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…)
Hank & Dean fans rejoice! Not only has the second half of Venture Bros.: Season 4 (Adult Swim, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP) hit standard DVD, but the entirety of Venture Bros.: Season 4 (Adult Swim, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) is now available in lovely high definition. Both releases sport audio commentaries and deleted scenes courtesy of Astrobase Go. In other words, buy them both. Now.
I know the first time I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey, all my young mind wanted was a Monolith Action Figure ($12.99) that could mysteriously appear in the midst of my He-Man and Transformers figures. Well, it’s only a few decades later, but the fine folks at Thinkgeek have produced that unarticulated black block. Joy!
How beautiful are the folks at Criterion? Not only are they releasing a high definition version of Victor Schertzinger’s 1939 Technicolor adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado (Criterion, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.95 SRP), but they’ve coincided it with the release of Mike Leigh’s dramatized look at the conflict between Gilbert & Sullivan that led to the creation of the musical, Topsy-Turvy (Criterion, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$39.95 SRP). The Mikado features interviews, a 1926 silent film promoting a production of The Mikado, a deleted scene, and radio broadcasts. Topsy-Turvy sports an audio commentary, interviews, deleted scenes, featurettes, trailers, TV spots, and a 1992 short film written by & starring Jim Broadbent, directed by Mike Leigh.
I didn’t want to like Disney’s in-house (ie non-Pixar) CG animated flick Tangled (Walt Disney, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP), and in many ways, I didn’t, but it was frustrating in its combination of the good and the bad. First and foremost, I’m tired of Disney Princesses… Really, some variety to the stories they tell (and the marketing they push) would be nice. Still, the design and animation of the film was appealing, looking very much like a 3-Dimensional Disney cartoon. But then the film gets hobbled by some truly mediocre songs that prove how unique the great Howard Ashman was (Please, Disney, if the songs aren’t up to snuff, DON’T DO A MUSICAL). All in all, it’s an amiable film, but certainly not a classic. Bonus materials include deleted scenes, featurettes, and more.
Cartoon Network’s first CGI feature, Firebreather (Cartoon Network, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$28.99 SRP) – about a high school student who discovers he’s half monster – arrives on home video with a deleted scene, animatics, a 2D animation test, and a look at the visual development.
I admit, I used to watch Scarecrow & Mrs. King (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) and wonder when Bruce Boxleitner would finally go after Master Control. He never did. He just globe-trotted with Kate Jackson… and not even on a light cycle! The 5-disc second season set contains all 23 episodes.
Back in the early days of Nick At Nite, one of the shows in constant rotation was the long-running 50’s hit Dennis The Menace (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$29.93 SRP), starring Jay North as cartoonist Hank Ketcham’s well-meaning but troublesome boy (and the bane of next-door neighbor Mr. Wilson). Shout Factory has released the complete first season, containing all 32 episodes plus bonus interviews, original promos, and the Donna Reed Show episode guest-starring Dennis & Mr. Wilson.
With The Civil War (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$99.99 SRP), Ken Burns re-energized the documentary form by panning… panning… panning… And voiceovers. Lots and lots of voiceovers. It really was quite groundbreaking in its time, and was all the talk at my school at the time. Well, you can mark the 150th anniversary of the war with this new special edition, which sports remastered picture & sound, audio commentaries, additional interviews, biography cards, and maps.
Yes, I watched the live action/CG hybrid Yogi Bear (Warner Bros., Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP) and yes, I did feel so terribly dirty doing so… An affair made even more awkward by the fact that my young nephews seemed to dig its slapstick bastardization of a lovely character. They are our future. Fear them. Bonus materials include featurettes and a CG Road Runner & Coyote cartoon.
While many series have wrapped, we’re still in the middle (the second half of the second season, to be exact) of Vegas (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$36.98 SRP), which starred Robert Urich as the Sin City PI and heartthrob. The 3-disc set contains 11 episodes plus promos.
There have been plenty of TV and film adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s master detective, but the defining adaptation remains the film series starring Basil Rathbone, which have been fully restored and released in high definition via the 5-disc Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection (MPI, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$129.98 SRP), The set contains all 14 films, and is an absolute must-have.
Yes, I understand that Black Swan (Fox, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.95 SRP) is supposed to be a gripping psychological thriller with a lot of sexuality thrown in to the mix, but frankly, it bored me. To tears, even. Black, swan-y tears. Although I did like Mila Kunis in it. Bonus materials include a documentary and a trio of featurettes.
There was a time when the BBC was regularly cranking out adaptations of Alan Bennett’s plays, which have been brought together in the appropriately titled Alan Bennett Collection (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$54.98 SRP), featuring An Englishman Abroad, The Insurance Man, A Question Of Attribution, 102 Boulevard Haussmann, A Day Out, Sunset Across The Bay, Our Winnie, A Visit From Miss Prothero, A Woman Of No Importance, Dinner At Noon, and Portrait Or Bust.
When the original came on the scene, the slasher flick was in desperate need of a post-modern reinvention, and that’s exactly what Wes Craven & Kevin Williamson delivered with the first Scream (Lionsgate, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP), which debuts in high definition with an audio commentary, featurettes, a Q&A, and its two sequels, Scream 2 & Scream 3 (Lionsgate, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP each).
The third season left suave ad man Don Draper with a life that was going up in flames of his own making, which made for quite an interesting bit of fallout during the fourth season of Mad Men (Lionsgate, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$49.97 SRP). The 3-disc set contains all 13 episodes, plus audio commentaries and a quartet of historical featurettes.
There’s still no gloriously bloated epic from Hollywood’s golden age of excess more bloated, self-important, and epic than Cecil B. DeMille’s ham-fisted Ten Commandments (Paramount, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP), starring Charlton Heston as Moses. The film looks even more impressive in high definition, which also features an audio commentary, a newsreel of the film’s New York premiere, and a clutch of theatrical trailers.
MGM has been opening up their vaults and releasing a whole slew of catalogue titles in high definition, and it’s a mixed bag of classics and… err… not-so-classics, to be sure. On the must have side, you’ve got the Don Bluth classic The Secret Of Nimh (MGM, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP), which is balanced by the less-classic Bluth film All Dogs Go To Heaven (MGM, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP). See what I mean? Also included in this release wave are the original Teen Wolf (MGM, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP), Legally Blonde 2 (MGM, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP), The Greatest Story Ever Told (MGM, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP), Material Girls (MGM, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP), and Picture This (MGM, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP).
I do believe that Hanna-Barbera in the 70’s was a company where every hare-brained idea imaginable made it on to the networks, even if it was a single season – and, thanks to the Warner Archive, we get to see amazing awfulness like Valley Of The Dinosaurs (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$29.95) again.
I assumed it would be heard to capture the character of New Orleans, particularly post-Katrina, with any real justice, but Treme (HBO, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$79.98 SRP) has managed to do so, with the added bonus of a remarkable cast (hello, John Goodman!) and an even tighter soundtrack. The 1st season set contains audio commentaries, featurettes, and even commentaries on the musical performances.
I had high hopes when I saw IMAX: Hubble (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$27.98 SRP) last year, and I admit I walked away a bit disappointed. I wanted nothing more than spectacular 3-D imagery of the astronauts in space – and the film highlights NASA’s mission to service and prolong the life of the aging telescope – but that kind of imagery is short-shrifted in favor of a slightly more esoteric look at the types of phenomena Hubble observes, most of it rendered via CG in the film. Regardless, why we’re only getting a 2-D, standard definition release of this, I can’t quite fathom.
There’s something inherently (and appropriately) engaging about the documentary The Genius Of Design (Acorn, Not Rated, DVD-$49.99 SRP), which examines the art and science of design, as well as the designers behind the art.
Even 40 years later, TV producers are still trying to create a new version of The Monkees. It’s just a shame that shows like Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$19.99 SRP) forget that what made The Monkees work was that they were smart enough to hire the best songwriters in the business to write music for the group – And the group turned out to be talented songwriters themselves. The monotonous sonic wallpaper of Rush just makes the whole affair a painful watch. The 2-disc set contains 11 episodes plus a photo gallery.
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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