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…)
Any time we can get fully remastered editions of the Studio Ghibli films, color me delighted – and that’s just we’ve got with new 2-disc special editions of Castle In The Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service, & My Neighbor Totoro (Walt Disney, Rated PG/G/G, DVD-$29.99 SRP each). Each release features a behind-the-scenes exploration of the film, an introduction by John Lasseter, and a storyboard presentation of the film. Sadly, none of the films are getting a Blu-Ray release, but at least the most recent – Ponyo (Walt Disney, Rated G, Blu-ray-$ SRP) – does, and comes with a standard version to boot, plus the same bonus materials as the other Ghibli releases. Will we get high definition versions of them soon? I hope so.
Eliminate all of those excuses about it being far too difficult and time consuming to brew a proper mug of tea by picking up the IngenuiTEA 16oz teapot ($18.99), an ingenious device that allows you to put the tea leaves in the plastic pot, brew to perfection, then set it on your mug and let the spring action release just the tea – leaving the leaves behind. Great, right?
Prior to starring in John Carpenter’s Elvis (Shout! Factory, Rated PG, DVD-$19.99 SRP), Kurt Russell was largely known for the work he’d done at the Disney studio as a teenager. After his remarkable turn in this memorable biopic, there was little doubt that Russell had an adult career in the offing. This new special edition sports an audio commentary, a new featurette with archival interviews, rare American Bandstand clips, and a photo gallery.
The market’s being flooded with any movie or special that ever bore the name, but what sets the 1966 BBC production of Alice In Wonderland (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), besides being directed by Jonathan Miller, is its all-star cast – including Peter Sellers, Sir John Gielgud, Peter Cook, Sir Michael Redgrave, Alan Bennett, John Bird, and more. Bonus materials on the disc include an audio commentary, the 1903 silent film version of Alice, a photo gallery, a Ravi Shankar performance, and Dennis Potter’s 1965 biopic about the real-life Alice Liddell.
It’s a memorable book, but Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, DVD-$28.98 SRP) is also a very slight book – certainly not something that’s easily expanded and transitioned to a feature-length film. Purists may cry foul, but I feel Spike Jonze succeeded in making that transition, creating a film that melds Gilliam’s Time Bandits with Henson’s Dark Crystal & Labyrinth in terms of just endearingly oddball energy. Bonus features include a series of behind-the-scenes short subjects. The Blu-Ray edition ($36.99 SRP) adds the HBO First Look special and an animated adaptation of Sendak’s Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More To Life.
It’s a trippy, Teutonic mess of a children’s film (What can you expect from Wolfgang Petersen?), but thousands of viewings on 1980’s HBO endeared me to The Neverending Story (Warner Bros., Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$28.99 SRP), which has made its way to high definition in a restored print that blows previous DVD editions away. Sadly, there’s not a bonus feature to be found, which is a real waste.
The Daleks get their due in a pair of classic Doctor Who releases, starting with the 4-disc Doctor Who: Dalek War set (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP), featuring the fully restored (now in color!) Jon Pertwee arcs Frontier In Space & Planet Of The Daleks. We then jump ahead to the Sylvester McCoy years with Remembrance Of The Daleks (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP). As usual, both releases are positively loaded with bonus features, from commentaries and featurettes to interviews and easter eggs.
Get your fill of good ol’ country lawyerin’ with the complete fourth season of Abe Simpson’s favorite show, Matlock (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$49.99 SRP). The 6-disc set contains all 23 episodes. My favorites? Whenever Don Knotts would show up. When. Ever.
If you’re a fan of The Sarah Silverman Program and have been endlessly wondering if they’d ever release all of the music featured in the show, you can now cease your endless wondering and simply pick up a copy of Songs Of The Sarah Silverman Program: From Our Rears To Your Ears (Comedy Central Records, $9.98 SRP). It contains all of the songs (and dozens of dialogue snippets) from the first 3 seasons.
Calling Bitch Slap (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$22.97 SRP) a B-movie is a bit generous, but it certainly is a raucous C-D-grade flick about a trio of hard fightin’ women out to retrieve some stolen jewels from a gangster’s hideout. Yup. That about sums it up. Bonus features include audio commentaries and a featurette.
The trailers for the movie have left me cold, but I’ve been an admirer of Chris Sanders’ artwork since Lilo & Stitch, so to see it pop up in the design for the titular beast in Dreamworks’ How To Train Your Dragon was welcome, and I’m always a fan of pouring through books like The Art Of How To Train Your Dragon (Newmarket Press, $40.00 SRP), which is packed with production artwork for the film.
The film itself lags in spots, but Robin Wright proves again how powerful she can be on screen as the titular middle-aged housewife and mother in The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee (Screen Media, Rated R, DVD-$27.98 SRP), who undergoes a reawakening and seeks to recapture the wild energy of her youth (as shown in flashbacks, played by Blake Lively) as she encounters a kindred soul (Keanu Reeves). Bonus features include an audio commentary and cast interviews. A Blu-Ray edition ($29.98 SRP) is also available, with identical bonus features.
I’m sure car nuts enjoy TLC’s reality series focusing on the refurbishment of old cars, Overhaulin’ (TLC Store, Not Rated, DVD-$29.95 SRP). Like everything else on the channel, it’s essentially a reality series about the builders tasked with turning these clunkers around in a short time.
It’s dangerous and sensationalistic, but for the footage of the storms alone, I’m always going to be entranced by a show like Storm Chasers (Discovery Store, Not Rated, DVD-$29.95 SRP), which follows the men who follow devastating midwest storms.
After releasing them as full seasons, they’ve decided to start the whole split-season thing with Have Gun – Will Travel: The Fourth Season Volume One (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP). The adventures of Paladin continue with the 19 episodes contained in the set.
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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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 
I have been waiting with bated breathe for the high definition release of the original 
OK, besides the fact that it looks vaguely similar to The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, there’s something “Ooh! Science & Engineering!” cool about the 
Although I’m disappointed they’re not doing season sets, at least 
Expanded with a brand new director’s cut and looking & sounding far, far better than it ever has before, I’m going to say that the Collector’s Edition of 
Whatever your opinion of Will Ferrell’s big screen comedic take on the material, those of a certain age probably have a fondness in their heart for Sid & Marty Kroftt’s kitsch Saturday morning adventure series 
Audiences largely shied away from 
The rest of the Kubrick oeuvre is all well and good, but the film I was waiting to get in high-def was Kubrick’s black comedy masterpiece, 
An uneven but largely entertaining second season turned out to be the last for 
In 
A post-Porridge Ronnie Barker stars with a pre-Only Fools & Horses David Jason in Roy Clarke’s 
After years of dancing around the line, the world comes crashing down for crooked cop Vic Mackey in the 7th and final season of 
Fox’s catalogue Blu-Ray releases get a so-so bump with the high-def arrival of Danny Glover’s finest acting moment, 
One of the many TV concepts scrawled on napkins and developed after his passing, 
Neither rain, nor sleet, nor diversions ordered by a court of law would keep Jack Bauer from eventually getting 
When something advertises itself as a six-part documentary series investigating bones, skulls, mummies, and vampires and it comes from the fine folks at the Smithsonian – as 
Although I think they would have been a nicely perverse Valentine’s Day release, Paramount has instead waiting until now to give a high definition release to the one-two punch of 
Briefly on life support and saved at the last minute, the third season of 
As you can imagine, 
Raymond Burr’s fearless defense attorney returns in the first volume of 
Already axed, fans can now own the second – and last- season of 
The American version is often an over-produced mess, but the original UK version of 
I love gadgets, and tools that feel like gadgets. That’s certainly the case with the 
I would have preferred it have been A Shot In The Dark, but I guess the high definition arrival of the original 
Released in separate packages previously, MGM has brought together all 9 volumes Pink Panther cartoons into 
I’m not entirely sure why these DC animated direct-to-DVD titles abandoned the much-refined and wonderful Bruce Timm-syled designs of JLU in favor of clunkier, uglier, more angular designs unless the sole reason was (sad) change for change sake, but that is a major “ugh” point in the not-exactly-stellar animated 
Although I find the subject matter interesting, you’ve gotta love a book title like 
Fans have been clamoring for it for years – well, they’ve been clamoring for anything from the band, really – but they’re surely dancing a happy jig at the release of 
Though the stories comprising it are being released separately, the best and easiest way to get the entire arc is to just pick up the 
Not many cartoons can boast a guest turn by Johnny Depp, but a certain spongy yellow character can in the episode collection 
You can see every drop of sweat in the new Blu-Ray edition of Martin Scorsese’s 
If you’ve got a lot of free time, are really jonesing for the Watchmen movie, and are a huge fan of those late 60’s Marvel cartoons, then you’ll probably want to give a spin to 
If you want to find a little bit more about the author behind Watchmen, V: For Vendetta, From Hell, and League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, you can’t do wrong in picking up a copy of the re-released and expanded 
Though my nephews lap it up, I still watch 
I know it made money. I know that people went to go see it. Intellectually, I know these things. I still can’t rationalize that knowledge into any semblance of an endorsement for 
I prefer to believe the awkward director’s cut doesn’t exist, but I did love 
Make sure your young ones get to Sesame Street for 
Baz Luhrman’s epic story of love between an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) and a rough-&-tumble cattle driver (Hugh Jackman) in the Outback is certainly big and sprawling, but 
Oh, 
There have been rather frothy retrospective celebrations of Sesame Street and Jim Henson in book form in the past, which were all well and good – as a child of the 70’s and a fan, I’m all for celebrating both. But it wasn’t until Michael Davis’s heavily-researched and completely candid 
If you’re like me (and you know, in your heart, you dearly want to be), then you have literally tons of old cassettes and records you’d like to import into your computer for use on various portable mixing devices. It’s often been a chore to hook up your cassette deck or turntable, particularly with the need for a pre-amp. Well, with the 
If there was any doubt that Shout! Factory would stick to an aggressive release campaign for new MST collections, let it be erased by 
It’s been years since the release of the first season, but the patient are finally rewarded with 
A landmark role for Peter Sellers and his last great film (sorry, Fu Manchu), 
Overlooked in the theater during its unfortunately timed (and marketed) Halloween release, hopefully 
Also getting a high definition release is Kevin Smith’s 
Long under the thumb of various occupying forces, Estonia spent much of the 20th century controlled by the Soviet Union. Despite all of these various oppressive occupiers, the Estonians were able to maintain their national identity through song – a story that’s told quite well in the documentary 
I’m still not entirely sure what the Martini Movies imprint is all about (though I know it has something to do with a game), but any excuse for a cable staple/guilty pleasure like 
It’s a little creaky here and there, but it was certainly a treat to watch the remastered edition of Douglas Trumball’s virtual reality flick 
Paramount has re-branded another clutch of titles under the “I Love The 80’s” banner – 
Harry Anderson continued to slum it in safe sitcom hell with the second season of 
Through Warners’ TCM imprint, those wanting an easy to pick up primer on some legendary flicks in their Greatest Classic Films Collection releases (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$27.98 SRP each). The 2-disc sets feature 4 films apiece, packed with bonus features including audio commentaries, featurettes, trailers, and more. The 
I’m not a fan of slasher flicks, but I’m sure fans will be delighted that the by-all-appearances naff remake has at least spurred Paramount to release new special editions of the first three – 
Explore the cinematic history of that awful day on the calendar and the hockey mask-wearing killer behind all the mayhem in the documentary 
Outside of House, you’d be hard pressed to find a more bad-tempered doctor than Ted Danson’s 
Things were stretching a bit thin by the time you get to the seventh season of 
Things had begun to get nice and developmentally awkward by the time the fourth and final season came along, so it was probably best that 
Talking dogs. In space. That is