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…)
While many a college professor has probably done the same, Drunk History (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP) makes learning train wreck fun by getting blitzed comedians to relate true stories from our country’s history in soused fashion, which are then reenacted by a bevy of guest stars. The 3 disc set contains the first two seasons, plus additional footage.
I’ve been remiss in shining a spotlight on another in a long line of brilliant figures from the fine folks at Hot Toys, which just so happens to be the second iteration of the Norse god of mischief as featured in Thor: The Dark World, Loki (Sideshow, $229.99). Eschewing the horned helmet featured in the first Thor and The Avengers, this take goes with the slicked-back hair actor Tom Hiddleston sported in Dark World, as well as the subtly streamline outfit. The accessories are somewhat light, but that makes sense, as Loki didn’t have a lot of props this go round, so we’re limited to a dagger and his Asgardian manacles, plus a couple pairs of swappable hands.
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon return to their largely improvised hyper-reality selves in Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip To Italy (IFC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP), which finds the two awkwardly competitive chums chumming around Europe’s boot sampling fine fair and engaging in eminently watchable chitchat. Bonus materials include deleted scenes and a trailer.
Despite a shaky start and a network that doesn’t seem to know what to do with it, The Legend Of Korra Book Three: Change (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$35.98 SRP) finds the show coming fully into its own in a way that fans of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender had hoped it would, as all of the world and character building finally starts to coalesce into powerful storytelling. Bonus materials include audio commentaries and featurettes.
Fill the increasingly chilly hours during your December lock-in by partaking of a pair of Comedy Central shows ready for bingeing – Kroll Show: Seasons 1 & 2 (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP) and Broad City: Season 1 (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD-$ SRP). Both are loaded with bonus features, including commentaries, outtakes, and more.
Taken as a slick B movie, the adaptation of Joe Hill’s pulpy morality horror Horns (Anchor Bay, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP) is an enjoyable bit of schlock, owing largely to lead Daniel Radcliffe as the devilish murder suspect who brings out the worst in those around him.
The Warner Archive continues to be a refuge for the studio’s often-overlooked animated fare, with brand new high definition releases for Young Justice: Invasion (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP) and the complete run of the newer take on Thundercats (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP). Young Justice sports a pair of audio commentaries on the two-part finale, plus interviews.
While purists may grumble with some alterations to the plot, none of that affects the thoroughly enjoyable soundtrack to Disney’s adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods (Walt Disney Records, $15.98 SRP), which gets a lavish 2-disc deluxe edition.
It may be a bit soft-focus, but there’s something certainly uplifting in The Hundred-Foot Journey (Dreamworks, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$36.99 SRP), starring Helen Mirren as an emotionally distant chef who feels profoundly disconcerted when a young Indian immigrant opens a restaurant 100 feet from her own, leading to an all-out war as worlds collide. Bonus materials include a clutch of featurettes.
The Beeb has kids covered this season with the A Very Funny Christmas collection (BBC Not Rated, DVD-$16.95 SRP) featuring the adaptations of David Walliams children’s books Gangsta Granny and Mr. Stink, plus the museum mystery of Guardians Of The Museum (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$18.86 SRP).
If, like me, you were onboard and hooked by the early days of Nick At Nite, a horse is a horse, of course, but there’s no horse as famous as Mister Ed (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$139.99 SRP), whose full six season run is available for the very first time in uncut form, with an audio commentary on the pilot, interviews with castmembers Alan Young and Connie Hines, and vintage Studebaker ads.
Dysfunction has rarely been as enjoyably watchable as in This Is Where I Leave You (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP), which finds a group of squabbling siblings forced to coexist under the same roof after their father passes away. Maybe that’s because the cast is stacked with aces including Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, Adam Driver, Ben Schwartz, Rose Byrne, and Jane Fonda. Bonus materials include featurettes, outtakes, and deleted/extended scenes.
It’s not often you see a romantic comedy centered around a pair of leads in the twilight of their lives, but Elsa & Fred (Millennium, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$24.99 SRP) anchors its enjoyable tale with Shirley MacLaine & Christopher Plummer. Bonus materials include a making-of featurette.
If nothing else, the sixth season of Happy Days (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) is memorable for the return of the Orkan alien Mork, played with gusto by Robin Williams, cementing the character’s spin-off future. The 4-disc set contains all 27 episodes, plus the 5th anniversary show “Mork Returns”.
Watching the Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Paramount, Rated PG-13, 3D Blu-Ray-$54.99 SRP) is a painful view into a wrongheaded, steroidal world of poor decisions and even poorer design choices, particularly in a world where the consistently endearing animated Nickelodeon turtles exist. So truly, watch this at your own peril. Bonus materials include featurettes, an extended ending, and a music video.
Glen Morgan was part of the key creative team on The X-Files, and he brings that supernatural sensibility to the BBC’s eerie paranormal thriller Intruders (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$34.98 SRP), about a secret society whose key to immortality is taking possession of the living. And it stars John Simm and Mira Sorvino.
Listen, as far as charming little family flicks go, Dolphin Tale 2 (Warner Bros., Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP) delivers exactly that – a pleasantly warm diversion with an affable cast that neither offends any sensibilities nor will live terribly long in your memory. Bonus materials include featurettes and a blooper reel.
History buffs who want to pass the long family gathering hours watching documentaries instead can dive into the History Channel’s massive 20-disc The Definitive WWI & WWII Collection (History Channel, Not Rated, DVD-$99.98 SRP), which includes the docs World Wars, 100 Years Of WWI, 75 Years Of WWII, Patton 360, WWII From Space, The Color Of War, and WWII In HD.
Holiday viewing has reached its crass nadir with the arrival of Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever (Lionsgate, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), which exists solely to ensure that Aubrey Plaza can buy a new car with her fees for voicing the titular tabby.
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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Not content with the arrival of a single much-requested title that would delight cinema aficionados no end, Universal has dipped into their vault for a double header of film noir classics with the high definition debut of both 
I still find her continued adherence to the Catholic faith incomprehensible in light of the emotional atrocity committed against her, but the tale and the performances (from Judi Dench and Steve Coogan) that bring the actual events to life in 
It’s sadly lacking in any bonus features whatsoever – usually a highlight of the BBC’s Who releases – but the fact that we have all but one of the formerly missing episodes after nearly 50 years is reason enough to pick up 
The fine folks at Rifftrax dig into their very first blaxploitation film with 
While it’s a marked improvement over the lackluster seasons that came before it, the fourth season of 
Considering the delightfully escapist Thurber story it’s based on, Ben Stiller’s take on 
It seems we haven’t gotten a full season set in ages, but there are still enough new episodes for another single-disc DVD collection – So we get 
Yes, you’ll laugh at 
They’re not quite Godzilla quality, but there’s a charm to be found in the turtle meat-filled 
The BBC does some of the finest nature documentaries around, and they’ve just dropped a whole clutch of beauty-filled discs – a one-two punch of the ursine persuasion in 
Yeah, casting Helena Bonham Carter as the bitter spinster Miss Havisham was a brilliant move in Mike Newell’s pretty decent adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 
Though Jack the Ripper may be gone, his memory still casts a long shadow for Inspector Reid and the residents of Whitechapel in the second season of 
Even if you have the previously release Ultimate Collection, if you’re a fan of Carol Burnett and her eponymous show, you’ll definitely want to pick up 
An Angry Birds cartoon? Sure. Why not. And honestly, the 90+ minutes of 
Fox expands their MOD Cinema Classics slate with a quartet of brand new releases from their immense vaults – 
I know it should no longer impress me, because they’ve done it with each of their classic high definition releases, but Disney’s restoration of their newest Diamond Edition, 
Celebrate special events in aeronautic style with the incredibly easy to use (and quite beautiful) 
Following up on his stellar turn in series 5, Murray Gold keeps the roll going with his music for 
It’s very much of the period, but there’s no denying that the chemistry between Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw as two star-crossed lovers is what made 
Collecting together a trio of character-based live specials from earlier in his career, 
If you’re in the mood for a brilliant little two-hander, Cormac McCarthy’s 
If there’s one overriding takeaway from the Harold & Kumar movies, is that they’re really not interested in anything much besides giving audiences a pleasant viewing experience. In that, 
Lucas Cruikshank’s internet sensation Fred Figglehorn returns for another adventure in the spooky 
In the mood for a small character drama this weekend? Give a spin to 
Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson star in the charming little drama 
Tween girls will probably want to snap up the Disney Channel movie 
Now that we’ve reached a point where nearly every extant classic Doctor Who story has been released, the BBC have very nicely decided to go back and revisit many of their early releases and make them bona fide special editions. The latest to get the treatment is the Tom Baker story 
Who wants regular old boring ice when you can have ice from an 
Although I originally watched the re-teaming of Tristram Shandy‘s Michael Winterbottom, Steve Coogan, & Rob Brydon in its original 6-part television form, the feature version of 
I was a huge, instant fan of 
Honestly, 
It’s a little bit Strangers On A Train, Throw Momma From The Train, 9 To 5, and I Love You To Death, and I wasn’t expecting to like 
I know at times I shared some of the frustrations that fellow gamers had with the title, but overall I enjoyed the massive love letter that Epic Mickey was to classic Disney animation. That’s probably why I enjoyed exploring the design process of the game via 
You’ve never seen evil quite so chilling as when it’s in the form of an 8-year-old little girl, as it is in one of the great suspense films of all time, 
Kudos to David Boreanaz for the continued success of 
It’s been 10 years, but Aqua Teen Hunger Force is still going strong. Of course, it’s now calling itself 
Listen – 
Try as I might, I couldn’t get into Steve Coogan’s latest sitcom foray, 
All good things must end, even if that ending came over 30 years ago. Such is the case with the release of the sixth and final season of 
Alan Davies is back as sleuthing magician 
Simon Schama turns his historical eye towards examining American History and explaining how the past informs the nation’s present in his excellent documentary 
Paramount rolls out another pair of much0requested catalogue titles onto Blu-Ray with Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon in Alexander Payne’s 
The latest star to get the Warners box set spotlight treatment arrives in the form of the 
I’m sorry, but I can’t watch Mark Wahlberg without two things coming to mind now – his abysmal performance in The Happening and Andy Samberg’s scathing impersonation on SNL. With those both in mind, watching Wahlberg in 
The Douglas family are back with the second volume of their first season, and I challenge you to get the theme song to 
Though I still think of him as the 5th Doctor, Peter Davison also starred as Detective Constable “Dangerous” Davies in 
It’s not nearly as groundbreaking or funny as his previous landmark specials, but Chris Rock’s 
John Frankenheimer’s still compelling portrait of 
Anyone interested in cinema history would do well to pick up a copy of the mega documentary 
Crytozoology nuts probably eat up the sensationalist style of 
The spooks of 
The film is still an overwrought tearjearker, but 
Sound the alarms and rouse the kids, as the 5th season of 
The Cold Case Unit is back on the case (yes, I wrote that) in the 3rd season of the UK’s excellent answer to CSI, 
Another blink and you missed it series comes to DVD with 
It holds no sway for me, but I have known my nephew’s eyes to be glued to Nick’s Back To The Barnyard, so I’m sure he’ll delight in the 5-episode collection 
It’s time for this week’s classics corner, as the BBC release another of their literary adaptations sets – 
Oh, National Lampoon. Your brand means absolutely nothing now. Nothing at all. My proof? 
There’s nothing more depressing than finishing a good novel. Perhaps the absolute was a bit much, I admit, but it is with a sense of disappointment that one finishes a good novel and must leave its world. I felt that sense of loss upon completing Neil Gaiman’s 
He’s avoided taking the plunge into many a feature film (besides small roles in Stardust, For Your Consideration, & A Night At The Museum), so there must have been something special that Ricky Gervais saw in 
While it’s not exactly the continuing adventures that some fans have been clamoring for, JK Rowling dipped back into the Harry Potter universe to bring to life the magical book of fairy tales that played a role in the 7th and final Potter installment. The only catch was that she originally crafted those books as a clutch of handmade tomes distributed to those who had helped make the Potter series a reality, plus one edition that was sold at auction for charity. That edition sold to Amazon.com, and through many a winding path and all for charity, the general public can now get their own copy of 
It was dismissed by many, but I got a kick out of Joel & Ethan Coen’s spy comedy 
I wasn’t sure, going in, whether or not I’d enjoy 
It didn’t make much of a blip at the box office despite a strong showing on the festival circuit, but here’s hoping home video will give a second life to the made-for-cult status comedy 
John Hodgman has been hounding me to give it a second chance, and now that I have the penultimate 
It’s light, it’s frothy, but the real reason to watch 
Strip away some of the self-aware smarm of Juno and throw it on TV with Molly Ringwald playing the mother to the pregnant teen and you’ve essentially got the ABC family series 
Everybody’s favorite sociopath makes his Blu-Ray debut with 
Less meets the eye in the second visually off-putting season of 
From Doctor Who companion to woman for hire, Billie Piper stars in 
The students of Cyprus-Rhodes University are back in class for the second season of ABC Family’s 
Known for his work on Battlestar Galactica, composer Bear McCreary has also been tackling the score for 
Soft-spoken Monika Hertwig has a horrible family legacy that she has spent her whole life trying to reconcile – that her father was the monstrous Nazi Officer Amon Goeth, commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp that was portrayed on screen in Schindler’s List. In attempting to come to terms with that legacy, she meets up with Helen Jonas, who lived as an enslaved servant under Goeth’s roof. This struggle – and the meeting of these two women – is chronicled in the fascinating documentary 
Will the secret past of bellybutton-less Kyle finally be revealed in the second season of 
Obnoxious sarcasm has a name – and a species – and it is 
From the Pang Brothers, 
No matter how much my Irish friend Brian sings its praises, I just don’t enjoy 
So you’ve got state of CGI and a bunch of theories about the hunting techniques of the dinosaurs. What do you do with all of this and get today’s audience to watch? Why, 
Showtime’s sudsy pseudo-historical drama 
In many ways the Seventh Heaven of its day, the eighth season of 
Seeking to recapture his Riddick heyday, Vin Diesel stars as the unfortunately named Toorop in the turgid sci-fi actioner 
Considering they cost next to nothing, I suppose the recent spate of parody movies really don’t need to make much at the theater and home video to be considered a massive success. It’s good that the threshold is so easily attainable, considering just how awful the latest,