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…)
It’s a true loss that Nat Hiken’s Car 54: Where Are You? (Shanachie, Not Rated, DVD-$ SRP) only made it to two seasons, as it’s truly one of the most grossly underappreciated television comedies ever made. Thankfully, we now have both of those seasons on DVD, thanks to the fine folks at Shanachie. Go. Get them both, and watch the merry misadventures of Officers Toody and Muldoon.
Even if you’re not steampunky, it’s hard to resist the charm of the positively beautiful Solar Powered Turbine Fob Watch ($129.99). Styled in pewter and copper with many a steampunk accent – right down to the turbine-like inset on the lid – it doesn’t quite go all the way, featuring instead of mechanics a reliable battery-powered quartz movement.
I would say that Patton Oswalt: Finest Hour (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP) is a pretty accurate title when it comes to Patton’s latest stand-up special, which certainly finds him at the top of his game , even if sweatpants don’t make it out unscathed. Bonus materials include an encore and a pair of featurettes.
The best way to describe the brilliant new stand-up special from the brilliant Paul F. Tompkins is that it’s an oral history of the career of comedian Paul F. Tompkins. Suffice to say, you would regret it for the rest of your days if you do not purchase Paul F. Tompkins: Laboring Under Delusions (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD-$14.95 SRP). Bonus materials include an audio commentary with a director, an encore, and an episode of his Pod F. Tompkast.
The dandy scribe behind Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes, explores another slice of class warfare – this time historic – with the 4-part miniseries Titanic (E1, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.98 SRP), a much-better-than-James-Cameron look at the various societal and economic tiers at play on the doomed ocean liner.
Have a little Jackie Gleason-thon in high definition this weekend with the Blu-Ray arrival of the guilty pleasure comedy The Toy (Image, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$9.99 SRP) and the much better Tom Hanks tearjerker Nothing In Common (Image, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$17.97 SRP). Both lack any bonus features, but who needs ’em when you’ve got Ned Beatty?
Fox has released another of their star-specific DVD collections, this time bringing together 10 films for the Frank Sinatra Film Collection (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP), featuring The Pride And The Passion. Kings Go Forth, A Hole In The Head, Can-Can, The Manchurian Candidate, Von Ryan’s Express, Cast A Giant Shadow, Tony Rome, The Detective, & Lady In Cement.
The fine folks at Mill Creek continue to re-release seasons of a handful of TV classics for staggeringly rock-bottom prices you’d be foolish not to take advantage of. Included this time around are 3rd Rock From The Sun: Season 3 & 3rd Rock From The Sun: Season 4 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP each), That 70’s Show: Season 3 & That 70’s Show: Season 4 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP each), and Roseanne: The Complete Third Season & Roseanne: The Complete Fourth Season (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP each). The great thing? The sets contain all of the bonus features from the original releases.
A movie lover who devoured old films, my grandmother would have loved if I had gifted her the dirt cheap, 12-disc genre sets Mill Creek has been releasing, mainly because each of those 12-disc sets – flicks of the 1950’s in The Nifty Fifties, Timeless Family Classics, & the crime/noir Dark Crimes (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP each)- contains 50 films. That’s right – FIFTY films.
How incredible are the artisans at Hot Toys? So incredible, that their latest DX 12″ figure of Jack Nicholson’s Joker ($264.99) from Tim Burton’s Batman is remarkably, creepily accurate. Not only is the facial sculpt perfect, but the elaborate costuming, right down to the overcoat The Joker wore during the parade near the end, is completely in-scale accurate. And props! This thing comes with guns (BANG and ludicrously long), a megaphone, a remote control, chattering teeth, cash, and more. Get this incredible piece from the fine folks at Sideshow, or regret that you passed up the opportunity to do so.
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