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 bulk of Mel Brooks’ catalogue has been available in high definition, there’s been one title that’s been devastatingly absent – until now. The fine folks at Shout Factory have pulled out all the stops to give comedy fans a brilliant special edition of The Producers (Shout Factory, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.93 SRP), looking and sounding better than ever. Bonus materials include the documentary from the original DVD release, a brand new interview with Mel, the theatrical trailer, a sketch gallery, and a deleted scene.
Directed by a young John Landis and crafted by the even younger Zucker Brothers, Kentucky Fried Movie (Shout Factory, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$19.97 SRP) is the pop culture-skewering prototype that would eventually be fully realized in Airplane! and Police Squad, but there works as a still-funny collection of comedy sketches. Bonus materials include an audio commentary and a feature-length interview with David & Jerry Zucker.
Those expecting a farce might be pleasantly surprised by the warmth of the comedy to be found in Admission (Universal, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$34.98 SRP), about an overworked Princeton admissions officer (Tina Fey) who thought she had her life well-structured but is thrown for a loop when a former classmate (Paul Rudd) brings a brilliant student to her attention. Bonus materials include a featurette.
Already a quirky little gem, Fred Armisen & Carrie Brownstein’s Portlandia: Season 3 (VSC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.95 SRP) is when the little indie sketch comedy that could gelled into a fully realized offbeat world, proving its staying power. Bonus materials include the winter special, a Portland tour, and a pair of deleted scenes.
While the original animated adaptation was never terribly great, nostalgia made me leery of the new animated reboot of the Ninja Turtles. Well, my fears have been wiped away by the fun, funny modern take which perfectly preserves all of the necessary elements to the Turtle mythos. Want proof? Look no further than the latest episode collection – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Enter Shredder (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP). Would you believe Shredder is involved?
Taking the same sensibility once focused on Star Wars and applying it to the superheroes and villains of the DC universe? Sold. Luckily, that pre-sale was proven correct with the hilarious Robot Chicken: DC Comics Special (Adult Swim, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.89 SRP). At a too-short 22 minutes, luckily the release is padded out with commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, and bloopers.
It’s not the equal of the beautifully executed Avatar, but there’s still plenty to recommend in the premiere volume of The Legend Of Korra: Book One – Air (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$35.98 SRP), which throws viewers into the future of the Avatar spirit which now exists within the titular teenage girl. Bonus materials include audio commentaries, animatics, and a bonus short.
A victim (Noomi Rapace) seeking retribution for a crime blackmails a professional killer (Colin Ferrell) into aiding her plan for revenge in the tense thriller Dead Man Down (Sony, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP). Bonus materials include a trio of featurettes.
Take a soaring high definition view of the northeast United States in the Smithsonian Channel’s Aerial America: New England Collection (Inception, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP), which takes a birds-eye view of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
This week’s TV release from Paramount bring one old and one new. For the new, we get the complete first season of Unforgettable (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP), about a woman with an otherwise flawless memory who teams up with an NYPD detective to solve her one blind spot – the murder of her sister. The vintage TV release is the ninth and final season of Matlock (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$49.99 SRP), starring the great Andy Griffith.
Hot Toys’ already stellar work seems to consistently shine the most in their various representations of Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor. The latest is the suit featured in The Avengers – specifically the Iron Man Mark VII ($249.99). Exquisitely engineered and screen accurate in every detail, it features working LED lights in the eyes, palms, and chestplate, a separate Robert Downey Jr. head, 3 sets of swappable hands, and a full complement of swappable battle-damaged armor pieces. If you’ve yet to take the plunge and get your own, there” no better figure to start with. You won’t regret it.
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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Be it his work with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows, the creation of The Dick Van Dyke Show, numerous “2,000 Year Old Man” pairings with Mel Brooks, Steve Martin’s classic comedies, or any number of accomplishments too long to list, Carl Reiner is a true comedy legend.
I’m Ken Plume, and soon you’ll be listening to “A Bit Of A Chat” with me, Ken Plume.
Be sure to pick up your very own copy of the appropriately titled 
If you’d asked a fan a few years back if they’d ever see the notorious Sandy Frank episodes – episodes which Frank supposedly loathed – on DVD, they probably would have sighed and said “No. Probably not.” Well, never say never, because the Sandy Frank films begin their roll out in 
How can you not like the simple, straightforward 
It’s not a great film, but the thing I love so much about 
As it’s Olympics time, it should come as no surprise that Warners has chosen this moment to release the long-awaited high definition debut of 
While the 80’s were loaded with high school comedies, the 90’s seemed to roll out the high school reunion comedies, and while it’s no classic, I remember enjoying the straightforward fun of 
Journey back to a much simpler time when the late Whitney Houston could star in a wholesome flick like 
And leapfrogging ahead, the BBC recently produced a story from the 1948 London games in 
When five juvenile delinquents doing community service are caught in a freak electrical storm and develop superpowers, you get 
There’s definitely some Whedonverse DNA evident in 
The Schwarzenegger 
Even more so than the godawful live action Cat In The Hat, you can’t get a more wrong-headed take on the brilliance of Dr. Seuss than the crass adaptation of 
It’s been a few years, so it should come as no surprise that another new edition of Mel Brooks’ 
While HBO is loaded with classy shows like Game Of Thrones and Veep, Cinemax gets to have a knock-down, dragout action series like 
I came rather late to the Adam & Joe appreciation party, but now that I’m here, I’d like to recommend you all pick up a copy of 
If you caught any of the Red Nose Net charity marathon a few weeks back, you might recall that we used the 
Long held up by music licensing issues, MTV’s 
Penn & Teller return to the 7th season of 
As the remake makes its way to a theater near you, can relive your 80s love of Mr. Miyagi in full high-def via the collector’s edition boxset of 
If you didn’t have the cash to buy the big ol’ Mel Brooks Blu-Ray set that came out last year and want to pick-and-choose a few of his later flicks in high-def, you can now snag 
The third season of 
It’s not Mr. Wizard or Bill Nye, but Smithsonian Network’s 
For anyone who was a fan of the BBC miniseries Edge Of Darkness and was hoping that one day a louder, shallower, star-driven movie would one day be made of that excellent thriller, than the new 
If you want some good old-fashioned swashbuckling action, Columbia has opened the vaults and found a quartet of little-seen Robin Hood flicks that are worth a spin – 
Charlie Brooker had it pegged when he presented 
Yes, I’m getting a bit tired of all of the vampire films and TV shows, but at least 
With grim determination and a hound dog expression in tow, the greatest defense attorney of them all returns in 
The 5th season of 
It’s been a long, long, LONG wait, but the fine folks at Cinematic Titanic make a strong return with their road-tested riff of the awkward merging of both Kung-Fu AND Blaxsploitation, all wrapped in a model of poor filmmaking and worse acting… I give you 
I’ve never owned a good cooking knife in my life. Usually, I’ll hack meat and vegetables with a steak knife, ’cause that’s all I’ve got. Every time I’ve tried to buy a better knife, I’ve always chosen poorly, and wound up with a quick-dulling instrument that just sends me right back to my trusty serrated hacksaws. Well, now I’ve seen the light – and it’s not metal. No, it’s 
It’s not a kiddie movie, but I certainly saw it as a kid, and I still love the anarchic blackness that permeates one of the most offbeat holiday flicks to ever hit screens, 
No one rants with quite the same vigor – and accessibility – as Charlie Brooker. Like a cross between Mark Twain and a riled wasps nest, Brooker’s regular column in the Guardian is an ongoing social commentary that inspires equal parts knowing laughter and sympathetic bile. Don’t believe me? Pick up the latest collection – 
How sweet is it that we’re actually a dozen volumes in to the The Complete Peanuts? What seemed like it would take forever to accomplish – the presentation of the entire run of Charles Schulz’s classic strip – now seems to be flying by, as we can all dive into 
If their continued collections of Peanuts weren’t enough to earn Fantagraphics the love and adoration of comics fans the world over, then their beautiful collections of the EC Segar strips starring his cantankerous, shambling sailor should secure that place within their hearts. The 4th collection – 
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 
It came and went from theaters with only the slightest of notice – a disappointment, considering it was the theatrical follow-up to Juno from screenwriter Diablo Cody. Which is a shame, as 
Check another series off your running list, as we’ve come to the release of the 7th and final season of 
Oh, what I wouldn’t do to put a bullet through the sadly long-lived American Pie franchise, which has now moved into 
What was just about the last season of the show turned out to be just another one after it was picked up, so now you can rest easy as you partake of 
It’s the second volume of 
The regular episodes are often painful scattershot, but the focus of their Star Wars episodes seems to bring out the best in Seth MacFarlane & company, as you can see for yourself with 
Go all the way back to the days of Wendy, Marvin, & Wonder Dog with the first volume from the premiere season of the original 
I remember when 
I’d like to say that Mel Brooks’ 
Christmas is dead and buried, so that means we start getting releases like a special edition of 
It’s all hit the fan in the third season of 
Wrap up the season that brought in Rob Estes, Alyssa Milano, and Lisa Rinna (and showed the door to Grant Show, Marcia Cross, & Laura Leighton) with 
It’s not good cinema, but the flicks contained in 
It never fails to bring a warm feeling when one of those Sunday afternoon flicks that used to permeate my youth gets all cleaned and gussied up and finds its way into high-definition. Certainly those warm feelings come from 
It doesn’t happen often enough, but 
David Tennant’s era as The Doctor has just come to a close, but there’s still plenty of classic Doctor adventures still in the pipeline. The newest releases to keep you warm (if the scarf isn’t enough) is the William Hartnell era 
It’s not for your younger kiddies, but there’s enough inventiveness and beauty of execution to make 
With the resurgence of 3-D, particularly in horror films, it was only a matter of time before the Final Destination franchise decided to go all cine-poky with 
You can feel the end coming on as the 9th season of 
Often viewed as lesser entries in the series and the waning work of an animation genius, I’ve got a warm spot in my heart for the cartoons featured in 
Summer is hot. Very hot. And what can be more useful when determining whether to venture outside your air conditioned cocoon and onto the surface of the sun than to know just what temperature you’ll be encountering – which is easily accomplished with the 
If modern American satire and parody has a father, that man’s name is Harvey Kurtzman. From the founding of Mad through 60’s magazines like Humbug & Help, through Playboy‘s Little Annie Fannie and much more, Kurtzman was not only a vibrant artist, but also a sharp writer and editor. The man and his work is celebrated in a large, excellent tome that should be on your shelf, now – 
Equal parts Neverending Story and Pagemaster, Brendan Fraser stars as Mo Fulchart, who has the rather awkward ability to bring fictional characters into the real world when he reads their story, and awkward adventures ensue. 
Even though it’s a sentimental favorite from my childhood, I’m a bit disappointed that the second Mel Brooks film to make it to Blu-Ray is 
We’ve seen fish-out-of-water adults trying to lead scout troops in the past (I’m looking at you, Troop Beverly Hills, and 
On the run from the Mexican Army, a vengeful killer (Leonard Nimoy), and his girlfriend, Yul Brynner’s 
This truly is not saying much, but 
Yes, Jerry Bruckheimer has produced a “chick flick”, an its name is 
A small town, a missing teen, a cryptic video message, and friends on the lookout make for a surprisingly entertaining thriller in 
Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas as a pair of thieves out to pull of an impossible heist in New York City? Sure, I’ll give 
Combine exec producers Tony & Ridley Scott and hosting duties from Terence Stamp with a horror anthology series, and 
I could say that the latest Cinematic Titanic offering, 
When I travel, I always have far too many electronics, far too many cords, and not nearly enough USB ports on my laptop to charge things. It’s always nice to have a backup plan, and the 
I’d say that reaching the 10th volume of the still-must-have collection of Charles Schulz’s groundbreaking strip is certainly worth celebrating – particularly when 
It seems that Criterion is systematically going back and revisiting some of their more popular catalogue titles and giving them rather stunning new high-definition transfers and some new bonus features, and the latest title to get the A+ treatment is Robert Altman’s 
Some may be watching slasher flicks this Halloween, but I will be celebrating All Hallow’s Eve by taking in the new Blu-Ray edition of Mel Brooks’s 
George Lucas managed to extend his death grip into another beloved franchise, clutching Steven Spielberg in one claw and Indiana Jones in the other, and managing yet again to produce a lame monstrosity instead of what should have been a triumphant return of a cinema hero. Such was the travesty of 
All of the focus is on his stellar performance in Iron Man, but another of Robert Downey, Jr.’s great turns is getting a new special edition DVD – his starring role in the life of The Little Tramp, 
I don’t think it was as strong as the first season, but I still enjoyed the second season of 
In the wake of the Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney Vault titles – those wonderful collections of text and reproductions of rare ephemera – we now get 
I’ll be perfectly honest with you – I was not a huge fan of The Matrix. I enjoyed the flick for what it was – a minor mind-f*** whose special effects and energy thankfully cancelled out most of its banal, overcooked pseudo-philosophizing and messianic overtones. But then came the sequels, which both – in quick succession – managed to top each other on the “Someone actually wrote this crap?” scale. Declining box office was proof enough – a fair number of fans who though The Matrix was the second coming (make your own jokes) left the theater feeling betrayed by creators who obviously had their grip locked firmly on something besides the story. Originally released in on standard DVD – and then the now-defunct HD-DVD – the 6-disc 
Packaged in a handsome lucite slipcase, the 
I caught an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba! the other day, and if any show can rightfully claim the mantle of “Kiddie Show Beloved By Stoners”, it’s this intriguingly bizarre combination of music and costumed characters, If you doubt me, check out 
While you’re pining for the next Spongebob season set, get a quick fix of recent episodes with 
In the VH1 series 
In these troubled, troubling times, I recommend anyone with an open mind should check out the wonderful documentaries of Richard Dawkins, conveniently collected in 
Easily the film that cemented William Hurt as an actor to be reckoned with – and a bizarre one, at that – was his turn in 
Sweeping and epic in the most glorious, classic sense of the word, the foreign language 
If you’re the head of NASA’s multi-million dollar manned mission to Mars and you find out that to send the astronauts would result in disaster, what would you do? Well, if you were the head of the mission in the cult classic 
It was truncated due to the writer’s strike, but the eighth season of 
It may not be brilliant, but there’s certainly something loveable about any show that casts both Patrick Warburton and David Spade. 
I’ll be honest with you – the only real reason that I ever watched an episode of 
Indulge your schlock horror bone with the brand new Ghost House Underground imprint, formed by Ghost House Pictures founders Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, which debuts with 8 titles full of terror and gore aplenty (Lionsgate, Rated R, DVD-$19.98 SRP each). The launch titles include 
It could have been a hokey mess – and there is still some hokinees about – but 
His time in office may be fast coming to an end, but you can still watch the second season of 
Science nerds (like me) can geek out to the complete second season of 
It has been a long, long time since the release of the second season, but fans and interested parties can now partake of 
Terence Malick’s epic tale of Captain John Smith and the Jamestown settlement’s relations with the Native American populace,