FRED Entertainment

Tag: back to the future

  • Weekend Shopping Guide 9/16/16: Captain Courageous

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    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…)

    While they’ve been concentrating on plenty of stellar releases featuring characters from the original trilogy, plus more Storm Troopers than you can shake a bushel of sticks at, Hot Toys has turned their sights back on Star Wars: The Force Awakens with a trio of figures that actually comprise only a pair of releases, as two of the figures are bundled in an exclusive two-pack. First up is a character that became legend for her visuals long before anyone saw the film, Captain Phasma (Sideshow/Hot Toys, $249.99). Despite whatever happened with her character in the film, the figure is an imposing realization of her instantly-iconic design, from the chrome armor to the mighty match of actress Gwendolyn Christie’s mighty height. Of course, what would Phasma be without her failed former cadet, FN-2187, who is available in the aforementioned two-pack of Finn and First Order Riot Control Stormtrooper (Sideshow/Hot Toys, $359.99). And really, how could you not get Finn, replete with lightsaber, together with his Stormtrooper sparring partner of the memorable exclamatory “TRAITOR!”, with his unique energized riot control club? That’s right, you simply must, or else be branded a fanboy TRAITOR!

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    Even if you’re louse at catching Pokemon, you can at least learn to sketch ’em all with the Pokémon How to Draw Kit (Thinkgeek, $16.99). Not only does it come with the how-to book with detailed instructions, but also the paper, pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpener to sketch with. It’s your all-in-one poke-sketching pokestop.

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    If Batman V Superman was the absolute nadir of this year’s superhero films, then the pinnacle is Captain America: Civil War (Walt Disney, Rated PG-13, 3D Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP), a film which managed to juggle a massive cast in a well-established cinematic universe without any of the participants seeming superfluous, in a story that cranks along. Oh, and Spider-Man. It gave us a right and proper Spider-Man. Did I mention Spider-Man? I probably should. Spider-Man. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes, a peek at Doctor Strange, a gag reel, and a making-of documentary.

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    The 5th volume of Fantagraphics’ brilliant Uncle Scrooge And Donald Duck: The Don Rosa Library (Fantagraphics, $29.99 SRP) brings to a conclusion his epic “Life And Times Of Scrooge McDuck” storyline in a suitably beautiful presentation, fully loaded with supporting materials and insights, plus a pair of stories that fit within Rosa’s output chronology, “Guardians Of The Lost Library” and “From Duckburg To Lillehammer”. The next volume can not come fast enough.

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    After years of being overlooked and underappreciated by the studio going all the way back to its unceremonious theatrical release, Warner Bros. has finally treated The Iron Giant (Warner Bros., Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$14.97 SRP) as the classic it is, releasing it for the first time in high definition, fully restored, including an alliterate expanded cut. It also includes an audio commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes, and a brand new documentary charting the journey of the film.

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    If you’re looking for a definitive document of the cultural phenomenon that is the Back To The Future trilogy, featuring interviews with Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, and more, look no further than Back In Time (MVD, Not Rated, DVD-$19.95 SRP), a great documentary that does just that.

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    Tilda Swinton is a rock star vacationing in the Mediterranean whose quiet vacation with her lover is disrupted by the arrival of a former flame (Ralph Fiennes) and his seductive daughter in the potboiler A Bigger Splash (Fox, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP). Seeing Swinton and Fiennes together onscreen is more than enough reason to give this a spin. Bonus materials include featurettes and the theatrical trailer.

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    Olive’s deep dive into the MGM catalogue brings up the high definition debut of Cecil B. DeMille’s thought-to-be-lost 1915 silent film The Captive (Olive, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.95 SRP), while their stroll through Paramount’s catacombs brings up the pre-Brady Bunch tale of a massive blended family, Yours, Mine And Ours (Olive, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.95 SRP), starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda as widowers who bring together their combined 18 kids.

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    If you’re watching the 13 specials featured within the 6-disc Thanks For The Memories: The Bob Hope Specials (Time Life, Not Rated, DVD-$59.95 SRP) looking to laugh, you’re going to find genuinely funny jokes and performances few and far between. No, the brilliance of this set is in their time capsule nature, capturing a bygone era of vaudeville relics and old school celebrity, spread across very much of their time spotlights. The best example of this is the painfully unfunny special Joys, which gathers together dozens of celebrities, from Don Knotts to Phil Silvers and Groucho Marx to Charo, for a whodunit that is somehow also a parody of recent hit Jaws, but really isn’t, but is instead a stunning collection of an entire generation’s worth of entertainers. In addition to the specials, the set also contains the gold documentary Shanks For The Memories.

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    I love jigsaw puzzles. I love The Legend Of Zelda. So, how could I not love Legend of Zelda 550pc Puzzles (Thinkgeek, $9.99), which combines both of those in a single box? The quartet of images currently available include Majora’s Mask, Link on horseback, and a pair of stained glass pictures from Windwaker.

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    The adult coloring book craze will one day consume all pop culture properties, which means you can now color your way through the Seven Kingdoms and beyond in the Game Of Thrones Coloring Book (Chronicle Books, $15.95 SRP). Be sure to crack out the white crayons, because winter is here.

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    Having grown up on that base, even seeing the name Quantico (ABC Studios, Not Rated, DVD-$29.99 SRP) piques my interest, and this series, about an FBI recruit framed for a terrorist attack who must try and clear her name while exposing the true traitor within their ranks, is a wild, engaging ride that delivers on that pique. Bonus materials include video commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, and outtakes.

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    For those curious about where to find deeper scholarship of every nook and cranny of comics history, the best place to turn is two the always unique output of Twomorrows Publishing. Case in point? Their latest tome is The MLJ Companion (Twomorrows, $34.95 SRP), which explores the complete history of the Archie Comics superheroes from the Golden Age up to the present day. Never heard of The Mighty Crusaders? Read on!

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    Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren in The Conjuring 2 (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.98 SRP), a genuinely scary sequel that finds them engaged with the malicious spirits of the Enfield Haunting, known as England’s Amityville. Bonus materials include featurettes and deleted scenes.

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    While a standalone version has been previously released, the legendary anniversary special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (Time Life, Not Rated, DVD-$79.95 SRP) has been expanded for a brand new collector’s box set that includes an extended version of the concert, over 14 hours of bonus materials across 3 additional discs beyond the original release, and a 48-page collector’s book. With reunions by the Miracles, Supremes, and Jackson 5 to host Richard Pryor, it remains an incredible evening.

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    The first Michael Bay-produced film was disappointing in myriad ways, but its sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows (Paramount, Rated PG-13, 3D Blu-Ray-$45.99 SRP) manages to eke out even more disappointment just by dint of being, well, boring. Well and truly so. Which is sad, because it manages to bring Bebop & Rocksteady in, and fix some of the first film’s Shredder problems. The turtles themselves still look like steroidal monstrosities, but nothing is unfixable, but it remains unfixed here. Bonus materials include featurettes and deleted scenes.

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    The folks at Mill Creek continue to make catalogue content available at ridiculously low prices, which means you can now get the first and second seasons of the beloved shows Coach (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.95 SRP) and Friday Night Lights (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP each) for far less than their original DVD releases.

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    This weekend, dive into a clutch of documentaries from the public broadcasting purveyors of premiere programming, PBS, with 9/11: Inside The Pentagon (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP), Nazi Mega Weapons: Season Three (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP), and Frontline: Policing The Police (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP).

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    I think we all knew it was inevitable that even the 80s direct-to-VHS filler from Vestron Video would eventually be seen through enough nostalgia that we’d get high definition releases of those titles (collector’s editions, even!), and the first batch includes the gore fests Chopping Mall and Blood Diner (Lionsgate, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.97 SRP each). Bonus features include audio commentaries, featurettes, and archival interviews and trailers.

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    It’s been many, many years since the death of the much-missed Palisades line of Muppets action figures. Just when fans feared we may never see its like again, the whatnots at Diamond Select made a rainbow connection and gifted us with a brand new line of Muppets Action Figures (Diamond Select, $23 SRP each). The scale is smaller than the Palisades line, but the massive size of those figures is part of what made the line untenable. So, here we get what should hopefully be a more sustainable run, which kicks off with Kermit (with Robin & Bean Bunny), Gonzo (with Camilla), Fozzie & Scooter, Beaker & Bunsen, Statler & Waldorf (with their elaborate theatre box), and Animal (with his drum kit). I can’t wait to see how deep this line will go.

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    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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  • Contest Round-Up: 2010-10-21

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    Welcome to our weekly round-up of featured giveaways here at FRED. Every week, we’ll present a new clutch of DVDs, books, and other cool stuff you can take a shot at winning. All you have to do is click on the graphics below to be taken to their respective contest pages. And good luck!

    In conjunction with Universal Home Video, we’re giving away five (5) copies of the BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY on Blu-Ray.

    In conjunction with Lorber Films, we’re giving away five (5) copies of WHO IS HARRY NILSSON (AND WHY IS EVERYBODY TALKIN’ ABOUT HIM) on DVD.

  • Win the BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY on Blu-Ray!

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    In conjunction with Universal Home Video, we’re giving away five (5) copies of the BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY on Blu-Ray.

    Contest ends at 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, November 10th.

    Enter the contest!
    Email:
    First name:
    Last name:
    Street Address:
    Address Line 2 (if needed):
    City:
    State/Province/Whatever:
    Zip Code/Postal Code:
    Country:
    Birth Month:
    Birth Day:
    Birth Year:

    Official Rules

    No member of FRED Entertainment or their immediate families may enter.

    No Purchase necessary to win.

    Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

    One entry per day, per person.

    All submitted entries must be received by 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, November 10th.

    The winner must allow 4-6 weeks after notification of win to receive the product.

  • Soapbox: DeLoreans To Hot Tubs

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    Time Travel Ain’t What It Used To Be

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    The original Back To The Future movie is celebrating it’s twenty fifth birthday this year. In 1985, the idea of using a flux capacitor inside a car as a time machine was a pretty radical one, especially given the fact that the DeLorean Motor Company went out of business three years prior to the release of the movie. Back To The Future quickly went on to be a smash hit movie and started to bring time travel from the realms of science fiction into a much more mainstream arena.

    Since then, we’ve seen a myriad of time travel shows and movies in which we’ve seen the past, the future and alternate version of the present day. Though the conceit of time travel itself isn’t by any means an original one, and it far predates the first Back To The Future movie, the means by which the time travel aspect of the story is performed can vary wildly.

    In the past twenty five years, we’ve seen time travel being achieved with DeLoreans, phone booths, wormholes, Stargates, alien spaceships, time displacement machinery, slingshot effects, a TARDIS, a TURDIS, remote controls, cryogenic freezing chambers and even a time travel-code printed on a rub on tattoo on Philip J. Fry’s butt. The latest addition to the stable of time travel devices is”¦..a hot tub time machine.

    I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that if a television show or movie is aimed at a wider, more mainstream audience, then the device used in the narrative to facilitate the time travel aspect of the story can be almost anything in sight. In The Butterfly Effect, simply reading a childhood story transported Ashton Kutcher’s character into his own past. In Click, Adam Sandler travels forward and back in his own life using a multimedia remote control. All that Eric Bana had in The Time Traveller’s Wife was an errant gene that caused him to travel though time. Neither diary pages nor remote controls have huge marketing potential for movie souvenirs or props, and the logistical difficulties associated with putting an errant gene into a glass display case are too huge to surmount.

    Hot tubs and DeLoreans are both capable of sending people through time, and both manage to do so in movies featuring Crispin Glover, but a replica of a hot tub will never sell well in a toy store or a comic shop. DeLorean replicas sell very well, and in fact they sell so well that it’s possible to buy a replica from any one of the three Back to The Future movies with packaging appropriate to each particular movie.

    In the late seventies and early eighties, after the release of Star Wars, it became very apparent very quickly that nerds like merchandise. A huge part of what makes sci-fi so popular is that it has great gadgets and gadgets lend themselves very well to time-travel. The Stargate, the TARDIS., the DeLorean are all vital parts of the narrative of their respective shows and movies. As well as being a tool to get the protagonists from one setting to another, they’re also characters in their own right.

    Movies like Hot Tub Time Machine aim for a broader, more mainstream audience and only use the time travel device as an instrument to set up the story or the next gag. Any effort, and all too often that effort is minimal, that goes into explaining the mechanics of time travel involved in the movie are there as a matter of necessity in order to make the story plausible or to bring the characters back to their own time and give the tale a nice emotional ending where everyone learns something about themselves only to find when they return home that their actions in the past have made their present-day lives infinitely better. Sometimes this is achieved simply by putting a wig on a character and throwing in some sight gags

    Generation X is the first generation that has had full time exposure to television and movies since birth. Generation X has had more disposable income, more free time and more access to technology than any generation that came before it. The whole generation has grown up surrounded by a million different stories and it’s meant that that generation has become savvy to story telling tropes. What used to be hard to grasp is now par for the course. Even characters like Gregory House can confidently tell us “luckily, it’s been well established that time is not a fixed construct” without fear of losing the understanding of the audience. Personal timelines and narrative timelines don’t have to run side by side. Characters from different points in their own timeline can be introduced for the first time more than once.

    Perhaps it’s fitting that the longest running Sci-Fi show in the world is using this plot device to great effect. A couple of years ago, the Doctor met a woman named River Song for the very first time. But in her own timeline, she had already met the Doctor in her past. Time travel stories make such things possible and easily acceptable, creating character dynamics that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Even Marty McFly had a similar experience when he met his good friend Doc Brown thirty years in the past, long before Doc Brown ever met Marty.

    Time travel movies and shows tell us that there’s an infinite amount of time, but we’ve learned from a life time of viewing that there isn’t an infinite amount of ideas. And in the end, time travel movies usually boil down to one of two types. Either they’re about using the timeline for personal gain, or the plot involves trying to restore or maintain the integrity of the timeline. Folks in mainstream movies who time travel in a hot tub give lip service to maintaining the integrity of the timeline but ultimately they’re out for themselves and end up doing whatever they feel is best for them. Soldiers and scientists who travel through Stargates in sci-fi movies with a narrower appeal work purely to restore the timeline to the way it should be. Back To The Future manages to be the ultimate crossover movie in that it mixes a very clear intent to restore the timeline with the unintended benefit of improving lives. Marty’s mission in the movie becomes clear very quickly; he has to restore future history to the way it originally unfolded and in attempting to do that, he manages to change the future slightly, and almost entirely for the better. His family was happier, healthier and Biff Tannen had been put in his place. Though environmentalist probably weren’t happy when Marty returned to 1985 only to find out that Twin Pines Mall had changed to Lone Pines Mall.

    It’s not unusual that nature sometimes has to suffer for science, but that may change. Just give it some time…

    –Simon Fitzgerald

  • Win the BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY on DVD!

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    In conjunction with Universal Home Video, we’re giving away five (5) sets of BACK TO THE FUTURE, BACK TO THE FUTURE II, and BACK TO THE FUTURE III on DVD.

    Contest ends at 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, March 11h.

    CLOSED! THANKS FOR ENTERING!

    Official Rules

    No member of Quick Stop Entertainment or their immediate families may enter.

    No Purchase necessary to win.

    Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

    One entry per day, per person.

    All submitted entries must be received by 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, March 11h.

    The winner must allow 4-6 weeks after notification of win to receive the product.