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”¦)
A few years back, the brilliant artisans at Hot Toys set the bar ridiculously high with their wonderful 1/6-scale take on Princess Leia from Star Wars: A New Hope, which featured not only a great sculpt of Carrie Fisher in her iconic double-bun-do, but also some fine tailoring on her costuming. But, as great as that was, Hot Toys has blown it out of the water with their brand new Princess Leia (Sideshow Collectibles, $219.99). I mean, the sculpt is perfect, the costuming is impeccably recreated, and the accessories are exquisite, right down to the breathing mask she wore while investigating mynocks. By golly, this figure is great. I can’t wait to see what they’ve gone with General Leia from the more recent films.
I’m a bit baffled that Armando Iannucci’s brilliant The Death Of Stalin (Paramount, Rated R, DVD-$14.99 SRP) is only getting a standard DVD release here in the US. Does high definition make the already uncomfortably identifiable events just too real? And where’s my audio commentary? At least the release does get a featurette and deleted scenes, but a future high-def version would be much appreciated.
Another Pixar movie means we get another incredible Art Of book from the fine folks at Chronicle Books, and it’s particularly fitting that this year’s incredible Art Of book from Chronicle is The Art Of The Incredibles 2 (Chronicle Books, $40 SRP), with an introduction by director Brad Bird.
I really had almost zero expectations for the comedy Game Night (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.95 SRP) besides the hope that it would be a pleasant diversion in these deeply distressing times. And hey! It was. With a cast that includes Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Sarah Horgan, and the comedy award-worthy Jesse Plemons, it’s a lark worth watching. Bonus materials include a featurette and a gag reel.
The 21st season of South Park (Paramount, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP), following the 20th season’s election-themed, continuity-heavy debacle, is the first in a long while that I have pretty much zero memory of, all these months later. Re-watching them, the episodes are certainly strong, if entirely forgettable. Bonus materials include the usual batch of mini-commentaries from Matt Stone & Trey Parker.
The Angelina Jolie films were fine, but the rebooted Tomb Raider (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, 4K-$29.96 SRP), starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, delivers the franchise into a much more stable modern footing as a solid action film sans the cheese. Bonus materials include a quartet of featurettes.
I have mixed feelings about Forrest Gump (Paramount, Rated PG-13, 4K-$25.75 SRP), which is newly available in UltraHD. It’s a supremely affable film, almost inexplicably so, but it’s also the movie that gave Robert Zemeckis gold fever, winning the Best Picture Academy Award and setting him on a path far removed from the beloved comedy and genre flicks that had defined his career previously. Shame, really. Bonus materials include audio commentaries featurettes, and screen tests.
I had never heard of the film Cold Turkey (Olive Films, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$19.95 SRP). Written and directed by Norman Lear, it’s about a small, impoverished town in the Midwest who accepts a challenge to go tobacco-free for a month in exchange for $25 million. And it stars Dick Van Dyke, Bob Newhart, Jean Stapleton, Edward Everett Horton, Tom Poston, and Bob & Ray, with music by Randy Newman? I’m in.
Truly solid science fiction films are few and far between. The last one was probably The Arrival, and I’d certainly put Annihilation (Paramount, Rated R, 4K-$44.99 SRP) in that rarified air, with a stellar cast (Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac) and a wonderfully weird concept about exploring a bubble of unique evolution, see it. Bonus materials include a handful of featurettes.
A lot has been said about the satirical inspiration of A Day In The Life Of Marlon Bundo (Chronicle Books, $18.99 SRP) and its origin within John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, so instead I just want to say what a beautiful children’s book bunny Marlon Bundo (with Jill Tweiss) has crafted, with lovely illustrations by EG Keller and an even more beautiful message of love and inclusivity.
The first Paddington film was an unexpectedly sweet outing for the marmalade-loving bear, and the simply named sequel Paddington 2 (Warner Bros., Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP) manages to retain all of the charm and add substantially to it for a sequel that often exceeds already high expectations. It’s a deeply charming, fun, funny film. Bonus materials include featurettes and a music video.
In the mood for John Landis double feature this weekend? Well, a pair of his films are celebrating their anniversaries with brand new releases ““ the 35th anniversary edition of Trading Places (Paramount, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP) and the 30th anniversary edition of Coming To America (Paramount, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP). Bonus materials on Trading Places include featurettes, a deleted scene, and an industry promotional pieces, while Coming To America sports featurettes, an Arsenio/Eddie sitdown, and a photo gallery.
I own the stories in plenty of different volumes released over the years, but Fantagraphics has crafted the definitive edition of Carl Barks’ classic Disney Duck tales with their multi-volume Carl Barks Library, the latest volume of which is Donald Duck: The Lost Peg Leg Mine (Fantagraphics, $29.99 SRP), featuring a batch of stories from the late 1950s.
By the 5th season of Orange Is The New Black (Lionsgate, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$34.97 SRP), we’re dangerously close to the show becoming a bit too cartoonish, as characters become more removed from reality as a way of extending the series. It’s not quite there, but the warning signs certainly are, as we dive into a prison riot storyline. Bonus materials include commentaries, a featurette, and a gag reel.
A sixth film is headed to theaters, which makes the timing perfect for the first 5 Mission: Impossible films ““ Mission: Impossible, Mission Impossible 2, Mission Impossible 3, Mission: Impossible ““ Ghost Protocol, & Mission: Impossible ““ Rogue Nation (Paramount, Rated PG-13, 4K-$44.95 SRP each) – to make their UltraHD debut packed with new and vintage bonus materials, including featurettes, audio commentaries, galleries, and more. But really, after so many films, it seems the series should be more correctly called Mission: Improbable.
But, in a world where we have Tom Cruise Mission Impossible films, I’m not sure why we ever needed Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher (Paramount, Rated PG-13, 4k-$44.95 SRP), which just seems a watered-down, joyless version of that other long-lasting franchise. Sure, there’s nothing awful about the Reacher films, they’re just forgettable. Bonus materials include audio commentaries and a trio of featurettes.
I thought the live action Suicide Squad was a boatload of hot garbage, so the animated Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay (Warner Bros., Rated R, 4K-$24.95 SRP) had only a subterranean bar to clear, which it does handily by at least being a watchable story that only runs less than 90 minutes. Bonus materials include featurettes and a sneak peek at the animated Death Of Superman.
Not only has Ashley Eckstein cemented herself in the hearts of Star Wars fandom for her portrayal of Ahsoka Tano, but she’s also gone on to carve out an empire with her fashion brand/fangirl community Her Universe. In It’s Your Universe: You Have The Power To Make It Happen (Disney Editions, $17.99 SRP), she charts her course from a young fangirl geeking on Disney to her current career as an actress and entrepreneur.
I do love a horror film that places more weight on suspense than on gore, and A Quiet Place (Paramount, Rated PG-13, 4K-$34.99 SRP) certainly falls into that paradigm, even if the concept itself ““ about a family having to remain absolutely silent in order to avoid detection by deadly aliens with acute hearing ““ doesn’t really hold up to too much scrutiny. But who cares? It’s a taut ride. Bonus materials include a trio of featurettes.
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 was one of the many that was concerned the Harry Potter franchise would stumble and fall at the finish line, as it wrapped up J.K. Rowling’s sweeping tale with a two-part version of her final book. Thankfully, 
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It’s a shame that they didn’t see fit to give it a proper restored release rather than an MOD Warner Archive Collection release, because 1934’s 
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While it’s not the 1935 film starring Charles Laughton as the overbearing Captain Bligh that I love so much, the high definition release of the 1962 version of 
One of those much-beloved flicks from my childhood, owing largely to dozens of captive-audience viewings on early cable TV, has arrived in high definition. Now I can see the cast of 
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Warners has decided to drop a trio of festive holiday catalogue titles just in time for your cold winter viewing pleasure – the sequel 
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Up to a certain point, 
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Now that we’ve reached a point where nearly every extant classic Doctor Who story has been released, the BBC have very nicely decided to go back and revisit many of their early releases and make them bona fide special editions. The latest to get the treatment is the Tom Baker story 
Who wants regular old boring ice when you can have ice from an 
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I was a huge, instant fan of 
Honestly, 
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Listen – 
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It’s refreshing to upend the traditional romantic comedy formula and look at how unpredictable love can actually be with 
While Office Space has become an instant classic and even the marginalized Idiocracy has become a cult flick, Mike Judges latest, 
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 
Catch up on your TV viewing over the holiday break with both the 3rd and final season of the sci-fi show 
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I know, it’s been some time since I’ve had a screening around these parts. Well, I am delighted to say that there are finally some that I will be able to invite all my readers in Arizona (the 1 of you) to attend.
It took me a while to get into 30 Rock.
I really was a bad student in high school. Not horrible in the classical sense but I was absolutely a C student and I couldn’t grasp mathematical or scientific in ways that made me wonder if I was functionally retarded.
People will try and take pot shots at this series which has certainly had issues with trying to find its footing and voice but it still is trying to be something that geeks and nerds can call primetime goodness. This season finds itself marred in various storylines that seem to drag the series down a bit but it is still ballasted by its intriguing premise and the hope that they’ll actually listen to the fans who made this series last this long and get the train back on its proverbial course. There’s stuff to love and there’s stuff to, well, not love about this series but Season 3 still deserves a look see and what better offer out there today to do such a thing than with my contest to win Season 3 on DVD.
In OFFICE SPACE writer/director Mike Judge deconstructed the white collar workplace that has now become a classic in a way that some films never achieve on their own; the film has embedded itself underneath the collective experiences of those having to endure the pains of modern working life. IDIOCRACY explored the way in which our culture seems to be on a slow steady shuffle off the mortal coil of intelligent living. Who could disagree that the one of the more colorful choices of a future president of the United States was found in Terry Crews’ President Camacho? It was an honest examination of our descent into the banal, the bast and just plain stupid.
I am in love with this movie.