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…)
The wait between seasons seems longer and longer, but when you view the 8 episodes comprising The Venture Bros.: Season Five (Adult Swim, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP), you understand that the wait is a necessary byproduct of the quality Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer bring to the crafting of each and every episode. As a bonus, the set also contains both the Halloween and Shallow Gravy specials, plus audio commentaries on every episode from Astrobase Go.
As soon as we saw the seemingly endless variations of armor on display in Iron Man 3, we all knew it was going to be a marketing bonanza, so it came as little surprise that the ones to pounce on that opportunity were the fine folks at Hot Toys, who seem determined to make 1/6th scale versions of every single Tony Stark creation in the film. The first out of the gate is the Iron Man Mark XXI – Midas (Sideshow, $299.99), which presents the armored Avenger in gilded form, with the armor itself being very close in design to the bog standard red & gold outfit. Just gold. As usual, you get an incredible array of hands and flaps, plus the super-spiffy LED lighting in the chest, eyes, and palms.
It’s time for Matt Smith’s yuletide swan song as the 11th Doctor in Doctor Who: The Time Of The Doctor (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP), which finds the post-50th anniversary time lord at the end of his regenerations and in a standoff with his greatest foes. Bonus materials include documentaries on Smith’s tenure and the inhabitants of the TARDIS over the years, plus a behind-the-scenes featurette.
Coming off a high water mark first season finale, the second season gets off to a running start with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutagen Mayhem (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), as the Turtles unwittingly shower the city with ooze canisters, leading to much… well… mayhem. This disc features the first 6 episodes of the season, plus 6 scene evolutions and a Channel 6 Special Report.
Shockingly, it’s taken this long for an official release of LA Law: Season One (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$29.93 SRP), but it should be little surprise that the much-loved NBC legal drama’s debut comes courtesy of those fine folks at Shout Factory. The 6-disc set contains all 22 episodes plus brand new interviews with creator Steven Bochco and the cast.
My overriding impression while watching Spike Lee’s Oldboy (Sony, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP) is that I really wish it was a better film. A vengeance tale about a kidnapped man (Josh Brolin) who is inexplicably released after 20 years in solitary confinement and proceeds to search for those responsible, it has all of the potential to have been great. It even has Samuel L. Jackson. Bonus materials include featurettes, alternate/extended scenes, and a workout video.
I’ve never really sparked to the books or the first film, but having seen The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lionsgate, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) in the theater with friends who were big fans, based on their positive reactions it seems the adaptation was a success. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, a making-of documentary, and deleted scenes.
At least in this age of ridiculously grim and gritty superheroes coming out of Warner Bros., we still have the fun and funny bright spot collected in Teen Titans Go: Mission To Misbehave (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$19.97 SRP), which collects 26 episodes of the Cartoon Network series.
You can now watch the goofy Nazis in space flick Iron Sky (E1, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.98 SRP) via an expanded director’s cut that adds 20 minutes of additional footage and revised special effects, with a brand-new making of documentary and a bonus booklet full of concept art.
Clint Eastwood returns to the role of foreman Rowdy Yates in the penultimate season of the show that launched the squinty-eyed legend, now available in Rawhide: Season 7 Volume 1 & Rawhide: Season 7 Volume 2 (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$45.98 SRP each). Each 4 disc set contains 15 episodes of old west action. Just don’t try to understand ’em.
Try to ignore some of the more sensationalized “history” found in the History Channel drama by exploring the actual facts in the BBC documentary Vikings (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP), in which historian Neil Oliver explores the actual Norwegian archeological sites to uncover the true facts about those legendary people.
No one did overblown Technicolor biblical epics like Cecil B. Demille, as you can see for yourself as another of his gets its high definition debut – because Samson And Delilah (Paramount, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$22.98 SRP) is just as deliriously overblown as you’d expect.
Though it presents a somewhat sanitized view of Nazi Germany, owing to its YA novel roots, The Book Thief (Fox, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) is still a sweetly inspiring tale of an illiterate young girl taken in by a German family who instill in her a love of reading and a compassion that finds outlet in protecting a young Jewish boy her adoptive family takes in. Bonus materials include featurettes and deleted scenes.
Venture into the mystery and intrigue roaming the university halls of Trinity (EagleVision, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP), about a college not in the least bit interested in giving up its secrets to a streetwise new student. Oh, and it also stars Charles Dance as a sinister professor. So it’s got that going for it. Bonus materials include a clutch of featurettes.
As one would expect, there’s ridiculous amounts of drama to be mined from the fashion world, so it should come as little surprise that the documentary Mademoiselle C (Cohen Media Group, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$34.98 SRP), which takes a behind the scenes look at French Vogue’s empress Carine Roitfeld, is a pretty interesting little watch. Bonus materials include premiere footage from Paris and the film’s trailer.
Fans of big giant robots that transform into planes, trains, and automobiles will want to pick up a pair of brand new releases – Transformers Prime: Ultimate Bumblebee (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$9.99 SRP) and Transformers Armada: The Complete Series (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$44.99 SRP). The Bumblebee release features 4 episodes of the modern series, while the 8-disc Armada contains all 52 episodes.
For the toddler set, this week brings Dora The Explorer: Dora In Wonderland (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP), which finds Dora exploring Wonderland (of course), and Bubble Guppies: Animals Everywhere (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$16.99 SRP).
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
##
I had worries that 
Yeah, I love me some novelty cameras, and the 
It’s an embarrassment of riches from the fine folks at Fantagraphics as they deliver not one, but two fantastic comic collections for aficionados to dive into. Not only do we get the 15th volume of 
Five years after Hurricane Katrina, Spike Lee returned to New Orleans for a follow up to his documentary When The Levees Broke. The equally powerful return is documented in 
The arrival of the Handmade Films library in high definition continues with both a hard-bitten action flick and farce – Neil Jordan’s 
Not only great films make it to Blu-Ray – sometimes you get catalogue releases like the one-two punch of 
MGM cranks up their on-demand program (similar to the programs already in place over at Warners and Universal) with a clutch of obscure catalogue titles including an early turn from William Shatner in 
I’m sure that the Jack Black-starring bastardization of 
Take another show off the uncompleted list as the 6th & final season of 
If all of that story and character just seemed like filler to you, you’ll probably want to pick up 
Graham Linehan – with Arthur Matthews – is one half of the creative team behind the legendary britcom Father Ted. With 
You can add realistic graphics and motion sensing to your heart’s content, but my heart will always hold the Nintendo games of my youth closest of all. So, in the age of the Nintendo DS, how can one bring some high quality handheld gaming to those vintage games? Well, with the 
Transplanting Ferris Bueller from the big screen to the small screen was a bit of a disaster. Well, a complete disaster, actually. The show that did manage to pull off a high school comedy about a teen who knew exactly how to navigate the pitfalls and perils with smart scripts and a great cast was 
After all of those recent, wonderful album remasters, it was only a matter of time before we got the remastered single-disc hits album 
I would not be disappointed if the 5th season of 
Female comedians are a rarity compared to the number of male comedians, and female comedy troupes are even rarer. It’s a damn shame on both counts, and it means one should support those that are out there – including the stars of the Channel 4 series 
Another TV show heretofore absent from DVD that Shout has gained the rights to and dropped a first season release on is 
Get a unique view of the moon landing via the coverage from the across the pond on 
Often overlooked, Rod Stewart produced a few classic albums in his day, and a pair of those have been revisited for deluxe editions. The first is the hit-laden 
Still Spike Lee’s finest outing, the still powerful 
Nobody pulls off upper-class white trash like Danny McBride, and that’s more than evident in the uneven but occasionally brilliant first season of 
Time for another round of comic shenanigans in Hooterville’s Shady Rest Hotel, with the release of the complete second season of 
It was never as good as its parent show’s best seasons, but by the fifth and final season of 
I have absolutely nothing to say about 
Action? Sure. A big heist gone bad the brings revenge down on the head of a New Orleans Police Detective? Check. The cop is John Cena? Yeah. The movie? 
Because I know you demanded it, you can now partake of the live action 
Disney extends their corner on the Princess market with their Disney Channel original 
While it’s not the Blu-Ray editions that everyone (me included) was hoping for, the new special editions of the Back To The Future trilogy are worth a look see. The original 
I’ve got hundreds and hundreds of slides and negatives from years of pre-digital photo archives. That being the case, I’m always keen on new and easier ways to try and digitize this wealth of images – including a nifty slide/negative scanner that Thinkgeek offered, and I featured a few months back. Well, now they’ve gone and begun offering a newer, spiffier 
Another catalogue classic making its way to high definition is the director’s cut of 
Also hitting Blu-Ray is David Cronenberg’s surprisingly accessible 
Uber-curmudgeon Victor Meldrew returns in the 
It’s not quite as incisive as it could be, but Oliver Stone’s 
When all hell breaks loose in a small town, are you going to call the police? No. The FBI? No. The military? Of course not! Ninjas? THEY DON’T HAVE PHONES!! No, the person you’re going to call to sort it all out is B-movie legend Bruce Campbell – and that’s just what the small town of Gold Lick does in the fun little goof 
It’s certainly not their finest hour, but I sort of kind of dig the better aspects of 
It’s by no means a disaster, but it certainly would have been nice if Bernie Mac’s final film were better. 
The Blu-Ray catalogue express pulls up to the station with another carload full of titles, this time straight from Fox. Getting the high definition treatment are the much-requested 
It’s no Pixar, but there’s a simple pleasure to 
There’s nothing especially upsetting or horrific or even interesting about 
It’s not the best looking CGI animated flick, but my nephew certainly likes the off-kilter tale of 
Long before the lackluster Masters Of Horror, another anthology series sought out horror masters for a slightly better clutch of stories – 
It’s a saccharine, fluffy mess, but I’m sure there will be plenty of sales for the newly-arrived-in-high-definition 
It can be plodding, but Spike Lee’s 
No longer a full season set, fans will have to make do with only the first 19 episodes in 
If you want a crash course in pretentious cinema, look no further than the world-struck-blind-by-a-plague-and-devolves-into-chaos-but-Julianne-Moore-isn’t-blind 
They may be on the simple side, but that’s exactly what you’d hope when putting on one of the 4 DVDs (comprising 32 episodes) in the 
Shout Factory picks up the ball after Universal walked away following the release of the first season with 
We still don’t have the original 60’s series (I want it more than a hula hoop), but we get another Alvin & The Chipmunks themed episode collection, 
Yeah, I tried. Still don’t like