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…)
Putting to shame all of the holiday specials before, Steven Moffat hit it out of the park with Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP), which brings the Matt Smith 11th Doctor face-to-face with the Scrooge-like Kazran Sardick, whose heart must be melted in time for a threatened interstellar cruise liner to land safely on his planet. What follows is a lovely timey-wimey adventure that encapsulates the irresistible fairy-tale nature of Moffat’s Who. Bonus materials include the Doctor Who Confidential episode and the Doctor Who At The Proms concert.
Leave it to the Japanese to marshal the mighty forces of science and engineering in order to craft a novelty Robotic Chick ($29.99), which cheeps, chirps, flaps its little wings, and even cries when you turn your back. This is what science should be doing, now and forevermore.
I am absolutely loving the rapid-fire release schedule of the beautifully remastered high definition seasons of The Twilight Zone (Image, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$99.98 SRP), the latest being the 3rd. While we still haven’t reached Shatner territory, the 3rd season I still packed with legendary episodes, from Bill Mumy’s creepy kid in “It’s A Good Life” to the aliens with a plan in “To Serve Man”. Bonus features are seemingly endless, including audio commentaries, featurettes, isolated music scores, a Liars Club segment with Rod Serling, a Tell It To Groucho clip, and much more.
Ignore the bastardized American version and dig into the only iteration worth watching – and the original, natch – with Top Gear 14 (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP) & Top Gear 15 (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.99 SRP), which features the complete, unedited 14th & 15 seasons of the only car show I watch despite the fact that I hate cars. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, featurettes, outtakes, and more.
It holds absolutely no interest for me, but I’m sure there are plenty of Michael Jordan fans still lurking about out there who will be keen to pick up the 4-disc, remastered, high definition edition of Ultimate Jordan (Image, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$69.98 SRP), full of highlights, 5 full games, his Hall of Fame induction speech, and more.
The fine folks at Mill Creek Entertainment are continuing to release a slew of budget-priced kids titles under their Cookie Jar banner, including Paddington Bear: The Complete Series (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), Sabrina: The Animated Series: Volume 1 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), Johnny Test: The Complete First & Second Season (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), He-Man: Volume Two (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP), and Cops: Volume 1 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP).
Mark my words Рin 10 years, Rupert Grint will be one of our finest character actors. Wild Target (Fox, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP) is one of those small little English films Рactually a remake of a French film Рthat trades on a nice quirkiness and an tight cast, this time anchored by Bill Nighy as an assassin having a bit of a midlife crisis who finds himself falling for his target (Emily Blunt) with an unintentional prot̩g̩ (Grint) in tow. Bonus materials are limited to a brief interview with Blunt.
Another series wrapped, as the second volume of the fourth and final season of The Fugitive (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) hits, bringing the tale of wrongly convicted Dr. Richard Kimble to a close. Will he finally catch the one-armed man and clear his name? YOU’LL HAVE TO SEE! Or just Wikipedia it. Either way. The 4-disc set also contains a brief featurette on the music of composer Dominic Frontiere.
Runaway train, never coming back. Wrong way on a one-way track. That could pretty much sum up the remarkable boring runaway train actioner Unstoppable (Fox, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP), which manages to make Denzel Washington and Chris Pine’s attempts to safely stop a runaway train full of deadly toxins into a tedious affair.
I have some issues with the picture being painted by Waiting For Superman (Paramount, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP), but there’s no denying that it’s quite a stirring portrait of the state of public education in the United States. Bonus materials include a quartet of additional student/teacher stories, an interview with the film’s director, a featurette on the making of the John Legend title track, and more.
Hot Toys has been producing some incredible 12″-scale Iron Man collectibles over the past couple of years, featuring ridiculously intricate and incredibly screen-accurate versions of the various armors featured in the films. Straight from Iron Man 2 comes the Iron Man Mark IV ($179.99). Not only do you get a swappable Tony Stark head (with optional sunglasses, natch), but fully light-up chest/eyes/repulsors and base, and swappable hands & panels. Oh, and a box of donuts, for when you’ve had a long night of boozing it up.
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