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…)
Bundled together for easier fan purchase (and because the boys claim that there will be no more) Flight Of The Conchords: The Complete Collection (HBO, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP) brings together the pre-existing 1st and 2nd season releases, with all of their bonus features intact, and adds the previously unreleased 30-minute One Night Stand performance that launched it all.
Oh, I’m a sucker for a novelty instrument. I really am. It’s sad, really… I simply have no control when presented with a unique, goofy musical instrument. So what’s the latest object of my affection? The Meldoyhorn ($29.99). Yes – It’s an air-powered keyboard. And it rocks.
If you would like a perfect example of how now to end a series – and don’t have your copy of Buffy: Season 7 handy – be sure to dive into the awkwardly uneven and completely unfulfilling 6th and final season of Lost (ABC Studios, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$79.99 SRP). If it wasn’t the stop-start meandering of the storyline (and the infuriatingly poorly written and last minute flashback episode – you know which one I mean), it was the laughable resolution. Sigh. Well, at least the high definition set looks and sounds great, and sports audio commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, bloopers, and a newly-produced short more interesting than anything found in the season, as Hurley & Ben shut down Dharma in “The New Man In Charge”. Just give me THAT show.
Starting with Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (Image, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$17.98 SRP), independent film in the UK during the early 1980’s was largely personified by Handmade Films, the film company cofounded by George Harrison and Dennis O’Brien. Now, in the digital age, a quartet of their classic catalogue titles are making their way to high definition. In addition to the aforementioned Time Bandits, we get Blu-Ray editions of Mona Lisa, The Long Good Friday, & Withnail and I (Image, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$17.98 SRP each).
I haven’t really taken in much of the new version of the franchise, but the single-disc release Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP) will certainly appeal to old school fans, as it features a cross-dimensional team-up of the modern Turtles with the much-beloved late-80’s animated versions.
I’m always fascinated by documentaries that illuminate a slice of history that’s been largely forgotten, and such is the case with Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (Docurama, Not Rated, DVD-$29.95 SRP), which looks at the life and career of radio & TV pioneer Gertrude Berg who, long before Lucy, created and starred in a very successful radio sitcom that made the transition to TV with equal success, but has been forgotten since. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, episodes of Berg’s sitcom The Goldbergs, Berg’s guest appearances on Edward R. Murrow and Ed Sullivan, additional scenes/interviews, and more.
It’s an indie comedy through and through, but at least $5 A Day (Image, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$29.98 SRP) features Christopher Walken as Nat, a con man and deadbeat dad with a terminal illness who hijacks his son for a cross-country journey to an experimental treatment, with only the titular amount of cash to get them there. Bonus features include interviews, trailers, and galleries.
Fill this weekend’s musical needs with a pair of new releases sure to keep the energy level high – The Dandy Warhols: The Capitol Years 1995-2007 (Capitol, $11.98 SRP) and a remastered edition of The Sex Pistols: The Great Rock ‘N’ Roll Swindle (Virgin, $19.98 SRP).
I guess someone, somewhere had a desire to abandon the Bruce Timm-Paul Dini Batmanverse and return the Dark Knight to his campy Silver Age period with Batman: The Brave and The Bold (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP), which gets a DVD release for the first half of its debut season. The 2-disc set contains 13 episodes, but zero bonus features.
A trio of History Channel series get season releases… But which ones are they? Well, there’s the complete second season of Pawn Stars (History Channel, Not Rated, DVD-$24.95 SRP), featuring 32 episodes plus additional footage. Then there’s the 3rd season of Ax Men (History Channel, Not Rated, DVD-$34.95 SRP), with featurettes and additional footage. Finally, there’s the 5th season of Gangland (History Channel, Not Rated, DVD-$34.95 SRP), which looks at 11 of the country’s most dangerous gangs.
With The Universe: Our Solar System (History Channel, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.95 SRP), viewers can go on a guided tour throughout our solar system and beyond, and is a beautiful primer for anyone – kid to adult – with a hankering to hunker down with some fascinating science.
The folks at the Warner Archive have dug up and remastered the Cary Grant drama None But The Lonely Heart (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$24.95), in which Grant actually plays a cockney and co-stars alongside Ethel Barrymore.
Nickelodeon wants to which everyone a very Happy Halloween (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP) with this single disc collection featuring 6 Halloween-themed episodes of their various series – everything from Dora The Explorer to Yo Gabba Gabba.
High schools over but the drama keeps rolling along in the 3rd season of Gossip Girl (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP). But that shouldn’t surprise you, right? I mean, it is a soap. And it’s still running. Hence – More drama. The 5-disc set contains all 22 episodes, plus featurettes, music videos, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.
We’ve taken a few weeks break, but my nephew and I are back building another LEGO project – and this time it’s Darth Vader’s Tie Fighter ($29.99), courtesy of the fine folks at Thinkgeek. This one proved to be significantly easier than the massive ship we built last time, although it still was filled with scads of little niggly pieces. But, at the end of it all, not only did we have Vader’s iconic Tie Fighter, but also LEGO Vader to boot.
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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There have been rather frothy retrospective celebrations of Sesame Street and Jim Henson in book form in the past, which were all well and good – as a child of the 70’s and a fan, I’m all for celebrating both. But it wasn’t until Michael Davis’s heavily-researched and completely candid 
If you’re like me (and you know, in your heart, you dearly want to be), then you have literally tons of old cassettes and records you’d like to import into your computer for use on various portable mixing devices. It’s often been a chore to hook up your cassette deck or turntable, particularly with the need for a pre-amp. Well, with the 
If there was any doubt that Shout! Factory would stick to an aggressive release campaign for new MST collections, let it be erased by 
It’s been years since the release of the first season, but the patient are finally rewarded with 
A landmark role for Peter Sellers and his last great film (sorry, Fu Manchu), 
Overlooked in the theater during its unfortunately timed (and marketed) Halloween release, hopefully 
Also getting a high definition release is Kevin Smith’s 
Long under the thumb of various occupying forces, Estonia spent much of the 20th century controlled by the Soviet Union. Despite all of these various oppressive occupiers, the Estonians were able to maintain their national identity through song – a story that’s told quite well in the documentary 
I’m still not entirely sure what the Martini Movies imprint is all about (though I know it has something to do with a game), but any excuse for a cable staple/guilty pleasure like 
It’s a little creaky here and there, but it was certainly a treat to watch the remastered edition of Douglas Trumball’s virtual reality flick 
Paramount has re-branded another clutch of titles under the “I Love The 80’s” banner – 
Harry Anderson continued to slum it in safe sitcom hell with the second season of 
Through Warners’ TCM imprint, those wanting an easy to pick up primer on some legendary flicks in their Greatest Classic Films Collection releases (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$27.98 SRP each). The 2-disc sets feature 4 films apiece, packed with bonus features including audio commentaries, featurettes, trailers, and more. The 
I’m not a fan of slasher flicks, but I’m sure fans will be delighted that the by-all-appearances naff remake has at least spurred Paramount to release new special editions of the first three – 
Explore the cinematic history of that awful day on the calendar and the hockey mask-wearing killer behind all the mayhem in the documentary 
Outside of House, you’d be hard pressed to find a more bad-tempered doctor than Ted Danson’s 
Things were stretching a bit thin by the time you get to the seventh season of 
Things had begun to get nice and developmentally awkward by the time the fourth and final season came along, so it was probably best that 
Talking dogs. In space. That is