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 took his arc in Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels to make Darth Maul an actual character rather than the cardboard villain of The Phantom Menace, and without that character work I wouldn’t have nowhere near as interested in the new 1/6-scale Darth Maul ($239.99). But I do have a newfound respect for ol’ Maul, and it’s fortuitous that it coincides with the release of what I consider to be one of Sideshow’s finest 1/6-scale figures, from the sculpt and paint ops to the tailoring of the outfit, he’s positively sublime. Kudos to the folks at Sideshow for a stellar effort.
There was a time when Disney’s in-house CG-animated future was looking downright bleak compared to Pixar (I’m looking at you, Chicken Little, but they’ve managed to find a modern voice and style and maturity in recent years, all culminating in Moana (Walt Disney, Rated PG, 3D Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP), a powerful tale that feels new even while trading on the we-trod tropes of Disney’s past. Bonus points for a great collection of tunes and a positively stunningly rendered world (see it in 3D). Bonus materials include featurettes, deleted scenes, a deleted song, and more.
Charlie McDonnell is brilliant. I’d say that even if he weren’t my friend. My proof? His new book, Fun Science (Quadrille, $22.95 SRP), in which he manages to distill and infuse his absolute joy in science into a tome that acts as a handy primer for life, the universe, and everything. Science is awesome, and Charlie presets scores of reasons why. Get this book, and gift it to everyone you know. Hell, gift it to people you don’t know.
That creator Derek Waters has crafted a series that smuggles genuine lessons in history into a comedy show full of drunk people is why I’m terribly impressed that we’ve made it to a 4th season of Drunk History (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD-$22.98 SRP), because surely such a positive work can not long persist in the this world. Bonus features include an election special plus deleted/extended scenes.
It’s ostensibly a canonical all-ages novel taking place in the post-Return Of The Jedi era of Star Wars, but the must-read fun of Star Wars: Join The Resistance (Disney Lucasfilm Press, $12.99 SRP) is that it’s written by the team of Acker & Blacker, of Thrilling Adventure Hour fame, and their wry sensibility and crackerjack story sense permeate would could otherwise be pedestrian juvenile fare.
Golly, but I sure did have a lot of the stickers collected in the Star Wars: Topps Classic Sticker Book (Abrams, $12.95 SRP) plastered on every nook and cranny of my existence while growing up. Which is probably why this book – which collects 250 vintage stickers (actual stickers!) plus newly-produced ones for The Force Awakens – is such an evocative journey down memory lane. And boy, were those tickers hard to remove.
Like me, I’m sure you’ve been spending nearly every waking moment playing through Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. If you want to take a brief break and solve a puzzle of a different kind, try assembling the beautiful stained glass image in the Zelda: Windwaker Puzzle (Thinkgeek, $10.99). And THEN you can go back to playing.
While we wait for the television adaptation of his modern mythology American Gods, revel in Neil Gaiman’s spin on Norse Mythology (W.W. Norton, $25.95 SRP), in which he distills the legendary tales of gods and men and presents those timeless raw elements in a supremely engaging form.
I don’t care what it is – a film starring Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleason? I’ll watch it. Trespass Against Us (Lionsgate, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$24.99 SRP) stars Fassbender as a reluctant criminal on the run from the law after a heist goes south, complicated by the fact that Gleason is Fassbender’s fearsome outlaw father-in-law.
Laika has a history of producing visually stunning stop-motion animated films, which is why devouring the behind-the-scenes tome from their latest – The Art Of Kubo And The Two Strings (Chronicle Books, $40 SRP) is such an utter treat. Chronicle knows how to put together a solid Art Of book, and this is a perfect entry in their ever-growing library.
The second volume of what I hope will be a continuing series, They Drew As They Pleased: The Hidden Art Of Disney’s Musical Years (Chronicle Books, $40 SRP) uncovers and presents dozens of pieces produced during the development process of Disney’s musical features in the 1940s by the studio’s concept artists. Truly beautiful and a marvelous insight into the creative process of a landmark period.
I daresay that the current – and soon to be ending – animated version of the heroes in a halfshell is the best. For proof, simply dive into the episodes contained in the latest collection from the show’s fourth season, Tales Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Super Shredder (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP) and experience a level of nuanced and mature storytelling and artistry that will be sorely missed when this show comes to a close next season.
As alternate history tales seem to be all the rage now, check out Resistance (Film Movement, Not Rated, DVD-$24.95 SRP), about an occupied Britain after D-Day was lost, and the inhabitants of a valley forced to collaborate with the occupying Germans when a harsh winter sets in.
I admit, I always enjoyed Vicki Lawrence’s Carol Burnett Show spin-off Mama’s Family when I used to watch it as a kid, and there’s no better primer than The Mama’s Family Favorites Collection (Time Life, Not Rated, DVD-$669.95 SRP), which brings together episodes from all 6 seasons, specially chosen by Lawrence.
It’s no surprise that they were able to craft a special volume of The Carol Burnett Show dedicated entirely to The Best Of Tim Conway (Time Life, Not Rated, DVD-$12.95 SRP) is of little surprise, as there is such a surfeit of material to choose from that it’s shocking there just a single disc. Now, here’s hoping we also get a “Best Of Harvey Korman” volume, as well.
Stressed? Want to color? Disney has a batch of new Art Of Coloring books, each featuring a 100 images, ready to calm you. The new batch features The Muppets, Tsum Tsum, the new live action Beauty And The Beast, and even The Golden Girls (Disney Editions, $15.99 SRP each).
For a kick ass lead character, look to Eve Thorogood in Wolf Creek (Lionsgate, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP), an American college student who decides to hunt down the serial killer who brutally murdered her family in the Australian outback. Bonus materials for the first season include a clutch of featurettes.
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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A half-century ago, film legend Vincent Price and his wife Mary released what they termed 
It’s brilliant that Abrams is genuinely committed to seeing that all 3 films will eventually get a book celebrating the iconic trading cards of our youth, as evidenced by the release of their second Star Wars volume, 
While it’s a bit of cognitive dissonance to see Jennifer Lawrence playing a middle-aged woman, she’s just such an ace performer that she carries 
As a prelude to giving her the legendary variety show that would cement her place in comedy history, CBS gave Carol Burnett a prime time special in 1966. Now you can watch the 
The thing that I love most about Thinkgeek is that so many of the products that they develop in-house fall into the category of “Well, that’s pretty nifty and I think I want one”. Case in point? Their 
Roger Corman’s low-budget cult classic ghost story 
It’s been 30 years since Maverick took the highway to the danger zone, so that means it’s the perfect time to release a brand new 30th anniversary edition of 
Spanning two decades of travels and containing a trio of specials, 
It’s been quite a few years since Michael Moore’s last documentary, but his latest, 
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Cut off from the world, the stranded residents of 
It’s a fair trick for a comedian to be able to bring his well-established stage persona to a sitcom and be able to build a viable show around it, but Jim Gaffigan manages to pull it off with the affable first season of 
One of the greatest Blaxploitation films of all time gets a truly wonderful high definition restoration with the release of 
The Criterion high definition mastering for David Lean’s powerfully moving adaptation of Noel Coward’s play about doomed romance, 
Betty White, Wendie Malick, Jane Leaves, & Valerie Bertinelli return for the 6th and final season of TV Land’s surprise hit 
Dakota Johnson doesn’t deserve the awfulness of 50 Shades Of Grey. If you’d like a much better vehicle for a charming actor, check out 
In order to prevent the destruction of the Earth, our heroes on the half shell journey into the farthest reaches of space in the 12 episodes found on 
Mash up Sons of Anarchy and Deliverance and you pretty much have the show 
If you’ve ever wondered about the ludicrously complex mechanisms that control how we remember, dive into the Nova special 
Olive Films continues to drop “thank goodness someone finally released them” catalogue titles in HD, with this month’s pair being Russell Crowe in 
Your toddler picks for this week are a pair of new Nickelodeon releases – 
Those catalogue mavens at Mill Creek have mined the vaults for another batch of reasonably-priced releases, including complete series sets of the shows 
It’s no Pixar production, but there’s more plenty of charm in 
It’s always a worry when Pixar revisits their past films for a sequel. Will this be the time it all falls apart and the bloom is finally off the rose? Happily, that’s not the case with 
Slowly but surely, Disney/Pixar has been revisiting their catalogue titles with snazzy new 3D versions, and the latest to get the treatment is the original 
Invite the legendary Carol Burnett over for the holidays via 
In the mood for a clever little romantic comedy? You know, the type perfected by the Brits? Then give a spin to 
The prehistoric beasties of the UK’s Primeval make their way to American shores in the US version 
Despite the unfortunate participation of Zack Snyder, I was pleasantly surprised by the documentary 
America’s favorite fat cat returns in 
I love how 
Are you a fan of rare archive films? And an Anglophile? If so, dig into the historical films collected in 
Every once in awhile, The History Channel puts out a few releases to remind people their programming used to be about more than garbage pickers and pawn shops. 
Considering it’s a Christopher Guest project in his improvisational style and it stars the eminently affable Chris O’Dowd, I had high hopes for 
Honestly, I can see why 
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The fine folks at Film Chest have released the first of their 
The fine folks at the Beeb present their own take on Hans Christian Andersen’s 
Though it’s sometimes been derided by comedy purists who claim it’s a corpse-heavy lowbrow sketch show, but I’ll openly declare those unfortunate souls snobbish fools, because The Carol Burnett Show is one of the best comedy sketch shows ever to hit the small screen. It may not have been as intellectually clever as Monty Python, but the writing was sharp, the comedy was funny, and the performers – Burnett, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, & Lyle Waggoner – were a dream ensemble. Most of all, though, you got the sense that the main cast, and all of the guest stars who would pop up over the years, were genuinely enjoying the experience of performing this comedy together for the audience there in the studio and at home. And the only way to experience it is via the long overdue 22-disc box set 
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Tick another one of the list of classic Disney films that haven’t made it to high definition, as the Mouse House polishes up the glass slipper and drops 
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If there’s anyone that could hold the title of 5th Beatle, it would be the man who gets his own remarkable documentary in 
And speaking of Beatles-related documentaries, the great thing about the documentary 
I’m a sucker for the band Queen and its dynamic frontman Freddie Mercury, and Rhys Thomas has produced a pair of brilliant docs that should be on your viewing list – 
Of all the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp teamings – and there have been some stinkers – my favorite by a mile, 
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Go inside HBO’s hit adaptation of George RR Martin’s epic Game Of Thrones with the lushly illustrated and info-packed 
Stephen Fry is brilliant as the titular country solicitor Peter Kingdom in 
Fans were left high and dry when only the first two seasons were released, but now you can get all 3 seasons of the beautifully odd 
It’s not the best of the Stephen King adaptations, but there’s still enough creepy quality to be had in 
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If you want to risk potential cute-blindness, take your chances and partake of the first season of 
It’s always nice to come across a documentary that illuminates a little slice of history that is both crucial and largely overlooked, and such is the case with 
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This week’s theatrical score pick brings 
Still as delightfully deadpan as ever, Demetri Martin returns with his second standup special 
After suffering many years in the crappy public domain release wilderness, you can now get a spiffy, official 2-volume set collection the entirety of 
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We’re yet another step closer to completing the seemingly-infinite run of Roy Clarke’s 
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