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’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 East Meets Watts (Cinema Titan, Not Rated, DVD-$14.99). Not only is the riffing tight, but this is also the first Cinematic Titanic Live release, which was recorded in front of a live audience. And it works a charm. Now let’s speed up those releases, guys!
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 Ultrasharp Ceramic Knives ($74.99). The blade is sharp – really sharp – and it never dulls. How sweet is that? And not only do you get the blade – you also get a ceramic bladed peeler… You know, for peeling stuff. Stuff! Peeled!
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, Gremlins (Warner Bros., Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$28.99 SRP). In fact, it was this – along with Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom (interestingly enough, both Amblin pics) that helped usher in the PG-13 rating. Now in full high-definition, bonus features include a pair of audio commentaries, a making-of featurette, additional scenes, a gallery, and trailers.
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 – The Hell Of It All (Guardian Books/Faber & Faber, £12.99 SRP) and read for yourself.
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 The Complete Peanuts: 1973 to 1974 (Fantagraphics, $28.99 SRP), and cast our vote for Sack. He’s the greatest. Now bring on the next volume!
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 – Popeye: Plunder Island (Fantagraphics, $29.99 SRP) – has as its centerpiece the titular adventure, presented for the first time in full color, completely uncut.
It’s refreshing to upend the traditional romantic comedy formula and look at how unpredictable love can actually be with 500 Days Of Summer (Fox, Rated PG-13, DVD-$29.98 SRP), which brings together Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel as the awkward pair. Bonus materials include an audio commentary and deleted/extended scenes. A Blu-Ray edition ($39.99 SRP) is also available with additional featurettes, interview, audition tapes, and more.
While Office Space has become an instant classic and even the marginalized Idiocracy has become a cult flick, Mike Judges latest, Extract (Miramax, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP), is a bit scattershot. While the ensemble is top notch – Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristin Wiig, and Ben Affleck – the story, about the sale of a small-town flavor extract company that begins to fall apart around the owner (Bateman), doesn’t ever really gel. Which is a shame, because all of the ingredients are there. Bonus materials include a featurette and deleted/extended scenes.
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 Glee: Season 1 Volume 1 (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP). The 4-disc box set contains 13 episodes, plus audition pieces, featurettes, a casting session, and more. Yes, you know you want this set. You know you’re a fan. ADMIT IT.
Catch up on your TV viewing over the holiday break with both the 3rd and final season of the sci-fi show Kyle XY (ABC Studios, Not Rated, DVD-$39.99 SRP) and the 3rd season of The Secret Life Of The American Teenager (ABC Studios, Not Rated, DVD-$39.99 SRP). Kyle XY features audio commentaries, a featurette, and deleted scenes, while Teenager gets the pilot episode and a Q&A.
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 Jennifer’s Body (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) is a goofy little bit of teenage horror that brought fond memories of the equally B The Faculty. Give it a spin at home. Bonus features include audio commentaries, deleted scenes, video diaries, featurettes, and more.
Check another series off your running list, as we’ve come to the release of the 7th and final season of Mission: Impossible (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$49.99 SRP). Will Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) finally encounter an impossible mission? Or we he wind up doing links on A&E in just a few short years? Watch the 22 episodes in this set regardless of the answer.
Oh, what I wouldn’t do to put a bullet through the sadly long-lived American Pie franchise, which has now moved into American Pie Presents The Book Of Love (Universal, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$36.98 SRP), if only to free Eugene Levy from whatever cursed existence binds him to these flicks. Bonus features include featurettes, trivia, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.
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 Chuck: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP), knowing that it’s not the last. Also? 3-D episode! Bonus features include a bevy of featurettes, webisodes, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.
It’s the second volume of The Fugitive‘s third season (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP), and we’ve reached the point where Dr. Richard Kimble discovers the identity of the elusive one-armed man, just as pursuer Lt. Phillip Gerard decides to employ… A COMPUTER!… to track the good doctor down. The 4-disc set contains 15 episodes.
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 Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Dark Side (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$22.98 SRP). Bonus features include an audio commentary, fact-ups, a featurette, and a sneak peek at a table read. A Blu-Ray edition ($29.99 SRP) is also available, with identical bonus features.
Go all the way back to the days of Wendy, Marvin, & Wonder Dog with the first volume from the premiere season of the original Super Friends! (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$26.98 SRP). Journey back via this 2-disc set featuring 8 episodes plus a newly produced super fan workout, the “Super Friends Trivia Challenge”.
I remember when The Green Mile (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$34.99 SRP) was originally released on VHS, in a bulky 2-tape set during the last gasp of that format before DVDs came on the scene. Even the original DVD release suffered from the film’s length, with a featureless release. Well, now that it’s come to Blu-Ray, it’s all on one disc, which also contains an audio commentary, a documentary, additional scenes, make-up tests, a look at the teaser trailer, Michael Clarke Duncan’s screen test, and more. How’s the for progress?
I’d like to say that Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs: The Totally Warped Animated Adventures (MGM/UA, Not Rated, DVD-$19.99 SRP) is a glorious disaster, but it’s not. It’s just a sad, poorly written series that sullies the memory of Brooks’ 80’s guilty pleasure. Unfortunate.
Christmas is dead and buried, so that means we start getting releases like a special edition of Winnie The Pooh: A Valentine For You (Walt Disney, Not Rated, DVD-$29.99 SRP) which, as you can imagine, is the 2/14 themed outing for that willy nilly silly old bear. As far as bonus features go, it’s pretty much just an episode from The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh.
It’s all hit the fan in the third season of Big Love (HBO, Not Rated, DVD-$59.99 SRP), as Bill Henrickson’s carefully constructed family and business ventures begin to erode from pressures outside and in. The 4-disc set contains all 10 episodes, plus a trio of mini-dramas and four direct-to-camera videos from Bill and his three wives.
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 Melrose Place: The Fifth Season Volume 2 (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$36.99 SRP). The 3-disc set contains 13 episodes, but zero bonus features.
It’s not good cinema, but the flicks contained in Roger Corman’s Best Of The B’s Collection 1 (Infinity, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP) certainly are memorably bad. This 4-disc pack contains seven remastered Corman films starring the likes of Gary Busey, Jack Nicholson, Scott Glenn – Naked Angels, Bury Me An Angel, The Fast And The Furious, The T-Bird Gang, The Wild Ride, The Winner, and Angels Hard As They Come.
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 The Green Berets (Warner Bros., Rated G, Blu-Ray-$28.99 SRP), starring John Wayne in the first feature to focus on the Vietnam War. Bonus materials include a vintage featurette and the original theatrical trailer.
It doesn’t happen often enough, but Taxi (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) managed, with its fifth & final season, to go out on a strong note without anyone feeling that the show overstayed its welcome. The cracks were showing, granted – and Any Kaufman’s off-camera behavior was causing some issues on set – but it remains one of those timeless, character-based sitcoms that are just as funny today as it was over 25 years ago. The 3-disc set also contains episode and series promos.
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 Doctor Who: The Keys Of Marinus and the Colin Baker era The Twin Dilemma (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP each). Both discs are packed with bonus materials, including featurettes, audio commentaries, galleries, and more.
It’s not for your younger kiddies, but there’s enough inventiveness and beauty of execution to make 9 (Universal, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$39.98 SRP) a film worth showing to kids. It’s post-apocalyptic world and ragtag band of decidedly non-traditional survivors are that special kind of inspiration that will spark a child’s imagination. Bonus materials include the original 11-minute short, an audio commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, and more.
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 The Final Destination In 3-D (New Line, Rated R, DVD-$28.98 SRP). You pretty much know the deal by now – it’s a pissy Death getting all postal on some young schlubs. Bonus features are limited to some additional scenes. A Blu-Ray edition ($35.99 SRP) is also available, which adds a pair of alternate endings, a pair of featurettes, and a look at the atrocious-looking new Nightmare On Elm Street.
You can feel the end coming on as the 9th season of 7th Heaven (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$49.99 SRP) rolls along, as members of the Camden clan come and go, many no more than glorified recurring characters or cameos. The 5-disc set contains all 22 episodes.
Since getting the Disney license, the fine folks at Electric Tiki (distributed by the fine folks at Sideshow Collectibles) have been making some unique choices for their statue line. First there was Darkwing Duck, then Jessica Rabbit in an unused costume from one of the Roger Rabbit shorts, then the Rescue Rangers. Most unique, though, and welcome is Alice In Wonderland & The White Rabbit ($124.99), done in the style of Disney designer Mary Blair (perhaps most famous for designing the It’s A Small World attraction).
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
##
The Oscar and Emmy winning screenwriter of the film, Diablo Cody, is the new Tarantino, a screenwriter poised to take over the town and inspire a clutch of fanatic followers. She has a column in Entertainment Weekly and a Showtime TV show and also helped produced Jennifer’s Body. But though she has the image of a tattooed hard drinking rebel there is a conservative steak to her work. The EW column thus far has been a self-glorifying journey through the nostalgia of her childhood interests, and the career making Juno was at heart a conservative vision of maternity. On the other hand, no major motion picture or TV series these days can endorse abortion. The dominant culture somehow demands that decry abortion, probably for fear of a backlash. As Nabokov said in an afterword to Lolita, no American work of fiction will ever concern itself with happy incest, an atheist who dies contented in his sleep, or a fruitful interracial marriage. He could have added to the list a tale about a successful, problem-clearing, and life-saving abortion (though Third Watch tried at the start of its second season).
