should secure that place within their hearts. The 4th collection – 
It’s refreshing to upend the traditional romantic comedy formula and look at how unpredictable love can actually be with 
While Office Space has become an instant classic and even the marginalized Idiocracy has become a cult flick, Mike Judges latest, 
What do you do when you’re a network with a surprise hit on your hands? You don’t wait around for your debut season to wrap before you rush out a DVD collection featuring the first half of said season – and that’s what we’ve got with 
Catch up on your TV viewing over the holiday break with both the 3rd and final season of the sci-fi show 
It came and went from theaters with only the slightest of notice – a disappointment, considering it was the theatrical follow-up to Juno from screenwriter Diablo Cody. Which is a shame, as 
Check another series off your running list, as we’ve come to the release of the 7th and final season of 
Oh, what I wouldn’t do to put a bullet through the sadly long-lived American Pie franchise, which has now moved into 
What was just about the last season of the show turned out to be just another one after it was picked up, so now you can rest easy as you partake of 
It’s the second volume of 
The regular episodes are often painful scattershot, but the focus of their Star Wars episodes seems to bring out the best in Seth MacFarlane & company, as you can see for yourself with 
Go all the way back to the days of Wendy, Marvin, & Wonder Dog with the first volume from the premiere season of the original 
I remember when 
I’d like to say that Mel Brooks’ 
Christmas is dead and buried, so that means we start getting releases like a special edition of 
It’s all hit the fan in the third season of 
Wrap up the season that brought in Rob Estes, Alyssa Milano, and Lisa Rinna (and showed the door to Grant Show, Marcia Cross, & Laura Leighton) with 
It’s not good cinema, but the flicks contained in 
It never fails to bring a warm feeling when one of those Sunday afternoon flicks that used to permeate my youth gets all cleaned and gussied up and finds its way into high-definition. Certainly those warm feelings come from 
It doesn’t happen often enough, but 
David Tennant’s era as The Doctor has just come to a close, but there’s still plenty of classic Doctor adventures still in the pipeline. The newest releases to keep you warm (if the scarf isn’t enough) is the William Hartnell era 
It’s not for your younger kiddies, but there’s enough inventiveness and beauty of execution to make 
With the resurgence of 3-D, particularly in horror films, it was only a matter of time before the Final Destination franchise decided to go all cine-poky with 
You can feel the end coming on as the 9th season of 
Summer days are long. And often hot. Sometimes stormy. Who wants to venture out onto the surface of the sun when you can kick back with some cool lemonade in even cooler air conditioning with a big ol’ batch of DVDs from RiffTrax. If you’re not familiar with RiffTrax, here’s the nutshell version – they’re downloadable Mystery Science Theater 3000-esque audio riffs of movies that you sync up to your DVD, with the comedy provided by MST3K alum Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, & Bill Corbett. Ah, but there’s a clutch of films now hitting stores (and available on RiffTrax.com) where you can buy the DVD with the RiffTrax commentary track included – no syncing, just easy comedy for those sweltering days. The RiffTrax edition films currently on offer are 
The first time I ever encountered a Lite Brite – you know, the light-bulb, black paper, and colored peg wonder of childhood – it was during play time in kindergarten. Like most kids, I was fascinated, and soon moved on from the structured pattern paper to just sticking the pegs in wherever the hell the whim dictated. Like most things nowadays, the Lite Brite has gone 3-D with 
Ever since seeing the original trailers long, long ago, I’ve been eager to lay my hands on the video game derived from one of my favorite childhood films, Ghostbusters. Well, after laying hands upon it (and then playing it), I found myself enjoying the experience of this video game iteration of 
However, if you’re a casual gamer, a fine game is the Nintendo Wii version of 
I continue to delight that Sony seems intent on finishing their chronological release of the Three Stooges shorts with the release of 
Erase memories of Michael Bay’s sound & the fury approach to your 80’s childhood by revisiting the original epic battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons with the new special edition of 
Producer Michael Bay does what he does best with his reimagining of 
The title of the album says it all – Spinal Tap is 
Season 3 & 4 have been available on Blu-Ray already, but fans can now backfill with the release of 
The laughs are more strained and are more often than not merely groans elicited by “they did what” moments, but fans are sure to snap up 
Although my interest was certainly piqued, I in no way expected to be as swept up as I became in HBO’s miniseries on the political life of our 2nd president, 
Commemorating the 25th anniversary of his death, 
Not quite as fun as the first season, the sophomore outing of 
We all saw it in school, but 
I think we’re just now starting to get the distance necessary to effectively dramatize the ground events of the Iraq War, and the first project that feels like it’s accomplished the task is HBO’s 
I think Disney may be trying to give us a hint that perhaps we should all venture outside and do something this summer, as they’ve dropped a trio of their aspirational sports flicks on Blu-Ray – Shia LaBeouf in 
On the heels of the DVD release of Michael Bay’s new Friday The 13th, Paramount drops another batch of special editions from the original “run”. First up is the standard def deluxe editions of 
The pilot itself was anticlimactic, but I can’t fault the score by Bear McGreary. You can give a listen to the score to