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 run hot and cold on Quentin Tarantino, and while I think it’s overlong, I really enjoyed his spaghetti western homage Django Unchained (Anchor Bay, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP). Anchored by outstanding performances from Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Leo DiCaprio, it’s the perfect mix of Tarantino’s dialogue and chutzpah. Bonus materials include a clutch of featurettes, but an audio commentary is sorely missed.
David Tennant returns in the high stakes espionage thriller with Spies Of Warsaw (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP) as Colonel Jean-Francis Mercier, a highly decorated war hero operating in a pre-World War II Europe filled with danger, intrigue, and love. Bonus materials include an interview with Tennant.
If This Is 40 is a loud, tone deaf look at relationships, Save The Date (MPI, Rated R, DVD-$24.98 SRP) is a sweetly low-key take on similar ground, as independent-minded Sarah (Lizzy Caplan) leaves her longtime boyfriend after his incredibly awkward public proposal, finds a new beau, runs afoul of her sister’s wedding plans, and… Well, just watch it. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, deleted scenes, a music video, outtakes, and more.
If you’ve yet to experience the fun to be found in 3rd Rock From The Sun, now’s the perfect time to do so, as the fine folks at Mill Creek have just released the final two seasons of the show – Season 5 & Season 6 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP each) in ultra-low-priced fashion perfect for playing catch-up on a nifty little slapstick comedy.
And speaking of Mill Creek, they’ve also released the second season of That 70’s Show (Mill Creek, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP) in 16×9 high definition, while porting over all of the bonus features from the original DVD release, including featurettes and commentaries. If only more sitcoms originally shot in HD were revisited this way, the world would be a happier place.
I could care less about sports, but I’m a sucker for a sports movie that makes you care about its characters, and that’s probably why – even 20 years after it was released – The Sandlot (Fox, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP) still works as a charming little kid’s flick about a young boy who gets shown the ropes of baseball by the neighborhood kids. Bonus materials include a featurette, the trailer, and TV spots.
The BBC digs into their classy archives for the DVD release of their 1964 adaptation of Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP), starring a very young Judi Dench alongside Ronald Hines. Also dropping is the much more recent Women In Love (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$ SRP), based on the novels of D.H. Lawrence.
Proving that they can go just in deep in pleasing fans as the already-established MOD Warner Archive Collection, Fox’s Cinema Archives drops 7 never-before-released catalogue titles starring Jane Withers – High School, The Farmer Takes A Wife, Chicken Wagon Family, Rascals, Paddy O’Day, Golden Hoofs, and Little Miss Nobody (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP each).
This week’s soundtrack spotlight falls on a pair of BBC productions – one nature, one science fiction, and both great. First up is Roger Limb’s complete score for Doctor Who: The Caves Of Androzani (Silva Screen, $16.47 SRP), from Peter Davison’s tenure as the 5th Doctor. Second, we’ve got Sarah Class’s beautiful score to the epic BBC Earth documentary Africa (Silva Screen, $16.47 SRP).
It’s certainly not Pixar or even Dreamworks, but A Monster In Paris (Shout Factory, Rated PG, 3d Blu-Ray-$24.97 SRP) is an amiable musical adventure that features a clutch of songs performed by Sean Leonard and Vanessa Paradis.
Running for a remarkable 28 years, we’re so very close to entering the last decade of seasons with the release of Last Of The Summer Wine: Vintage 1998 (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP), Roy Clarke’s celebration of aging, aging, and more aging. Plus mellow comedy.
Find out the fate of Camelot as Morganna and Modred plot its destruction in the fifth and final season of the BBC’s Merlin (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$59.98 SRP). Bonus materials include audio commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, storyboards, and outtakes.
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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Overlooked at the box office, I will declare here and now that Ricky Gervais’s 
You may not know this about me, but you certainly will now. “What is it? What is this secret?” you ask, breathlessly. C’mere, and I’ll tell you…. Closer… Closer… Okay. I like playing with magnets. I think they’re cool. I’ve thought magnets were cool ever since I was a kid. I also like money. Sadly, US coinage is non-magnetic, so I was never able to combine my two loves, Reese’s style. Until now. The 
I never thought I’d see the day when 
Michael Adams took a bullet for us all when he decided to sit down for a year and watch some of the worst movies ever made, and provide not only a chronicle of that feat, but also analyses and perhaps even an appreciation for crappy filmmaking. Of course, perhaps he didn’t take the bullet too soon, as I’ve seen many of the flicks in 
For anyone that came out of the tepid Funny People hoping that they had instead been able to see more of Aziz Ansari, your prayers have been answered with the DVD arrival of his debut stand-up special – 
It’s mindless action, yes, but it’s a shame to see Gerard Butler and Michael C. Hall slumming it in the B-movie actioner 
Glaringly absent from the high definition catalogue up until now, you can put a check mark beside a pair of much-requested Paul Thomas Anderson flicks – 
Shot as he was covering his final murder trial for Vanity Fair – that of Phil Spector – 
The first two Bourne films arrive in high-definition as the inaugural entries in Universal’s new line of flipper single-disc Blu-Ray/DVD combos. I loathe flipper discs with a passion, so even though I understand the cost-cutting thought behind it, I can’t get behind the concept. Looking at the Blu-Ray side, 
If fans of English costume drama were to do a dream casting session, they probably would arrive at the cast that was assembled for Cranford – Judi Dench, Michael Gambon, Eileen Atkins, and Imelda Staunton. Cranford revolves around the ruling ladies of the titular town in 1842, for whom etiquette and custom reign supreme but are a thin veneer over secrets and change. Think a corseted Desperate Housewives. Your best bet is to pick 
It was like a poor man’s Guy Ritchie (which is odd, since he’s already filled that role himself in recent years), but there was a sliver of fun to have from 
Instead of abandoning release of the shows in mid-stream due to sales issue for niche fan-favorites, Shout! Factory has taken the welcome step of making new season sets of the shows in question available directly from their website. This makes the economy feasible and fans happy – especially since the discs are identical in quality to their store-bought predecessors. The first sets to get the direct-purchase treatment are 
And in this weeks soundtrack round-up, we’ve got John Murphy’s score to 
The disc-on-demand Warner Archive continues to live up to its name and promise by releasing a little-seen TV movie, adapted by Richard Matheson from his short story – 
Nancy Botwin is full ensconced with her business south of the border in the 5th season of 
A co-ed crew exploring the solar system gets up to sudsy scientific exploration in the first season of 
The 12th season of 
It dips into melodrama occasionally, but for the most part 
Using none of the original voices and sub-par animation, there’s nothing much about 
It’s not something I would have made a night out for, but watching 
There was a constant fear it might stumble in its first season, and there’s always fear of a sophomore season fail, but