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…)
I could do without the touch of religious nonsense and the completely nonsensical science of it all, but even on the significantly smaller home screen 3D experience, Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, 3D Blu-Ray-$44.95 SRP) still packs a powerful visual punch. At a taut 90 minutes, it never overstays its welcome. Bonus materials include over 3 hours of bonus materials chronicling the film’s evolution, special effects, and experience for the actors.
A few years back, Sideshow Collectibles releases a 1/6-scale Darth Vader from A New Hope that many assumed to be definitive, as it was quite a beautiful piece. Not content to rest on their laurels, however, those madcap mavens at Sideshow have revisited the dark lord of the Sith with a brand new figure that manages to not only trump, but blow the previous one out of the water. The new Darth Vader Sixth Scale Figure ($249.99), based on his appearance in Return Of The Jedi, is a truly exquisite representation, from the perfect scale tailoring of his outfit to his outsize proportions (he’s a tall bugger). The figure also sports working LEDs on his breast plate.. In addition to numerous hands hand both his lit and unlit lightsaber, he comes with a swappable post-elder-Anakin reveal head and a light-up base. Oh, and to put the cherry on the cake, there’s a separate light-up display featuring his unhelmeted head with a separate helmet piece, evoking the mediation chamber scene from Empire Strikes Back.
While I enjoyed the first Thor film, I thought it was a lot of potential greatness that didn’t quite gel into an optimum piece, but certainly laid plenty of groundwork. Thor: The Dark World (Marvel, Not Rated, 3D Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) picks up the ball and moves it further down the field, hitting a lot of perfect notes, but still falls just short of being a truly great film. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still a very fun action flick with strong characters and set pieces, but it could have used a much stronger presence from its villain Malekith The Dark Elf (a criminally underused Christopher Eccleston) more in lines with Walt Simonson’s introduction of the character in his comic book run. There are plenty of behind-the-scenes featurettes and a gag reel to be found amongst the bonus features, but the true highlight is the 70s exploitation-tinged short “Hail To The King”, which picks up the post-Iron Man 3 story of incarcerated actor-cum-Mandarin Trevor Slattery. Heck, get the movie just for the short – it’s that good.
Quietly brilliant, Nebraska (Paramount, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) is one of those small films with big characters that tend to stick in your mind even as you’re watching it. Best just to watch this elegiac tale of a son (Will Forte) making a heartfelt if seemingly misguided journey with his aging father (Bruce Dern) for yourself. Bonus materials include a making-of featurette.
Take a psychedelic, mathematical trip with Finn and Jake in the high definition arrival of Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season (Cartoon Network, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$32.07 SRP), containing all 26 episodes. And because bonus features are where it’s at, you get audio commentaries on every episode, an interview with creator Pendleton Ward, and even an alternate show intro.
Long a charitable institution in the UK, The Secret Policeman’s Ball – USA (Eagle Vision, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP) brings the star-studded festivities to New York City for en evening in support of Amnesty International. The bill included a heady mix of comedy and music, with Jon Stewart, Eddie Izzard, Russell Brand, John Oliver, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, and many more. In addition to the film itself, bonus materials include backstage interviews.
The truth of the story may be in doubt, but the adapted true story of Captain Phillips (Sony, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$40.99 SRP) certainly makes for a gripping drama, propelled by a taut performance from not only Tom Hanks, but also the debut performances of the actors portraying the Somali pirates who hijack the cargo ship of Hanks’s titular captain. Bonus materials include an audio commentary and making-of featurettes.
If you’re a fan of obscure and much-desired TV shows that economics have forced to be stranded in the vaults of various studios, then you definitely should be aware of what the fine folks at the Warner Archive have been doing for the past few years. They’ve been making those shows available on an MOD (Manufacture On Demand) basis that means fans have the option to get that which they covet, freed from the vaults. Case in point is the near-complete run of the series The FBI, which is like the Federal version of Dragnet, drawing from actual case files to craft stories around. Currently available are The First Season: Part One, The First Season: Part Two, The Second Season: Part One, and The Second Season: Part Two (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$39.95 each). Ah, but then – lucky! – they changed over to traditionally manufactured discs for The Third Season: Part One, The Third Season: Part Two (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$29.95 each), The Complete Fourth Season, The Complete Fifth Season, The Complete Sixth Season, and The Complete Seventh Season (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$49.95 each). All that’s left is the sure-to-be-forthcoming releases of the final two seasons, and you’ve got the whole cult shebang.
Ah, but as we saw with the latter part of The FBI, they don’t only do MOD for their cult titles. With the Dr. Kildare: Season One and Season Two (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$49.95 each), they’ve gone with regularly manufactured discs. They’ve also done the same with the legendary series Maverick, starring James Garner, of which Season 3 and Season 4 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$39.95 each) are available. Or how about the old west drifter with a heart of gold and thirst for sarsaparilla in Sugarfoot, of which you can get Season 1 and Season 2 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$ each). If that weren’t enough, there’s even the obscure but worth a gander of the long-forgotten Sci-Fi flavored mystery series Search (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$49.95), starring Hugh O’Brian, Tony Franciosa, and the great Doug McClure.
And last but not least, in a most welcome move, the Warner Archive has begun offering high definition Blu-Ray releases of their animated series. While we aren’t getting the likes of Batman: The Animated Series or Batman Beyond in the format yet, we are getting the more recent complete first season of Batman: The Brave And The Bold (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.95) and Batman: Shadows Of Gotham – Season One Part One (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.95). Hopefully this is a trend that eventually leads to those aforementioned catalogue series.
But Warners isn’t the only studio mining their vaults for cinema fans. Fox has their MOD 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives, and they’ve just dropped 12 new titles. Now available are John Barrymore in The Great Profile, Jeffrey Hunter & Robert Wagner in In Love And War, Dale Robertson & Jeanne Crain in City Of Bad Men, Glenn Ford in Follow The Sun, Betty Grable in Mother Wore Tights, Jack Haley in Danger – Love At Work, James Mason in 5 Fingers, Otto Preminger & Milton Berle in Margin For Error, Walter Brennan in Home In Indiana, Gloria Stuart in Island In The Sky, Dan Dailey in The Pride Of St. Louis, and Victor Mature in The Glory Brigade (Fox, Not Rated, MOD DVD-$19.98 SRP each).
Some truly beautiful design work goes into modern videogames, which is more than evident by the conceptual artwork that packs The Art Of Titanfall (Titan Books, $34.95 SRP), which delves into the design process of Respawn Entertainment’s juggernaut of a game. If you’re a fan of the game, or just keen to see some stunning work, give it a gander.
Best to ignore Zack Snyder’s gaudy film and its even gaudier sequel, and instead pick up the beautiful high definition debut of the original tale of Spartan heroics, The 300 Spartans (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP). Bonus materials include TV spots and the original theatrical trailer.
And for one last nail in the coffin of Snyder’s folly, find out the real history behind the Spartan’s sacrifice in The History Channel’s Last Stand Of The 300 And Other Famous Greek Battles (History Channel, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP), which brings together 6 documentaries on the battles of antiquity.
No matter how outrageous the first season of Legit (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) gets, it still manages to find a nugget of genuine emotion in the oddball relationship between Jim Jefferies’s edgy stand-up comic struggling to make his career “legit” in mainstream LA and his neurotic roommate Steve and Steve’s disabled brother Billy (the great DJ Qualls). Bonus materials include audio commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and a gag reel.
Disappointed in how own son, the proprietor of a prestigious family vineyard finds a much better heir in the son of his dying estate manager in the French psychological thriller You Will Be My Son (Cohen Media Group, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$34.98 SRP). Bonus materials include an interview, deleted scenes, and the theatrical trailer.
And howzabout a new soundtrack round-up for this week? Certainly! You’ve got Tony Morales’s score for Enemies Closer (Lakeshore, $9.99 SRP), Craig Richey’s Girl On A Bicycle (Lakeshore, $ SRP), John Ottman’s Non-Stop (Varese Sarabande, $16.98 SRP), and Michael John Mollo’s score to the game Strider (Capcom, $14.99 on PSN/Xbox Live/Steam).
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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I’ve spoken to a few of his contemporaries in the past, and all of them described the drive and determination related in 
Perfect for the dorm, office, or when you need some extra food and drink space during a party, the 
I think a combination of political burnout and Michael Moore burnout led to Moore’s 
It’s a knife edge when a film decides to present a character whose situation is so bleak that the audience could be sucked down the same well of despair, but 
I’ve seen dozens of them by now, but I’m such a sucker for documentaries about The Beatles, even if that documentary is about the crafting of Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles collaboration, Love, in 
Remember when you could make a filthy rich oil man a crime-solving TV hero? If you doubt such a show ever existed, look no further than 
Cast Bruce Boxleitner as an undercover spy who circumstances team up with a somewhat ditsy suburban Washington housewife, and you’ve got a show that still stands up as a pretty fun little romp – 
It was pretty much ignored in the theaters, but there’s a lot of fun to be had in the animated 
Sibling rivalries, iron fists, and a cinematic dynasty are explored in the fascinating portrait 
Fans of Greek! I know you’re out there, because 
It’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned Warners’ wonderful on-demand DVD service, The Warner Archive Collection, but I’ll do so now with a pair of newly-available titles, first and foremost of which is a release of all 24 theatrical shorts comprising the 
Rediscover a lost piece of comedy history – and a groundbreaking female comedian – with 
Remember Wild Hogs? The middling, middle-aged empowerment road comedy with John Travolta & Tim Allen, amongst others? Well, Travolta’s back in what feels like the exact same film, 
A comedy about professional plagiarism and revenge gone decidedly offbeat, 
I think, by the time you get to the fourth season of 
It’s a classic veteran cop saddled with a young partner scenario in the UK’s 
Miss Conan and want to make up old Late Night bits on your own? You can do just that by laughing along with the complete 7th season of 
I’ve known of Russell Brand – his stand-up and celebrity in the UK – for years, so it was with great delight that I greeted his first US stand-up special, which is now available on DVD in an expanded form. 
As someone who’s stressed himself inordinately trying to reach around corners and through tiny crevices to get to unreachable screws – wither putting them in or taking them out – the 
While Cars, Ratatouille, and Wall-E have all been available on Blu-Ray, 
For all of the drama that surrounded its filming and reception, 
Oh, 
Another pair of classic Bond flicks make their way into spiffy high-definition with the release of both the Moore-era 
Paramount’s prestige Centennial Collection continues with another pair of 2-disc, fully restored special editions – 
Warner Bros. has an immense catalogue of titles. Thousands and thousands of them. And even with their aggressive DVD release schedule, there’s no way they can get to all of them – and, economically, some of the titles have such a small appeal that it’s just not viable to do a wide release on them. Those who thought their chances of picking up some of those obscure titles were nil can rejoice in the continuation of Warner’s Archive Collection – www.warnerarchive.com. Essentially, it’s DVDs on demand, allowing you to purchase either a physical DVD-R copy (for a flat $19.95) or an instantly downloadable digital copy (for $14.95) of an ever-increasingly library of titles from the Warner vaults. I’ve had a chance to look at a pair of new additions – Sidney Lumet’s 
You know how, every once in awhile, you want a simple comedy whose only goal is to give you a chuckle and a smile? 
Paramount kicks out another clutch of brand-new-to-Blu-Ray catalogue titles, leaving other studios in the dust after a slow start (backing HD-DVD). With some very nice high definition transfers and bonus features identical to their standard edition cousins, the new titles are 
Neither rain, nor sleet, nor diversions ordered by a court of law would keep Jack Bauer from eventually getting 
A legendary album gets a fantastic live performance in 
Fox has dropped a pair of catalogue transfers to high definition, bringing both 
Almost 300 years after his reign of terror ended with his capture and beheading, a group of marine archeologists have recovered the remains of Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, in 
Ridiculously over-the-top, 
I don’t know about you, but any movie with a title like 
Anyone familiar with Mystery Science Theater 3000 will remember with glee the cringe-inducing Hercules Against The Moon Men. Well, now you can get that flick – plus 4 other muscle-y kitsch classics – in the 
Schwarzenegger fans hoping to pass the weekend on the cheap should pick up the 
I’m sure the makers of 
If Twilight seemed too tween for you and the Buffyverse was too nerd – and you like your soap drama – then HBO’s 
It’s difficult to sell the 3-D gimmick with the limitations of home theaters, when you’re stuck using rinky-dink red-green glasses. That’s what makes seeing 
It’s not only the picture frame that’s expanded in the third season of 
OK, there is something blatantly geeky about keeping your change in a bank that’s also an exact replica of the 
Much like Freaks & Geeks and Arrested Development before it, another brilliant but short-lived series comes to DVD, where it will hopefully be discovered by those who didn’t get to experience it during its first go-round. So what series am I celebrating this time? 
For years now, I’ve been reiterating that you should buy, post-haste, the comedic sci-fi novels of Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder. Every one so far has been the delightfully quirky literary equivalent of a fine gem, and the greatness keeps on coming with his latest tale of slow-witted detective Frank Burly, 
As much as I love RiffTrax, it’s with Cinematic Titanic that I feel like I’ve come home to the Mystery Science Theater experience that I fell in love with lo’ those many years ago. Awful movie? Check. Brilliantly, hilariously eviscerating comedy at said film’s expense? Check. An endearingly goofy conceit prompting the experience? Check. The folks behind MST? Check. So what’s their latest target? A cheesy vampire flick called 
For years it’s been available in a sub-par 4×3 version, but finally the first (and best) Sesame Street feature film gets so much-deserved respect with the newly-remastered, widescreen edition of 
When a comedian decides – at the age of 32 – to write his autobiography, it’s understandable to be a bit wary. But when that comedian is Russell Brand – and the tome deals in large part with his years of heroin and sex addiction – my curiosity is piqued. The book itself – whimsically titled 
Picking up where Casino Royale left off, 
What many people consider to be the worst Bond film – even though it’s technically not in the Bond canon proper – is Sean Connery’s last turn, 
Add another must-have title to the list of those that have finally made it to Blu-Ray with the arrival of 
Letterman, Leno, Conan, and Kimmel may get all of the attention, but the brilliant dark horse of late night TV is Craig Ferguson. Most don’t know that the lost of The Late Late Show was also a stand-up, but you can easily rectify that lack of knowledge by picking up his brand new stand-up DVD, 
Knowing its tortured production history, I had pretty low expectations for the Disney (non-Pixar) CG animated film 
While most catalogue high-def releases have focused on comedies and action flicks, the drama side of things gets serviced with a trio of new releases to Blu-Ray – 
If you walked out of Watchmen wanting to recreate the aural experience, there’s a pair of discs that fit the bill. For the songs featured in the flick, you’ll want 
Of the more recent crop of Disney animated flicks, one of the few I’d say is a classic on par with their golden age is 
It was occasionally a bit rocky, but I wound up enjoying 
Filmed in 1993, Rod Stewart’s stint on Unplugged was a rousing, rollicking jaunt through his back catalogue, with Ronnie Wood by his side. The CD has been re-released with a pair of bonus tracks as 
I’m delighted that Paramount has decided to stick with their remastered, 2-disc special editions they’ve branded as the “Centennial Collection”. The latest releases are Alfred Hitchcock’s 
I am not a teenage girl or an emotionally needy woman, so the 
Many nerds noted the absence of the comic book story 
If you want a bit of the great outdoors this weekend, you might want to check out a pair of new releases from Animal Planet. 
Originally available as an exclusive pack in with Kung Fu Panda, the animated follow-up 
See just how fun, frolicsome, and positively risqué pre-Code Tinseltown was in the 
I’m not a terribly big fan, so the less I say about the CG animated Star Wars series the better. Suffice it to say, the first episode collection, 
