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…)
Yes, I know. We’ve all learned to love again. And, of course, I mean Star Wars. For whatever issues I may have with the film, The Force Awakens re-lit my long-dormant fire for all things long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. So let’s kick off this week with a nifty high-end collectible that does what Star Wars fandom does best – which is take event the smallest of minutiae in the films and turn it into an action figure. That’s just what Hot Toys and Sideshow have done with their 1/6-scale Spacetrooper ($219.99). Don’t remember what a Spacetrooper is? Well, it’s essentially you’re basic Stormtrooper, but with a breathing hose and air pack, a pair of which were fleetingly glimpsed standing on the outside surface of the Death Star as the Millennium Flacon was tractor beamed into the hangar after arriving in the space formerly occupied by Alderaan. Yeah, so, really “blink and you’ll miss it” type stuff, but that’s why we love it, and why it’s so great to have this figure. The detailing is exquisitely screen-accurate, and in addition to the gear specified previously, he also comes with a massive heavy-duty blaster gun.
So yes, the Force has finally woken up, and the December 18th release to theaters opened the floodgates on all of the spoiler-laden materials that had been embargoed. First and foremost, of course, came the official score album from Star Wars: The Awakens (Walt Disney Records, $14.92 SRP) from maestro John Williams, featuring 23 tracks that will transport you to a galaxy… well, you know the rest.
And because it’s a Star Wars film, we also get a lovely The Art Of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Abrams, $ SRP), which is loaded with concept art, much of which explores early drafts of the story and many abandoned sequences and characters in charting the visual evolution of the various designs.
Of course, if you’re still baffled by the flurry of characters, locales, and hardware that made it into the movie, you’ll be able to fill in all of the gaping narrative holes and backstory skimmed over by the film with Star Wars: The Force Awakens – The Visual Dictionary (DK, $19.99 SRP), written by Lucasfilm Lore Gnome Pablo Hidalgo.
But if vehicles are your thing, they’ve got you covered with Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Incredible Cross Sections (DK, $19.99 SRP), which is exactly what you’d expect it to be. So, yeah, all of the major vehicles, laid bare and fully explored.
Years in the making and beyond worth the wait, modern Disney legend Andreas Deja dives deep into the art and influence of his artistic forefathers with The Nine Old Men: Lessons, Techniques, And Inspiration From Disney’s Great Animators (CRC Press, $44.95 SRP). As that equally impressive title suggests, it’s an impressive tome that artists and aficionados alike should own and devour.
Marceline the vampire takes center stage in the 8-part miniseries event Adventure Time: Stakes (Cartoon Network, Not Rated, DVD-$14.97 SRP), in which a batch of foes from her past come forward just as she decides she doesn’t want to be undead anymore. Bonus materials include animatics, song demos, and an art gallery.
If the first season was funny (and it most certainly was), the second season of Broad City (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD-$26.98 SRP) doubles down on the funny with twice as much fun. Did I mention it’s funny? ‘Cause it is. Bonus materials include featurettes, deleted scenes, outtakes, “Body By Trey” videos, and a pop-up enhanced episode.
While, sure, the based-on-real-life tale of survival on the side of the highest mountain in the world is harrowing and all, the real treat watching Everest (Universal, Rated PG-13, 3D Blu-Ray-$49.98 SRP) in 3D is for the breathtaking visuals that threaten to put you on the side of that mountain with the snowstorm-bedeviled expeditions. Bonus features include an audio commentary and a quartet of featurettes.
Rita Hayworth remains magnificent, but Criterion’s new high definition master of Gilda (Criterion, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.95 SRP) finally brings a restoration as beautiful as the performance. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, interviews, a featurette, and a 1964 episode of Hollywood And The Stars spotlighting Hayworth.
Take a journey Inside Einstein’s Mind (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP), in which PBS’ NOVA celebrates the 100th anniversary of his General Relativity with a fascinating look at that landmark achievement.
It’s always enjoyable when Robert De Niro manages to land in that very tiny sweet spot of affable and good-natured that he so rarely gets cast in, and so rarely can hit. But when he does, he’s as charming and warm as he is in The Intern (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP), in which he stars as a 70-year-old widower who decides to reenergize his life by taking a job as a senior intern at a fashion start-up founded by a driven visionary (Anne Hathaway). Bonus materials include a trio of featurettes.
I suppose theater audiences viewing a real-life election-cycle farce at home just weren’t in the mood for political satire, which is a shame, because Our Brand Is Crisis (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.98 SRP) is actually a biting ensemble piece that deserves a second look now that it’s arrived on home video. Bonus materials include a featurette on Sandra Bullock’s character.
I don’t quite understand the cult that has built up around it, though it’s a funny film, so the Zoolander: Blue Steelbook (Paramount, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$16.99 SRP) is a special edition high-def debut for those superfans awaiting the upcoming sequel, with brand new bonus features including audio commentaries, featurettes, and more.
One of the delightful side effects of its recent comeback is that we’re getting official releases of classic episodes, so Reading Rainbow: Miss Nelson Is Back (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$6.99 SRP) features 4 vintage stories including the titular tale, all anchored by the delightful LeVar Burton.
For fans of the first season eager to experience the same kind of magic, the second season of True Detective (HBO, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$79.98 SRP) proved to be a decidedly un-magical affair, long on banality and short on inspiration. Sad, really. Still, there is that first season. Bonus materials include audio commentaries and featurettes.
For the past few years, the folks at Olive films have been making a whole clutch of much-requested catalogue titles from the vaults of various studios available in high definition. Added to their already impressive list of accomplishments is the Blu-Ray debut of the John Malkovich & Gary Sinise Of Mice And Men (Olive Films, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$29.95 SRP) and the mondo-bizarre Serial (Olive, Films, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.95 SRP), starring Martin Mull, Tuesday Weld, Sally Kellerman, & the great Christopher Lee.
Mill Creek has brought forth another batch of catalogue titles from the Sony library at a remarkably affordable cost. The biggie is Party Of Five: The Complete Series (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$69.98 SRP), a 24-disc set containing all 142 episodes. They’re also dropping the short-lived Richard Dean Anderson series Legend (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), from Star Trek producer Michael Piller.
Because I don’t often get a chance to see them when they run, I love binge-watching a batch of PBS DVDs, as they continue to produce incredible documentaries and science programs that are oft-overlooked. My most recent dive took in the 3-D laser-scanning history program Time Scanners, specifically their episodes on the Colosseum, Jerusalem, and Machu Picchu (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP each). Then I took in current affairs with Frontline: Inside Assad’s Syria (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP), then the cookery doc Off The Menu: Asian America (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP), and finally Craft In America: A Journey To The Origins, Artists, And Techniques Of American Craft (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP).
One day, I hope we get to see whatever film Hugh Jackman thought he was in while chewing up the scenery in Pan (Warner Bros., Rated PG, 3D Blu-Ray-$44.95 SRP), because I bet that one’s a corker. Instead, we get a mealy prequel explaining Peter’s origins, because someone thought that was something we needed to know. Turns out, we didn’t. Still, it’s got some pretty 3D work. Bonus materials include an audio commentary and a quartet of featurettes.
With the brand new sequel coming out, it should come as little surprise that Kung Fu Panda & Kung Fu Panda 2 (Dreamworks, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$14.98 SRP each) are getting “Ultimate Edition Of Awesomeness” re-releases, packed with audio commentaries, featurettes, animated shorts, and a preview of Kung Fu Panda 3.
The third season of DaVinci’s Demons (Anchor Bay, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$54.99 SRP) Leonardo’s world exploding as the Ottomon invasion finds its way to his town, as he finds his own inventions used against him, before we joins a Rome-launched Crusade against the Turks.
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 didn’t think I would like the new TRON film. The original was a childhood favorite, even though it’s not a terribly good flick, and everything I’d seen and heard about the sequel gave me a massive feeling of “meh”. Well, the sequel, while flawed, is entirely watchable, at times even good, even if it suffers the same kind of story malaise that affected its predecessor. You can get both films via the 5-disc 
We’re entering into the rainy season as spring begins to dawn, and what better way to pass the time than constructing a pair of Harry Potter LEGO sets – the wonderful 
You know what doesn’t hold up? The original 
While it’s not the complete season sets fans have been hoping for, at least 
While I still prefer its more oddball sequel, there’s still much charm in the original 
If you’re still breaking in your 3-D TV or computer and desperate for content with which to do so, a pair of films made for 3-D IMAX theaters are available for your exhibition pleasure – 
Another of those “must-have” classic musicals has made its way into the high definition realm with the arrival of the 40th anniversary edition of 
The massive Roger Corman collection coming out of Shout Factory gets a pair of new releases that amount to 5 more films, the first of which is the triple feature 
If you thought you had the complete run of Abbott & Costello’s theatrical flicks after getting that big Universal set a few years back, best think again, as the Warner Archive Collection has released a clutch of films the boys made for them, including 
The most I can say about 
Louis CK proves yet again why he’s one of the finest practitioners of stand-up today with 
I love desktop gadgets, if only because they provide a welcome – and inherently evil – distraction from actually getting down to the mounds of work at hand. So imagine my delight when I learned I could get a desktop item that not only provides a visual lure, but also a geeky one? That’s what you get with the 
I don’t think it’s his best, but there’s no denying the brutal power of Martin Scorsese’s 
Whoever thought to assemble a Rat Pack of female television comedy greats – Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick & Betty White – into a sitcom of their own should be given a promotion. In the meantime, you can pick up the complete first season of 
Sergio Leone’s epic 
Some doubted it would ever happen, but they were all proven wrong when 
The new year brings a pair of new classic Doctor Who releases from the seemingly bottomless catalogue, this time reaching all the way back to Patrick Troughton’s Doctor for 
Of all the companies with deep TV catalogues, Paramount/CBS has been the most consistent in releasing their titles, often sticking by and finishing runs while other companies left theirs by the wayside. All this is to say they’ve released another clutch of deep catalogue titles, including 
Continuing to fulfill its remit to release deep catalogue titles sure to make cinephiles happy, the Warner Archive just dropped 
The further we get away from it and the more I try and revisit it over the years, I find myself less and less impressed with Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning 
As cringeworthy as both the original Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm could be, the comedic situations of 
Another in The History Channel’s long line of “historical” series that have only the slightest of historical content to justify their claim that there’s historical content, 
I admit, after the departure of the original cast, my interest has declined from season to season of 
Ostensibly launched as a way of highlighting positive news stories, 
Sadly, the massive Looney Tunes: Golden Collections are a thing of the past, which leaves us with single disc releases 
We’re nearly at the end with the release of the penultimate fourteenth season of 
The comedy talent may be plentiful, but the quality of the sketches are just as scattershot as your average episode of Saturday Night Live in the first season of 
Originally released on DVD nearly a decade ago, the epic TV miniseries 
If you can get past some of their garbage shows about aliens and the end of the world, History does still manages to put out some real gems that should be seen, including the 5th season of their astronomical wonderfest, 
As it stars both Patrick Warburton and David Spade, I always hope that 
While 
Sadly, 
Ben 10 has moved beyond Alien Force with the first volume of 
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 
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,