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…)
As its original run was airing, I would rarely miss a new episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Paramount, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$129.99 SRP). As years have gone by, my love of the show has waned, and I find more and more flaws in its stories with the truly outstanding episodes dwindling to a handful. But I must applaud and support the phenomenal effort that has been put into making the show available in HD, which includes going back to the actual film source and constructing the show from all of the original elements in HD, rather than the original video mastering… Which means the show has never, ever looked as good and, frankly, modern as it does now. So for that reason alone, I recommend these sets, especially in hopes that their success will ensure Deep Space Nine gets the same treatment. As far as bonus features go, not only do we get the original DVD features, but also brand new documentaries, and the now-legendary blooper reel.
With the Holga iPhone Lens Filter Kit ($29.99), you have the ability – via a simple rotary design – to rotate in nine different filters, from gels to duplications and more. It’s a fun little add-on to muck around with on a summer’s day.
The gap between releases is an endurance test, but when a new Cinematic Titanic Live DVD arrives, the beautiful little comedy gem makes you forget just how long it’s been since the last one. And oh, does Rattlers (Cinema Titans, Not Rated, DVD-$14.99) deliver some comedy gold, as a discount Ken Doll (and tenured herpetologist) intones his way through a ham-fisted entry in that honored 70’s genre – animals gone scholockily wild. Get this, and hope that the wait for the next release is far shorter.
Another month, another pair of classic Doctor Who releases bringing us that much closer to having all of the almost 30 years of stories on DVD. And this month brings a pair of corkers – Patrick Troughton’s 2nd Doctor in Doctor Who: The Krotons (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP) and Jon Pertwee’s 3rd Doctor in Doctor Who: Death To The Daleks (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP). As usual, both are loaded with bonus features, the real standout being the nearly hour-long 2nd Doctor retrospective on Krotons.
Yes, American Masters: Johnny Carson – King of Late (PBS, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.99) is just as brilliant and welcome and ultimately unsatisfying as I hoped it would be. Really, any attempt to paint a portrait of the famously private Carson was going to leave a viewer left wanting, but I’m delighted that a portrait even exists, which is a brilliant appreciation of what made Johnny king – a crown no one else has come to claiming.
I’ve said it before, and I shall continue to say it as long as he continues to write them – If you’ve not yet read John Swartzwelder’s series of brilliantly comic novels starring dim detective Frank Burly, than you do not deserve to be literate. So yes, do catch up, and also pick up the latest – The Million Dollar Policeman (Kennydale Books, $15.95 SRP) – or just walk away and never read again.
The fine folks at Fantagraphics continue to do more to keep classic Disney characters in front of audiences than Disney does, with the release of both the 3rd volume collecting Floyd’s Gottfredson’s classic Mickey Mouse comic strip, Mickey Mouse: High Noon At Inferno Gulch (Fantagraphics, $29.99 SRP), and the 2nd volume collecting the works of the great Carl Barks, Uncle Scrooge: Only A Poor Old Man (Fantagraphics, $28.99 SRP). Presented in beautiful hardcover form and supplemented by essays and insight, they are must have additions to the library of fans and sure-to-become-fans alike.
And speaking of a company doing fine work for those who truly love comics, the folks at Twomorrows have released a pair of books which are both worth picking up – Marie Severin: The Mirthful Mistress Of Comics (Twomorrows, $24.95 SRP) looks at the silver age Marvel Bullpen legend, while Modern Masters: Eric Powell (Twomorrows, $15.95 SRP) takes a look at the art of the man behind The Goon. Both are packed with interviews and art and yes, both should be on your shopping list.
While the US remake has me worried, the must-see feature film is getting it’s US debut soon and the original UK series has finally been released in the US. So what does that mean? That means you should get The Inbetweeners: The Complete Series (eOne, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) immediately, and partake of the immature misadventures of Will, Neal, Simon & Jay. Bonus materials include audio commentaries, featurettes, and more.
The show may be running out of steam, but there’s still a lot of fun to be had in the 4th season of iCarly (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$19.99 SRP), which comes bearing 10 episodes in widescreen for the first time, all of which are full of hijinks. Hi-jinks, I tells ya. Bonus materials include 5 episodes of the show How To Rock.
Warners has brought a pair of much-requested sci-fi titles to high definition with the arrival of Peter Hyams’ Outland (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP), starring Sean Connery as a colonial marshal on Jupiter’s moon investigating the mysterious deaths of miners, and Ken Russell’s still-bizarre Altered States (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP). As far as bonus materials go, Outland gets an audio commentary and trailer, while Altered States gets only a trailer. Still, at least we finally have both of these flicks on Blu-Ray.
Been waiting for another UCB movie? I have. Is there another UCB movie, written and helmed by Matt Besser and starring his brilliant partners? Yes, there is. Does it have dance? Not only does it have dance, it has Freak Dance (Image, Not Rated, DVD-$27.97 SRP) – The greatest dance of them all. Just watch it. Now. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, featurette, and deleted scenes.
Still one of the greatest concert movies ever put to film, Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live (Eagle Vision, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP) makes its way to high definition in a phenomenal presentation whose sound is an improvement over the already-stellar DVD from a few years back. Get this.
Seeing as how every season since the third has gotten a concurrent high-definition releases, Warners has gone back to fill in the blanks with high-definition releases of The Big Bang Theory: Season 1 & The Big Bang Theory: Season 2 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP each). Both have the same featurettes and gag reels of their original DVD versions, but now the picture looks oh so much better.
Yeah, I don’t know if I really wanted to catch up with the characters of American Pie almost 15 years later, and seeing them coming to terms with adulthood and families and maturity and stagnation in American Reunion (Universal, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.96 SRP) proves my initial trepidation to be prescient, as boy, is this just an awkward trudge. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes, and a gag reel.
What a world we live in when Mel Gibson has so damaged his reputation that his new film essentially goes direct-to-video, as is the case with the action flick Get The Gringo (Fox, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP), where he’s a grizzled thief whose last heist lands him in a Mexican prison, and mixed up with corrupt cops, druglords, and a 10-year-old boy with a special liver. Bonus materials include featurettes and a music video.
Many years ago, the book Salmon Fishing In The Yemen (Sony, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP was recommended to me by the great Neil Innes. I enjoyed the book immensely. The film, while not as great as the book, is a worthy adaptation of the source material. Bonus materials include a pair of featurettes.
There’s nothing altogether wrong about Friends With Kids (Lionsgate, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) – in fact, it has a great cast (everyone from Maya Rudolph and John Hamm to Chris O’Dowd and Kristen Wiig) – it’s just that its romantic comedy tropes feel like warmed over Judd Apatow… Which is no mean feat, considering Judd Apatow movies feel like warmed over Judd Apatow. In a nutshell, it’s about a pair of friends (Adam Scott & writer/director Jennifer Westfeldt) who, upon seeing the rest of their friends have kids, decided to have a baby together… But remain platonic friends and still actively pursue outside relationships. See? Bonus materials include an audio commentary, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and more.
Hans Zimmer’s score to The Dark Knight Rises (Water Tower Music, $10.00 SRP) wraps up Christopher Nolan’s trilogy with cues as dark, brooding, and majestic as you’ve come to expect, aided by a powerful sonic arrival of baddie Bane.
For a unique view of history, look no further than Michael Wood’s Story Of England (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP), which charts the country’s history using a single village over the course of 2000 years, from the Roman occupation to the present day.
Warners, MGM, and Sony have all jumped into the MOD catalogue business, but one of the studios with the biggest libraries has finally arrived on the scene with the 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives, dropping 15 never-before-released titles that cinema fans are sure to want to snap up. That initial batch is comprised of Dangerous Years, Fraulein, Love Is News, Mr. Belvedere Rings The Bell, My Wife’s Best Friend, Rings On Her Fingers, Suez, Diplomatic Courier, They Came To Blow Up America, Way Of A Gaucho, Claudia, The Foxes Of Harrow, Kidnapped, Frontier Marshal, Life Begins At Eight-Thirty (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP each).
MGM’s MOD Limited Edition Collection has dropped a new clutch of titles from the vault, the highlights of which are Dave Thomas and Sally Kellerman in the Boris And Natasha: The Movie (MGM, Rated PG, DVD-$19.98), Tab Hunter and Jim Backus in Operation Bikini (MGM, Not Rated DVD-$19.98), Boris Karloff in Mr. Wong In Chinatown (MGM, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98), and Mickey Rooney in Leave ‘Em Laughing (MGM, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98).
Disney continues to fulfill their promise to unleash a slew of catalogue titles on Blu-Ray this year, with this week bringing a new release, including Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer (Touchstone, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$20.99 SRP), Diane Lane in Under The Tuscan Sun (Touchstone, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$20.00 SRP), and John Travolta in Phenomenon (Touchstone, Rated PG, DVD-$20.00 SRP).
The Three Stooges film (Fox, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) just confuses me. I want to hate it. It wants to be loved. We meet in the middle at “eh.” But I did walk away wanting a film with Nun Larry David. So that’s something, right? Bonus materials include deleted scenes, featurettes, and a screen test.
If you’ve got kids, Scholastic’s ever-expanding library of animated adaptations of children’s books is worth picking up, the latest of which is My First Collection Volume 3: Featuring Chicken Little (Scholastic, Not Rated, DVD-$24.95 SRP), which collects 13 award-winning stories across 3-discs.
In this week’s reality dump, we get another pseudo-nailbiting season of IRT Deadliest Roads (History Channel, Not Rated, DVD-$29.95 SRP), in which another batch of truckers truck their way through deadly trucking territory in a truckmanlike fashion, this time in the high Andes. Also available is the third volume of Storage Wars (A&E, Not Rated, DVD-$19.95 SRP), in which the usual suspects lift a lot of doors to pull out a lot of junk.
Slowly but surely we’re creeping towards catching up as Roy Clarke’s long-running Last Of The Summer Wine (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP) brings its vintage up to 1992, which also features that year’s special “Stop That Castle”.
This week’s spotlight of what those purveyors of wonder over at Sideshow and Hot Toys have on tap features a pair – yes, that’s two! – figures that are available right now, both from the same film. First up is the very limited San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Captain America – Rescue Version ($219), sporting the outfit Steve Rogers quickly assembled in order to save his fellow soldiers. Next up is the dastardly villain Cap was rescuing those solders from – The Red Skull ($199.99). As you can see from the photos, both figures feature exquisitely tailored costumes and eerily lifelike head sculpts. I mean, just look at that swappable Hugo Weaving head! The work that Hot Toys is doing is, quite simply, amazing. If you can get them both, do so. You’ll regret passing them up later.
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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While it’s not the much-desired fully-restored Blu-Ray editions fans have been clamoring for, Universal has released the original (best) Marx Brothers films as individual DVDs of 
Who doesn’t want to snuggle with a soft and fluffy blob of sentient fat? Well, if you’re a Doctor Who fan, you can do just that with the 
Though I always get it confused in my head with The Wind And The Lion, I’ve always had a fondness for Jon Huston’s ingratiatingly epic adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s 
Like Sgt. Bilko and The Simpsons, the late comedian Bill Hicks is far more revered in the UK than he ever was in the US, and it’s with that reverence that the wish-it-was-better-done documentary 
Everyone breaks down in the third season of Breaking Bad (Sony, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$49.95 SRP), as Bryan Cranston’s Walt faces a difficult decision while dealing with a broken marriage, a dangerously reckless partner, and a price on his head. Bonus materials include a trio of uncensored episodes, audio commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.
Warners queues up another sterling high definition catalogue restoration with 
The great David Attenborough narrates another must-see nature documentary from the BBC, as their far-ranging cameras descend upon 
Another month, another massive dip into the catalogue for MGM, as they deliver a new batch titles in high definition for the first time – Martin Scorsese’s 
I have to be honest with you – I’m not of the generation that became enamored with the man-child comedy stylings of Adam Sandler. That means I’m not the intended audience who will delight in the high-definition release 
Re-create your own NBC Mystery Movie Night with the complete 3rd season of 
The Warner Archive Collection dips back into the TV pool and pulls up another pair of releases that might not otherwise see the light of day – Part 1 of the first season of the classic 60’s procedural 
Warners has been releasing more and more of their obscure catalogue titles through the MOD Warner Archive, which is why it was a pleasant surprise to see 1933’s 
Of all the recent original animated movies to come out of Warners DC Universe imprint, the one of actually enjoyed and didn’t cringe at is the one starring ol’ Hal Jordan himself, 
The beginning of the 3rd season of 
Oh, James Cameron. I know you only produced 
Or you could spend this weekend plowing through 
If you’re sports-inclined, HBO has a pair of Blu-Ray releases that will delight Baseball fans – The documentary series 
I’m not a fan, but those who are will probably snap up the remastered 30th anniversary edition of the 
It’s a terribly bleak meditation on aging and not terribly suitable for kids who aren’t in the middle of an existential crisis, which may be an odd assessment to some considering I’m talking about 
There’s something oh so juvenile but oh so fun about having 
The 25th anniversaries are coming fast and furious, as hot on the heels of Back To The Future comes 
A few years ago, mentalist/sorcerer supreme Derren Brown released a book that provided tantalizing glimpses into his life but largely served as a sort of overview to the methodology behind his magic. Now, however, he’s returned with a proper autobiography, 
A few years back, when the 
It’s not nearly as enjoyable or as cohesive as Band Of Brothers, but there’s still plenty of fascinating history – and accompanying visuals – to be had in its follow-up mini-series, 
It’s a growing trend to create books packed with reproductions of ephemera, and you can add the Harry Potter film franchise to that list with the release of 
I’ve made it this far in my life without ever having seen 
Just in time for the holidays – and hot on the heels of his stage comeback – you can pick up the complete 5-season run of 
It’s a big ol’ festive mess of a film, but I have a special place in my heart for 
Join photographer Murray Fredericks as he travels into the remote, dangerous, formidable, and breathtakingly beautiful Lake Eyre, a massive salt lake in the north corner of South Australia. The documentary, 
It’s clearly Robert Rodriguez’s attempt to make the same impact on the Predator franchise that James Cameron made with Aliens, but Rodriguez’s 
My unwavering love for Star Wars has wavered quite a bit since George Lucas slapped us with the prequels, but occasionally something comes along that reignites that enthusiasm, if only for a brief time. One of those flares came when flipping through 
There may be only one Highlander, but they made the unfortunate decision to follow up the decent fantasy flick 
A sci-fi schlock classic makes its DVD debut as 
It’s not spaceflight or Everest, but using IMAX to shoot and present the works of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings is certainly a unique, and interesting, use of the format, as shown in 
When he’s not busy giving directions to a god of thunder, Kenneth Branagh has been starring as Inspector Kurt Wallander in the BBC’s latest mystery series 
If you want to look at a dull, lifeless reimagining, look no further than the awkward tedium that is 
It’s not only the picture frame that’s expanded in the third season of 
OK, there is something blatantly geeky about keeping your change in a bank that’s also an exact replica of the 
Much like Freaks & Geeks and Arrested Development before it, another brilliant but short-lived series comes to DVD, where it will hopefully be discovered by those who didn’t get to experience it during its first go-round. So what series am I celebrating this time? 
For years now, I’ve been reiterating that you should buy, post-haste, the comedic sci-fi novels of Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder. Every one so far has been the delightfully quirky literary equivalent of a fine gem, and the greatness keeps on coming with his latest tale of slow-witted detective Frank Burly, 
As much as I love RiffTrax, it’s with Cinematic Titanic that I feel like I’ve come home to the Mystery Science Theater experience that I fell in love with lo’ those many years ago. Awful movie? Check. Brilliantly, hilariously eviscerating comedy at said film’s expense? Check. An endearingly goofy conceit prompting the experience? Check. The folks behind MST? Check. So what’s their latest target? A cheesy vampire flick called 
For years it’s been available in a sub-par 4×3 version, but finally the first (and best) Sesame Street feature film gets so much-deserved respect with the newly-remastered, widescreen edition of 
When a comedian decides – at the age of 32 – to write his autobiography, it’s understandable to be a bit wary. But when that comedian is Russell Brand – and the tome deals in large part with his years of heroin and sex addiction – my curiosity is piqued. The book itself – whimsically titled 
Picking up where Casino Royale left off, 
What many people consider to be the worst Bond film – even though it’s technically not in the Bond canon proper – is Sean Connery’s last turn, 
Add another must-have title to the list of those that have finally made it to Blu-Ray with the arrival of 
Letterman, Leno, Conan, and Kimmel may get all of the attention, but the brilliant dark horse of late night TV is Craig Ferguson. Most don’t know that the lost of The Late Late Show was also a stand-up, but you can easily rectify that lack of knowledge by picking up his brand new stand-up DVD, 
Knowing its tortured production history, I had pretty low expectations for the Disney (non-Pixar) CG animated film 
While most catalogue high-def releases have focused on comedies and action flicks, the drama side of things gets serviced with a trio of new releases to Blu-Ray – 
If you walked out of Watchmen wanting to recreate the aural experience, there’s a pair of discs that fit the bill. For the songs featured in the flick, you’ll want 
Of the more recent crop of Disney animated flicks, one of the few I’d say is a classic on par with their golden age is 
It was occasionally a bit rocky, but I wound up enjoying 
Filmed in 1993, Rod Stewart’s stint on Unplugged was a rousing, rollicking jaunt through his back catalogue, with Ronnie Wood by his side. The CD has been re-released with a pair of bonus tracks as 
I’m delighted that Paramount has decided to stick with their remastered, 2-disc special editions they’ve branded as the “Centennial Collection”. The latest releases are Alfred Hitchcock’s 
I am not a teenage girl or an emotionally needy woman, so the 
Many nerds noted the absence of the comic book story 
If you want a bit of the great outdoors this weekend, you might want to check out a pair of new releases from Animal Planet. 
Originally available as an exclusive pack in with Kung Fu Panda, the animated follow-up 
See just how fun, frolicsome, and positively risqué pre-Code Tinseltown was in the 
I’m not a terribly big fan, so the less I say about the CG animated Star Wars series the better. Suffice it to say, the first episode collection,