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…)
While I have great affection for the flawed remake starring Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, the original Ernst Lubitsch To Be Or Not To Be (Criterion, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$ SRP) is an indisputable classic, newly remastered in high definition and starring the legendary Jack Benny and Carole Lombard as the married thespians in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Bonus materials include a brand new audio commentary, a 2010 French documentary on Lubitsch, a pair of radio adaptations, and a 1916 German silent short directed by and starring Lubitsch.
There have been many books that purported to present the definitive history of the original Star Trek. Much like Roshomon, many presented a perspective on the show’s genesis. But we’ve finally got the overview that incorporates all of those memories plus original memos, documents, and interviews and places them in a comprehensive context – These Are The Voyages (Jacobs Brown, $39.95 SRP), the first volume of what will eventually be a trilogy, each focusing on a season of TOS. Author Marc Cushman has done the if not impossible, then very nearly improbably feat of remaining neutral while presenting the facts, tales, anecdotes, and recollections behind one of the most enduring pop phenomenon of the 20th century – and beyond.
And speaking of Star Trek, explore the golden age of trading cards with Abrams ComicArts’s Star Trek: The Original Topps Trading Card Series (Abrams ComicArt, $19.95 SRP). It’s a lovely little tome that features every card and card back from the trading cart set, plus additional trivia and even a set of bonus cards. Though, sadly, no bubble gum.
Hey! Are you an Adventure Time fan, desperate for some kind of book to keep you company? Then, HEY! Get The Adventure Time Encyclopedia (Abrams, $19.95 SRP)! But it’s not just any old boring book of facts – because it’s written by the Lord Of Evil himself, Hunson Abadeer… Who just so happens to be Marceline the vampire’s dad. So yeah, it’s goofy, it’s funny, and it’s decidedly odd. Great, right?
Every so often, I’ll get a lovely surprise in the mail from John Swartzwelder (the brilliant writer behind 59 episodes of The Simpsons). I’ve said it before, and I shall continue to say it as long as he continues to write them – If you’ve not yet read his series of brilliantly comic novels starring dim detective Frank Burly, than you do not deserve to be literate. So yes, do catch up, and also pick up the latest – Detective Made Easy (Kennydale Books, $15.95 SRP) – or just walk away and never read again. But hey, I recommend you read them all.
After publishing quite wonderful volumes collecting the Mickey Mouse newspaper strips by Floyd Gottfredson in black & white, the fine folks at Fantagraphics have released the first volume in glorious color – Mickey Mouse Color Sundays: Call Of The Wild (Fantagraphics, $29.99 SRP). As with the previous must-have tomes, there is plenty of supplemental materials within the volume, including essays, rare articles, photos, and more.
For more years than I can recall, the amiable scholars at Twomorrows have been publishing a wide range of magazine and books chronicling every nook and cranny of the comics, creators, characters, and companies fans know and love. Earlier this year, they took that love and scholarly approach to the next logical step, by launching a must-have document of four-color history in the American Comic Book Chronicles (Twomorrows, $40.95 SRP), which will eventually chart from 1940 to today. The debut volume covered the 1960’s from 1960-1964, the second release jumped ahead to the 1980’s (covering from 1980-1989), and the latest volume leaps back to the 1950’s – a decade when the medium came under attack and was forced to censor itself. Get this book, as well as the previous volumes, and then start setting aside shelf space for the rest – which can’t come fast enough.
While it started on somewhat shaky ground, now that we’ve arrived at the third season of Boardwalk Empire (HBO, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$59.99 SRP), the little show about Atlantic City in the roaring 20’s has matured into a brilliant character piece for Steve Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson just as Prohibition makes alcohol a booming business for organized crime. Bonus materials include audio commentaries, featurettes, and newsreels.
To expect anything from Baz Luhrmann but a bloated technicolor extravaganza is to have a poor memory of his filmic inclinations, so it should be no surprise that his take on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, 3D Blu-Ray-$44.95 SRP) – starring Leonard DiCaprio as the titular roaring socialite – is exactly that. And, like every other flawed Lurmann film, it’s worth watching just for the spectacle alone, even if it all collapses under its own weight. Bonus materials include a clutch of featurettes, deleted scenes, and an alternate ending.
I have no problem summing up my experience of watching the Oscar-winning drama Amour (Sony, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP) with the term “depressingly beautiful”. Its portrait of a couple who’ve spent a lifetime together facing the end if heartbreakingly poignant. Bonus materials include a Q&A with director Michael Haneke and a making-of featurette.
Find out the ultimate punchline when a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost cohabitate in the fifth and final season of the original UK version of Being Human (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.98 SRP), which finds Hal, Tom, and Alex as the government comes calling, as does the need to pay bills. Bonus features include interviews, deleted scenes, and featurettes.
Make a rip-roaring adventurous mashup between A Bug’s Life, Fern Gully, and Fantastic Voyage and you get the appropriately named Epic (Fox, Rated PG, 3D Blu-Ray-$49.99 SRP), about a young teenager that finds herself suddenly very small and caught up in a big battle to save the noble Leafmen from an army of evil warriors. Bonus materials include a clutch of featurettes.
Time has not made Star Trek: Enterprise (Paramount, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$129.99 SRP) a better show. Granted, it’s still a far sight better than JJ Abrams’ popcorn abomination, but the real tragedy of Enterprise is the sheer amount of wrongheaded decisions… Frankly, starting with the prequel premise of the show itself. But even if I dislike the show, I enjoy the new Blu-Ray editions immensely, due solely to the unbelievably candid bonus materials. The second season set follows up on the brilliant first season documentary with a pair of documentaries featuring an overview of the second season and its difficulties, and a cast reunion that acts more like a confessional for co-creator Brannon Braga. Perfect.
If you’ve got kids in your life, do them a favor by giving them the gift of the latest pair of Scholastic Storybook Treasures releases – the Mo Willems collection Don’t Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late and the 4-story collection Children Make Terrible Pets… And More Stories About Family (Scholastic, Not Rated, DVD-$14.95 SRP each).
I’m not as terribly big fan of Disney’s cash-grab direct-to-video sequels from a few years back. Some of have been tolerable, most atrocious, and very rare is one that is somewhat good. The Peter Pan sequel Return To Neverland (Walt Disney, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$36.99 SRP), making its debut in high definition, has enough enjoyable moments – mostly with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee – to make the affair a decent watch before it is stashed back in the Disney Vault. Bonus materials include deleted scenes, previews, and more.
It’s refreshing to see Keifer Sutherland in a more nuanced and adult portrayal of a post-9/11 world in The Reluctant Fundamentalist (IFC, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.98 SRP), a tale of the kidnapping of an American academic in Pakistan that sets in motion a domino effect casting suspicion on a young Pakistani professor. Bonus materials include a making-of featurette and a trailer.
What the Warner Archive has perfected, particularly with its animated releases, is a very clever and utterly successful manipulation of nostalgia which makes purchasing their releases inevitable. They know they have us with the Hanna-Barbera collection releases of the complete Captain Caveman And The Teen Angels and Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$29.95 SRP each). Heck, they’ve even got me with the release of the complete first season of Marine Boy (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$24.95 SRP).
This week’s TV sets bring both NCIS series and the still sparkling courtroom tales of Alicia Florrick. First up, we’ve got NCIS: The Tenth Season (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$64.99 SRP) and NCIS: LOS ANGELES – The Fourth Season (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$64.99 SRP). Bot sets contain audio commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and more. And finally, there’s the 4th season of The Good Wife (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$64.99 SRP), which sports featurettes and deleted scenes.
I’m not entirely sure what happened to David Zucker, but the man behind sublime spoofs like Airplane! and Police Squad is almost entirely absent from the ham-fisted Scary Movie V (Anchor Bay, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP). Maybe it’s because in the desperation to keep references near-current it makes the whole affair terribly dated right out of the box. Bonus materials include deleted/extended scenes.
It’s no Tango & Cash, but what Pain & Gain (Paramount, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) – starring Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, & Anthony Mackie as a trio of personal trainers get caught up on the wrong side of the law – manages to remind viewers is that director Michael Bay used to know how to make fun, funny action films that weren’t senseless bastardizations of licensed properties.
It’s still not my cup of tea compared to the sublime Sherlock, but it seems CBS’ own take on a modern Holmes, Elementary (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$55.98 SRP), has gained traction with viewers. Enough traction, anyway, to guarantee a second season. The 6-disc set contains all 23 first season episodes, plus featurettes and webisodes.
After a shambling second season, hopes were high for the third season of Walking Dead (Anchor Bay, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$79.99 SRP) – especially with the arrival of David Morrissey’s Governor and zombie pet-owner Michonne – but there were more legitimately confusing WTF moments than genuinely enjoyable WTF moments. Shame, really, because there were some bright spots to be found. Bonus materials include audio commentaries, deleted scenes, and featurettes.
One of the marks of a good documentary is it makes you care about a subject you hadn’t considered giving a second thought to, and that’s certainly the case with Scatter My Ashes At Bergdorf’s (E1, Rated PG-13, DVD-$24.98 SRP), which looks the fashion industry’s mecca, the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman.
Besides the fact that the new 3 3/4-scale Doctor Who figures effectively split the figure line in two distinct camps – classic Who in the old 5″ scale and whatever the current characters are in the new scale – my biggest issue is with a decided sloppiness in the paint ops found on the new figures – the first wave of which include the 11th Doctor, Clara, an Ice Warrior, a new-version Cyberman, a Weeping Angel, and a Dalek (Underground Toys, $10.99 SRP each) – leaves something to be desired. It’s particularly noticeable on the Doctor and Clara, where careful attention to paint is necessary in so tiny a scale. And yeah, I do wish they restored the lighted sign and interior effects found in the original 9th/10th Doctor TARDIS toys for the new scale Flight Control TARDIS (Underground Toys, $ SRP). Still, I have high hopes for this new incarnation of the toys, and hope these little bumps are smoothed out for future releases.
Trust me, you’ll never know just how much you want a fully-remastered high definition collector’s edition of Pee-wee’s Playhouse (Shout Factory, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$149.99 SRP) until you feast your eyes and nostalgia upon that very wonder. By going back to the original 16mm elements and doing a modern digital reassembly and compositing, the show has literally never looked better. To say it’s incredible is an understatement. And if that weren’t enough, there are hours of brand new bonus documentaries featuring all of the on-camera and behind-the-scenes talent – except, glaring by his absence, Paul Reubens himself. But regardless of his lack of on-camera presence, his influence and attention to detail is evident throughout this must-have set.
If the first half of the final season of Mad Men (Lionsgate, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.97 SRP) consisted solely of Robert Morse’s parting scene, it would already be a success in my book, but that was once of many fine moments weaving through the set up to the show’s swan song in a catch-22 of it can’t come fast enough and is all-too-soon. Bonus materials include audio commentaries and a clutch of featurettes.
The fine folks at Criterion have once again worked their sacred cinephile magic to conjure up a pair of truly fantastic special editions making their high definition debut. First up is Federico Fellini’s legendary La Dolce Vita (Criterion, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.95 SRP), featuring a new 4k digital restoration, numerous interviews, and a visual essay. Second is Orson Welles’ “documentary” F For Fake (Criterion, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.95 SRP), which sports the documentary One Man Band, an audio commentary, additional documentaries, interviews, and much more. To say that both are must-haves is an understatement.
In this age of miracles, Shout Factory has pulled off another of their patented wonders by somehow managing to untangle and license nearly all of the music found in the feared-to-be-unreleasable-in-a-manner-it-deserves WKRP In Cincinnati (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$139.99 SRP). So here we have the best possible set we’ll ever get, and it’s finally worth shelling out your hard earned money for. Bonus materials include the Paley Center cast reunion and a trio of featurettes.
Monty Python’s absolutely final run of reunion performances as captured in Monty Python Live: One Down Five To Go (Eagle Vision, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP) is everything one would expect from a concert of septuagenarians put together by Eric – a massive musical spectacle that occasionally involves the Pythons proper and their greatest hits. But because it’s what we expected, and because the five remaining members were together, and because this is probably the last time that will ever happen on stage, nostalgia and warm fuzzies carry the day even when the performances don’t. Bonus materials include featurettes and exclusive footage.
Cartoon Network brings together a handful of its heavy hitters for a Cartoon Network Holiday Collection (Cartoon Network, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), featuring yuletide editions of Adventure Time, Regular Show, and The Amazing World Of Gumball, plus bonus episodes of Clarence and Steven Universe.
It’s been a while since we last checked in with the fine folks at the Warner Archive Collection, and in the interim they’ve been busy digging up even more hidden gems and guilty pleasures from the deepest recesses of their vaults for our viewing pleasure. Fresh from the depths come the Jack Benny features The Horn Blows At Midnight (Warner Bros., Not Rated, MOD DVD-$21.99 SRP) & George Washington Slept Here (Warner Bros., Not Rated, MOD DVD-$21.99 SRP), Charles Laughton as the titular spirit in The Canterville Ghost (Warner Bros., Not Rated, MOD DVD-$19.99 SRP), the 80s HBO rotation staples Feds (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, MOD DVD-$17.99 SRP) & Second Sight (Warner Bros., Rated PG, MOD DVD-$17.99 SRP), and the forgotten Buck Henry presidential comedy First Family (Warner Bros., Rated R, MOD DVD-$21.99 SRP). For kids, they’ve bolstered their animated offerings with the complete collection of Hanna-Barbera’s French Canadian wolf Loopy DeLoop (Warner Bros., Not Rated, MOD DVD-$29.99 SRP), the full Shirt Tales (Warner Bros., Not Rated, MOD DVD-$35.99 SRP), the first volume of the 60s made-for-TV Popeye The Sailor (Warner Bros., Not Rated, MOD DVD-$35.99 SRP), and the must-have release of the whole lot, the complete run of Gilligan’s Planet (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$29.99 SRP).
And while we’re on the subject of the Warner Archive Collection, they’ve also been releasing a handful of their niche titles in high definition, the latest being Blake Edwards’ madcap The Great Race (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), the big screen take on the Broadway classic Gypsy (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan, Lord Of The Apes (Warner Bros., Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), and the complete second season of the animated Batman: The Brave And The Bold (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP). More, please!
Long before the man behind ALF created that wacky alien, Paul Fusco produced a series of puppet-based holiday specials, the first of which – Santa’s Magic Toy Bag (Legend, Not Rated, DVD-$14.99 SRP) – makes its home video debut just in time for seasonal viewing.
I’d say “amiable” is a better word than “funny” to describe the one-man autobiographical show Billy Crystal: 700 Sundays (HBO, Not Rated, DVD-$19.97 SRP), which finds the venerable comic reflecting on the first few decades of his life and the influences that helped shape him as a performer.
I wasn’t expecting much from Earth To Echo (Fox, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP), so it was with genuine surprise that I found it to be a charming little film evocative of kid-centric under-the-radar 80s flicks like Explorers and Flight Of The Navigator in its simple tale of a trio of kids who discover a small alien who just wants to get home. Sounds familiar, right? Give it a go, ya jaded mooks. Bonus materials include featurettes and deleted scenes.
Rewind back to the very beginning of the long-running Brit crime drama, back when forensic pathologist Dr. Samantha Ryan was solving murder cases in Silent Witness: Season One (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP), then fast-forward to the modern run and the team headed up by Nikki Alexander in Silent Witness: Season Seventeen (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP).
Regardless of all the brouhaha over the band’s recent free album, there’s no denying U2’s place in the musical firmament, and that’s why it’s surprising it’s taken this long for the Irish quartet to get a fitting illustrated history like U2: Revolution (Race Point Publishing, $35), which charts the history and evolution of the band as they rock into their fourth decade.
It’s a kinder, gentler, often goofily amiable kind of comedy that you’ll find in The Red Skelton Show: The Early Years (Timeless, Not Rated, DVD-$59.97 SRP), an 11-DVD set that collects 90 episodes of Skelton’s variety show spanning from 1951 to 1955 and featuring guest appearances from the likes of Jackie Gleason to John Wayne. The set also includes a bonus disc with a documentary, a dress rehearsal, and bonus episodes.
Criminally unavailable on DVD in any proper and suitably loving presentation until now, the loveable chaps at Shout Factory have released 
And what better Jack Benny chaser is there than 
The art of animation reduced down to its most primal level is the magic to be found in 
While the show in many ways hasn’t aged very well with very uneven seasons, kudos must once again be paid to Paramount for the absolutely stunning restoration and high definition remastering job they’ve done for 
After the abomination of the first film, it’s with great relief that, while not a particularly good film, 
Toddlers can take another ride on The Magic School Bus with a pair of new releases – 
I guess it all had to end eventually. Sadly, 
The budget-conscious folks at Mill Creek, mindful of just how precious your hard-earned money is, have dropped another clutch of reasonably-priced catalogue films and documentaries – the Charlton Heston narrated series 
