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’ve been waiting a fair while for it to make its way on to Blu-Ray, if only to see if the many previous DVD restorations could be improved on. I’m happy to say that the new high definition transfer of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (Universal, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$26.98 SRP) looks and sounds wonderful, and should delight fans. Bonus features are nothing to shake a stick at, either, porting over the making-of featurettes, newsreel footage, scene analyses, audio commentary, and photos of the last special edition. More Hitchcock, please. Fast.
If you want a stylus that keeps your smartphone or tablet clean as you touch, touch, touch away, then give a spin to the iClooly Multitouch Pen ($9.99), which features a brush at the end. That’s right – no more need for greasy fingers, with the added benefit of accuracy.
Too often, travel journalism tends to see the forest and not the trees, which is why I so thoroughly enjoyed Dom Joly’s The Dark Journalist: Sightseeing In The World’s Most Unlikely Holiday Destinations (Simon & Schuster, £12.99 SRP), because he makes it feel like we’re right there with him – including all of the simple little eccentricities that we all experience on a trip – even though his journeys take him to the likes of Iran, North Korea, Beirut, and, yes, even America. Oh, and he brings true humor to his observations, which is a welcome respite from dour-faced travelogues. Just get this book.
It wasn’t exactly filmed with the highest budget, but the improved picture quality and sound mix brought to the high definition Rocky Horror Picture Show (Fox, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$34.98 SRP) are an exceptional improvement, even if the extras are not terribly impressive – and still don’t include VH1’s excellent documentaries from years past. Still, fans will be snapping this up regardless, and will probably enjoy the new Shadowcast picture-in-picture feature.
I’m a relatively young guy… relatively… But watching a 20-year-old like Bo Burham makes me equal parts impressed and bitterly jealous at just how powerfully creative he is at such a young age. I’m kind of pissed off about it, actually. Watch his latest Comedy Central special, Words Words Words (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), and I’m sure you’ll be just as impressed and pissed off as I am. Be sure to pick up the companion Words Words Words CD (Comedy Central Records, $12.98 SRP) as well. And then just sit and stew. And laugh. And then stew some more. And feel old. So very, very old.
It doesn’t hold a candle to The Six Million Dollar Man, but fans can now pick up the first season of spin-off series The Bionic Woman (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP), in which Steve Austin’s beloved, Jamie Summers, becomes a bionic hero in her own right. The 4-disc set contains all 13 episodes, plus the 5 Six Million Dollar Man crossover episodes, audio commentaries, a featurette, and a gag reel.
In the same spirit as their landmark nature documentaries of the 50’s, Disney has leapt back into the game in full force with DisneyNature, whose latest features go under the sea in Oceans (Walt Disney, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) and a bit pink with Crimson Wing: Mystery Of The Flamingos (Walt Disney, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP). Both releases contain featurettes and filmmaker annotations, as well as bonus standard DVDs.
It’s rare to find a whip smart comedy nowadays, but the very New York Please Give (Sony, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$34.95 SRP) is just that, starring Catherine Kenner and Oliver Platt as a married couple whose plans to expand their family into the apartment of their ailing, elderly neighbor puts them in direct conflict with her granddaughters. Bonus materials include featurettes and outtakes.
Really, the only one worth getting is the first one, but for high definition at so cheap a price, you might as well get the Robocop Trilogy box set (MGM, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$59.99 SRP) – again, as long as you remember that the first film is required geek viewing, but the last two are abysmal.
If you neglected to pick up the complete series set last year and have instead been going season by season you’ll be happy to know that Fox has decided you can now pick up what you’ve been missing to wrap things up – Ally McBeal: Season 3, Ally McBeal: Season 4, & Ally McBeal: Season 5 (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP each). All three seasons feature the original music, but sadly not a single bonus feature.
While I can really do without any child of mine seeing the Sesame Street: Preschool Is Cool! Counting With Elmo disc (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP) – you know, because of my longtime hate of Elmo – I can heartily recommend the celebratory Sesame Street: C Is For Cookie Monster (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), featuring clips aplenty of our favorite blue monster (Well, him and Grover are tied).
Gabriel Byrne returns as psychotherapist Dr. Paul Weston in the second season of HBO’s In Treatment (HBO, Not Rated, DVD-$59.99 SRP), recently divorced and related to Brooklyn, and in the process of rebuilding his practice. The 7-disc set contains all 35 episodes.
I thought Romeo + Juliet (Fox, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$34.99 SRP) was hyperkinetic overload and Moulin Rouge (Fox, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$34.99 SRP) was a jumbled mess, but there’s no denying that Baz Luhrmann’s films were made for high definition, as these new editions prove. Both discs include audio commentaries, featurettes, trailers, and more.
Gene Roddenberry writing a sex-fueled black comedy high school murder mystery? Starring Rock Hudson, Telly Savalas, and Angie Dickinson? That’s Pretty Maids All In A Row (Warner Bros., Rated R, DVD-$24.95), now available exclusively from the Warner Archive.
As election season heats up, give a spin to the Politics & Presidents of Mike Wallace’s 20th Century series (Acorn, Not Rated, DVD-$49.99 SRP). The 10 episodes feature a wealth of insightful interviews with historians and some of the actual participants themselves.
While they’ve yet to introduce it in their native 12″ line, Sideshow has imported a pair of much requested 12″ Star Wars figures from Medicom in Japan – the lovable droids R2-D2 ($189.99) and C-3PO ($199.99). The detailing on both is exquisite and screen accurate to the original trilogy, right down to the obvious grime coating R2. Both also have LED light-up features – the dome light on R2 and C-3PO’s eyes. If you’ve been waiting for these guys as long as I have, you should snap these up as soon as possible, before they’re gone.
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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While the MST3K version is still near and dear to my heart, it is fun to see the restored original 
Matt Smith’s tenure as the new Doctor on Doctor Who isn’t the only change that producer Steven Moffat has wrought – there’s also a brand new 
One of the things I eagerly await is the arrival of a new volume of classic Charlie Brown & co., and 
You know what other book always delights me when it arrives? A new installment in the wonderfully awkward misadventures of dim-witted detective Frank Burly, courtesy of author John Swartzwelder (writer of 59 episodes of The Simpsons). The latest is 
There’ve been plenty of young actresses tackling vintage royalty in recent years, but a gold crown to Emily Blunt’s portrayal of a young Queen Victoria in the appropriately named 
There’s many a stand-up release that comes down the pike where I merely shrug my shoulders and say, “Eh.” And then there’s the new release from Reggie Watts, 
With 
It’s by no means a bad film – in fact, 
I still haven’t figured out what I think of 
A trio of cryogenically frozen astronauts return to an asteroid-devastated, rough-and-tumble post-apocalyptic Earth 150 years in the future in Gene Roddenberry’s 
What doe Tom Selleck, Yul Brynner, Leonard Nimoy, and Sam Elliott have in common? They all star in at least one of the three movies contained in Warners 
If you were to make the It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World of romantic films, it would be director Garry Marshall’s 
You know the Warner Archive is dedicated to fulfilling every obscure nostalgic wish when they release Kid ‘N Play’s 
Those fans that have only experience the butchered editions of weird and wonderful The Mighty Boosh that have been running on Adult Swim need to run – not walk – to their favorite DVD emporium and snag copies of the new-to-the-US unexpurgated editions of The Mighty Boosh seasons 1-3 that have now been collected into the massive 
During my mother’s recent cancer battle, she spent her final week at home. While at home, I set up a pair of 
After 10 years spent off the air, wandering the wilderness of feature film development, the crew of the mining ship Red Dwarf return for a brand new adventure in 
The most brilliant parodies always come from a place of deep understanding – and often affection – for the particular thing being parodied. Such is clearly the case with Peter Kay’s brilliant send-up of reality talent competitions whose full title – deep breath – is 
The Warner Bros. Archive Collection does it again, this time releasing 
Really, the nifty on-demand catalogue service The Warner Archive Collection is the only way we’ll get the short-lived and rather mediocre but fascinating sci-fi series 
I was one of the Disney fans who marveled at the clarity that the restored Platinum Edition of Snow White revealed, making the film look like it was made in the last 10 years – not 70 years ago. Well, the new high definition Diamond Edition of 
You can have your fancy, expensive, often bizarre, more faithful, Tim Burton-directed version of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, but I will always, always love and prefer 
I’ve gotta say – I really & truly love the amazing, unique, and altogether nifty pop art books that Abrams Comicarts have been putting out – their entire selection of which is worth a look see. Case in point is the new 
Oh, and also from Abrams, have a look-see at 
Originally created for IMAX theaters, 
After a lapse in copyright that allowed it to move from Warner Bros. to Paramount, 
Slowly but surely, we’re catching up on the releases of Gordon Ramsay’s excellent cooking show, 
You know, I’m not entirely sure it hasn’t been forever since the last season release of the still-classic, still-hilarious 
I have nothing against the Shannon Doherty years of the low-rent “reality” candid camera frightfest 
Even though I find the show the dramatic equivalent of beige paint drying, I still find Patricia Arquette watchable in 
Reflect on an incredible body of work by a much-missed actor with the new 
It’s quite rare when I actually enjoy a romantic comedy, only because the plot developments are as obvious as a truck on the side of your ear, so it really comes down to a decent enough script and a good clutch of actors to pull the whole thing off. With 
Does anyone actually enjoy 
As you might expect, the soundtrack to Drew Barrymore’s roller derby flick 
I really have no other ammunition with which to recommend the CG-animated special 
At the end, the show was a shadow of its heyday high, but the cast of 
Sam Raimi decided to abandon the tepid Spider-Man movies and return to form with the schlock-happy horror of 
Will Ferrell’s big screen take on the schlocky Sid & Marty Krofft Saturday morning classic 
I can’t tell you just how much I really, really don’t like the live action 
I think the final product has been a mixed bag, with none shining too terribly brightly, but if you’re keen on buying the recent animated direct-to-video movies starring your favorite Marvel Comics superheroes, you can now get the whole lot in the 
It’s frustrating that 
I’ve never been a fan of Oliver Stone’s violent social commentary 
Before you gawp at the live action flick, take in the classic animated version of Maurice Sendak’s 
Do people still watch 
If you’re not able to drop the cash for the more expensive Spotlight collections, or just want a nice sampler, then you’ll want to check out 
I tried desperately to avoid obvious swimming metaphors to talk about this title, but in the end, I lacked enough willpower to refrain from saying you should dive right in to the 
Sensing it had been far too long since a new release and that brand awareness might be slipping, MTV has dug through the hall closet to scrape up enough material to fill 
I certainly tried, but I could never find enough of a toe-hold to get interested in 
I have been waiting with bated breathe for the high definition release of the original 
OK, besides the fact that it looks vaguely similar to The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, there’s something “Ooh! Science & Engineering!” cool about the 
Although I’m disappointed they’re not doing season sets, at least 
Expanded with a brand new director’s cut and looking & sounding far, far better than it ever has before, I’m going to say that the Collector’s Edition of 
Whatever your opinion of Will Ferrell’s big screen comedic take on the material, those of a certain age probably have a fondness in their heart for Sid & Marty Kroftt’s kitsch Saturday morning adventure series 
Audiences largely shied away from 
The rest of the Kubrick oeuvre is all well and good, but the film I was waiting to get in high-def was Kubrick’s black comedy masterpiece, 
An uneven but largely entertaining second season turned out to be the last for 
In 
A post-Porridge Ronnie Barker stars with a pre-Only Fools & Horses David Jason in Roy Clarke’s 
After years of dancing around the line, the world comes crashing down for crooked cop Vic Mackey in the 7th and final season of 
Fox’s catalogue Blu-Ray releases get a so-so bump with the high-def arrival of Danny Glover’s finest acting moment, 
One of the many TV concepts scrawled on napkins and developed after his passing, 
Neither rain, nor sleet, nor diversions ordered by a court of law would keep Jack Bauer from eventually getting 
When something advertises itself as a six-part documentary series investigating bones, skulls, mummies, and vampires and it comes from the fine folks at the Smithsonian – as 
Although I think they would have been a nicely perverse Valentine’s Day release, Paramount has instead waiting until now to give a high definition release to the one-two punch of 
Briefly on life support and saved at the last minute, the third season of 
As you can imagine, 
Raymond Burr’s fearless defense attorney returns in the first volume of 
Already axed, fans can now own the second – and last- season of