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 the MST3K version is still near and dear to my heart, it is fun to see the restored original Gamera: The Giant Monster (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$19.93 SRP) in its DVD debut, sporting an audio commentary and a retrospective featurette. It’s a giant turtle, for criminy’s sake!
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 Sonic Screwdriver ($25.99). Gone is the rather plain blue-tipped model, replaced by a spring-loaded, green-tipped contraption with a LED light and sounds.
One of the things I eagerly await is the arrival of a new volume of classic Charlie Brown & co., and The Complete Peanuts: 1975 to 1976 (Fantagraphics, $28.99 SRP) certainly doesn’t disappoint. In fact, if anything, things go a bit surreal, which Robert Smigel points out in his introduction. This also marks the halfway point in these collected volumes.
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 The Last Detective Alive (Kennydale Books, $15,95), and I suggest you pick it up at the same time you pick up the previous 6. Right now. Go on… I’ll be waiting for you. Seriously… Go. I’ll be here. Go get those books.
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 The Young Victoria (Sony, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$34.95 SRP), which finds the inexperienced young monarch asserting her control while falling head over heels for Prince Albert. Bonus materials include featurettes and deleted/extended scenes.
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, Why $#!+ So Crazy? (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD/CD-$15.95 SRP), which is like a laugh-out-loud reminder of what stand-up should be all about. You know… Funny.
With The Spy Next Door (Lionsgate, Rated PG, DVD-$29.95 SRP), Jackie Chan has been converted into a toothless family film star, a fate that befell The Rock just a few short years ago. In this flick, Chan plays a spy. Who lives next door. And baby-sits he neighbor kids. And stuff happens. Bonus features include a pair of featurettes and a blooper reel.
It’s by no means a bad film – in fact, Invictus (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP) is actually a rather rousing tale of Nelson Mandela’s plan to bring together the fractured post-Apartheid South Africa via the country’s rugby team, captained by Matt Damon. Morgan Freeman is a stirring Mandela, but there’s something about the film that feels very by-the-numbers/Rudy-esque. Bonus materials include picture-in-picture commentary, a trio of featurettes, and the theatrical trailer.
I still haven’t figured out what I think of The Jeff Dunham Show (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP) and the titular man behind its puppet co-stars. The materials can be crass and a bit too Carlos Mencia for my tastes. Bonus materials include an unaired sketch, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and a blooper reel.
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 Strange New World (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$19.95), the latest vault release from the Warner Archive Collection. Hey, it stars John Saxon!
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 Louis L’Amour Western Collection (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, DVD-$19.98 SRP), which contains The Sacketts, Catlow, & Conagher.
If you were to make the It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World of romantic films, it would be director Garry Marshall’s Valentine’s Day (New Line, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP), which throws dozens of actors into a slew of plots that all hang together into some kind of narrative collage dealing with love and the titular holiday. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, featurettes, and a blooper reel.
You know the Warner Archive is dedicated to fulfilling every obscure nostalgic wish when they release Kid ‘N Play’s Class Act (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, DVD-$19.95). Yes – you heard me right. So all of those fans of HBO-friendly comedy and impossibly tall hair now have a purchase to make.
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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The long drought of last year is but a distant memory as the new Cinematic Titanic releases roll out with great speed this new year, the latest being 
Moore Action Collectibles had a go at it a few years ago, but it wasn’t until Toynami took over the license that the Futurama action figure line really took off and became what fans always hoped for – mainly, filled with characters. If you’re completely oblivious to the existence of these figures, then thank Thinkgeek for collecting together a clutch of them and offering them as 
There’s an entire generation out there that never got to experience the golden years of a show called 
R. Lee Ermey returns with a brand new series – 
Where the Coen brothers fell down, a firing-on-all-cylinders Steven Soderberg delivers 
I think the title of his new DVD sums it up pretty well – 
Remember About Schmidt? Remember Jack Nicholson’s cross-country journey to reconnect with his daughter after his wife’s passing? Well, crank up the schmaltz factor and regress the script, and give the lead to Robert DeNiro and you’ve pretty much got 
It’s always interesting to find out about the people behind the names that have become nothing more than brands, and such is the case with the biopic 
I never thought I’d be interested in seeing the pressure and power struggles that went into making an issue of Vogue magazine, but like any good documentary, 
The film’s a mess but I love how the cover of the oddball 
Zombie Nazis. Does anything else really need to be said about the Nordic take on Evil Dead, 
Michael Palin turns in a memorable dramatic performance in the UK miniseries 
For those with very little patience, you can pick up and either re-watch or get caught up with the first half of 
Front and center, Edie Falco makes an indelible impression as the titular 
It’s not my cup of tea, but there’s no denying that 
Go back to the infancy of the Oscars with the 
Learn of the perils and impending issues of overfishing in the compelling documentary 
Those nifty score purveyors at La-La Land Records have delivered another trio of releases to keep soundtrack fans happy and penniless – Christopher Young’s score to 
Science! Can’t get enough of it. Also? Excited by it. The 4th season box set of 
I can only assume they’re a big hit north of the border, but I confess to being nonplussed by the titular comedy troupe helming the feature film 
I have nothing against the Coen Brothers’ remake, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the original Ealing version of 
Do you have a bunch of old albums lying around that no one’s bothered to release either on CD or digitally? I do. A ton of ’em. I’ve tried different digitizing solutions, but all have been rather awkward or delivered poor sound quality. With the 
There are some films that I can watch again and again – not by choice, but if I stumble upon them, I’m instantly drawn back in. 
It’s been attempted before, but it’s taken 
Also arriving in high-def is Akira Kurosawa’s take on King Lear, 
I do believe the packaging for the second half of the second season of 
Stephen Fry returns in the 3rd and final series of 
Exploring exactly how Adolf Hitler was able to survive over 40 assassination attempts, 
What’s the sign of a good documentary? It’s one that makes you interested in a subject you never fathomed that you would ever find interesting. Chris Rock accomplishes this feat with 
The final Bourne film arrives in high-definition as the latest of 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, 
Over here! The big wheel keeps on turning out more direct-to-video Scooby-Doo movies, the latest of which is 
Abby Cadabby and Elmo travel down the rabbit hole in the newest Sesame Street release, 
As some series wrap their release on DVD, there are still plenty of others waiting in the wings, which is why we’ve got the complete first season of 
I didn’t think I would, but I actually found the female-centric comedy 
With a cast that includes Gary Coleman, Ron Jeremy, Jason Mewes, and Scottie Pippen, it’s not without a small amount of embarrassment that one watches the sensationally titled documentary 
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