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…)
I already loved Paul Feig’s buddy-cop follow-up to Bridesmaids, but what makes The Heat (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) even better in its Blu-Ray debut – well, besides all of the great outtakes and featurettes – is that it also sports a bonus commentary with the original cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, & Josh Weinstein) doing what they do best. It’s like icing on an already tasty cake. A cake made of Melissa McCarthy & Sandra Bullock. Yeah… That got kind of weird at the end there.
While I don’t view it being as incredible as some of my fellow geeks, I can certainly roll with and dig the unabashed enthusiasm which Guillermo del Toro has infused in every giant monsters versus giant robots moment of Pacific Rim (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, 3D Blu-Ray-$64.99 SRP). So, yes, it plays like the fever dream of a 10-year-old, but I’d rather have more fever dreams like this than the crass reality of Michael Bay’s Transformers. Bonus materials include an audio commentary and featurettes.
Originally released last year, this holiday season gets to see the stop-motion musical extravaganza It’s A Spongebob Christmas (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$22.99 SRP) in high definition splendor, plus an additional 10 episodes making their Blu-Ray debut, in addition to the original DVD bonus features and 2 brand-new featurettes. How happy holidays is that?
It’s got a marvelous ensemble cast and is celebrating its 10th anniversary, but there’s no shaking the feeling that Love Actually (Universal, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP) is the cinematic equivalent of an earworm – a manipulative romantic comedy that burrows beneath your skin and latches on to your heart. Am I wrong? And if that weren’t enough frothy Richard Curtis for you, you can also pick up the new edition of Notting Hill (Universal, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP).
Celebrate the 40th anniversary of High Plains Drifter (Universal, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP) in high definition style as Clint Eastwood’s “Man With No Name” is hired by the townspeople of the lawless desert town of Lago to defend them from a trio of deadly gunmen.
I never really understood the massive appeal of Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary rock opera until I had a chance to see the Jesus Christ Superstar: Live Arena Tour (Universal, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$26.98 SRP) and then yeah, I understood. The bombast is perfectly captured by a stellar cast, including Tim Minchin, Melanie C, Ben Forster, and the happy surprise of Chris Moyles. Bonus materials include a Webber intro and a featurette.
CBS continues top open up their TV vaults to series long-requested and ones, honestly, I never saw coming. From the long-requested category comes the complete fourth season of The Beverly Hillbillies (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$39.99 SRP) and the complete third season of Petticoat Junction (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$34.99 SRP). From the didn’t see that coming column, we get the complete first season of Gentle Ben (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP), starring Clint Howard and a bear. And it even has audio commentaries from Clint and his father Rance.
The fine folks at Mill Creek continue to be your go-to destination for massive amounts of packaged catalogue titles at ridiculously low prices in their 12 and 8 film collections. So, let’s take a deep breath and see what their latest offerings are. We’ve got the 8-movie Deadly Secrets Collection (The Messengers, The Body, Mary Reilly, The Harvest, April Fool’s Day, The Nines, Ring Around The Rosie, Already Dead), the 8-movie Red Alert Action Collection (Attack Force, Stealth, Into The Sun, Breakout, XXX: State Of The Union, The Contractor, Simon Sez, The Fan), the 8-movie Captive Comedies Collection (Hollywood Homicide, The Freshman, Hudson Hawk, Cops & Robbersons, Lone Star State Of Mind, A Fine Mess, Excess Baggage, Life Without Dick), the 8-movie Operation Payback Collection (Knock Off, The Russian Specialist, Second In Command, The Hunt For Eagle One: Crash Point, Scenes Of The Crime, Conspiracy, The Point Men, Truth Or Consequences NM) (Mill Creek, Rated R, DVD-$9.98 SRP each), the 12-movie Top Of The Class Collection (Winter Break, Whirly Girl, The Good Student, Freshman Orientation, The Foursome, Rock My World, The Young Graduates, Liar’s Moon, The Virgin Queen Of St Francis High, Cheerleaders Beach Party, Choices, Guess What We Learned In School Today), and the 12-movie Under Fire Collection (Straight Into Darkness, Special Ops, Under Heavy Fire, Seal Team VI: Journey Into Darkness, The Last Rites Of Ransom Pride, Casablanca Express, Commandos, Desert Commandos, Saigon: Year Of The Cat, Tuareg: The Desert Warrior, Cold War Killers, Time To Die) (Mill Creek, Rated R, DVD-$9.98 SRP each). Whew!
Ah, but it’s not just bargain-priced films that Mill Creek has been releasing – they’ve also brought their economy pricing to television, as well. First and foremost, you can pick up the entire 94-episode of run of Steve McQueen’s Wanted: Dead Or Alive (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP), including a bonus DVD and featurettes. Also available is the complete seasons one & two of the sitcom Wings (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), the 2nd season of the Michael Landon feel-good vehicle Highway To Heaven (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), and the TV-movie double-feature of The Snow Queen & Terry Pratchett’s The Hogfather (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP).
It’s remarkable that the geriatric cast of Roy Clarke’s Last Of The Summer Wine (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP) made it to the millennium, and now you can flash back to the year 2000 with the latest release of their comic misadventures in idyllic Yorkshire Dales.
Nickelodeon pulls together a handful of holiday adventures from a pair of their small tyke kiddie shows with Bubble Guppies & Team Umizoomi: Into The Snow We Go (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), featuring a trio of festive episodes.
Take a high definition tour of our national parks with Death Valley: Thriving Land Of Extremes and Acadia: The First National Park East Of The Mississippi (Mill Creek, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$9.98 SRP each). Both are simply stunning explorations that are just this side of actually being there.
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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Over forty years on, and 
Though we caught a glimpse of them at the beginning of The Motion Picture, it wasn’t until Star Trek III: The Search For Spock that the Klingons were place front and center as the cinematic baddie, with the main heavy, Kruge, being played by the legendary Christopher Lloyd. Also making its debut was the design for their ship, the 
I haven’t quite figured out their release methodology, but I’m delighted all the same that Fantagraphics has added another volume to their growing Carl Barks library with the release of 
It’s been so long since they came out that I’d forgotten just how much I liked the amiable East Meets West comedies starring Owen Wilson & Jackie Chan – 
The battle to overthrow the Observers begins in the 5th and final season of 
You have to dig through a lot of reality show crud in order to see them still operating under their name, but when something like the wonderful 
Well, the best I can say about 
You’ve got Brainiac, the miniature Kryptonian city of Kandor, and Supergirl in the latest DC Universe Animated movie 
What’s great about the Guillermo del Toro-produced 
With Baz Luhrmann’s big screen adaptation hitting screens, now’s the perfect time to partake of the BBC’s documentary 
In a bizarro move facilitated by the odd way in which the BBC once treated the creation of characters for Doctor Who, the character of K-9 is a free agent, which allowed for the creation of a kid’s show titled, appropriately enough, 
CBS continues to roll out their classic TV westerns, wrapping up the adventures of Paladin with the final season of 
And hey, for this week’s soundtrack releases, we’ve got E.C. Woodley’s score to 
It was seen as a strident, preachy end to The Little Tramp when it originally premiered, but the years have proven what lovely political stand Charlie Chaplin was taking with 
If you’re not wanting to spring for an expensive pad but you need to eliminate heat build-up under your laptop, try the 
It’s always a beautiful thing to see two actors at the top of their game, particularly when they’re both in the same film. 
It’s not Pixar, but 
If you’re looking for pulse-pounding cinematic science fiction, you’re not going to find it in Andrei Tarkovsky’s 
If Apocalypse Now is the operatic version of the Vietnam War, then Oliver Stone’s 
If you’ve held off on picking 
Studios can latch onto just about any day and turn it into an excuse to release a special anniversary edition of one of their catalogue titles, and Warners has done just that with a pair of new-to-Blu-Ray titles ostensibly making their debut to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War – 
Long before Days of Thunder or Hal Needham, 
While Warners releases Grand Prix on Blu-Ray, Paramount digs up the Steve McQueen racing movie 
Previously available, for some reason you can now pick up a standalone edition of Sylvester Stallone’s 
Has the Royal Wedding already come and gone? So fast! If you’d like to relive all of the memories, the BBC has put together an overview of their coverage titled, appropriately, 
As kids growing up in the 80’s, I think we knew instinctively when something was a low-rent rip-off of a far more popular property, and that’s exactly what I felt about the Gobots, which were the bane of any kid hoping to get a Transformers figure from a clueless (often frugal) parent. Relive just how sad the rip-off was with Warner Archive’s release of the original miniseries 
While I wouldn’t say it’s a great, must-see film, 
I think the most endearing thing about Nickelodeon’s CG-animated series 
Have running out of ice roads to be anticlimactic on, the franchise has decided to further move the whole affair into artifice by dropping the drivers into crazy dangerous roads around the world with the first season of 
Via rare archival footage and personal interviews, the History Channel documentary 
You know, if they’d actually given half an effort to make 
Before he moved on to making big-budget blasé blockbusters, Ron Howard put his child actor past behind him as part of Roger Corman’s stable of actor/filmmakers, as the latest double feature release from the Corman Collection will enlighten you with 
This really is a golden age for Doctor Who fans, as the DVD releases of classic storylines are coming fast & furious, with another quartet now available – the Peter Davison stories 
I’m a sucker for a specific task kitchen widget that also taps into childhood nostalgia, so you can imagine my delight at being able to put a homemade spin on corn dogs with the 
With the fourth volume of 
Prepare for Father’s Day with a pair of new-to-Blu-Ray catalogue classics from Fox – John Wayne in 
If you’re a big fan of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett’s post-MST3K endeavor Rifftrax, you owe it to yourself to partake of the heightened energy of a pair of new live show releases, that were originally beamed to theaters around the country – 
I can’t remember the last time I was surprised by the end of a romantic comedy, as the resolution of the couple-to-be is pretty well set in storytelling cliché by now, so my enjoyment of a romantic comedy comes largely from the journey. 
In the 4th season of 
I wish it weren’t the case, but the eighth season of 
I am not the audience for 
While we’re still not to the season that contains my absolute favorite episode, if you’ve yet to pick up the stellar high definition sets of Rod Serling’s classic anthology series, you can at least start with the newly-released 
While Trading Places and 48 Hours remain the greatest of Eddie Murphy movies in my estimation, it’s a welcome addition to the high definition library to get 
While many studios have been dumping sub-par catalogue releases in massive Blu-Ray waves, MGM has decided to release a wave of many films buffs consider must-haves – 
More insidious than wartime physical injuries, the effects of what has been termed everything from shell shock to post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers is explored in the documentary 
Did you know that Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen did a film together in the 60’s? Co-written by Blake Edwards? No? Neither did I, until the Warner Archive Collection made 
It’s always nice just to have a disc that you can put in and show off your fancy a/v setup at home – One that looks and sounds pretty darn spiffy. The high definition IMAX documentaries 
Now that we’ve got the full run of the Six Million Dollar Man on DVD, it’s left to 
MGM continues to drop almost a literal ton of catalogue titles via their new MOD (Manufacture On Demand) Limited Edition Collection program, including the David Niven sex romp comedy 
If the big screen live action outing of the Norse god of thunder has whet your appetite for more adventures look no further than the animated feature 
Universal drops a pair of newer TV shows on DVD this week, including the debut season of the Piper Perabo-starring CIA procedural 
The Warner Archive Collection continues to roll out long-forgotten animated oddities from the Hanna-Barbera library with the release of 
If 
It may just be the Atheist in me, but I’m tired of films about priests regaining their faith in the face of demonic presences. It’s like demons are God’s hitmen. So yeah, I was less than interested in 
I know there are many people I love and respect who love 
Hey! Doctor Who fans of both Tom Baker’s 4th Doctor and the Daleks can pick up a pair of action figure sets spotlighting the classic Baker stories 
I admit – besides just being a fan of the show and being delighted that another volume has arrived – I’m even more delighted by the release of the 
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of wimpy flashlights. I want a flashlight that looks like it came right out of The X-Files… You know, with that wildly improbably beam that illuminated an entire wooded area with a powerful white light. Well, fantasy has become reality with the 
I had little expectation going in, but to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the new CG-animated adaptation of Tezuka Osamu’s 
I wish Disney’s grand return to traditional animation hadn’t been a by-the-numbers princess film, but at least there’s enough fun and spirit in 
The 13th season of 
The second half of the film doesn’t live up to the first half, but 
While it’s not quite the revelation that some tried to make it out to be, 
Well, 
Why, exactly, did USA decide to cancel 
It doesn’t take long into the second season of 
Are you a teen or a middle-aged person desperate to fantasize with the unique ability to turn off the portions of your brain able to assess the quality of script or acting? Well, then the latest installment of the cinematic Twilight saga, 
Explore the history behind the big screen with a pair of History Channel documentaries whose big-screen counterparts are apparent – 
Mill Creek returns with a clutch of fan favorite titles repackaged and offered at rock bottom prices. Their latest batch includes 
While watching 
Bide the times until the next full season set with the single-disc collection 
Produced by the Wachoski Brothers, 
To dismiss 
As part of their in-house plan to continue releasing shows that may not have the sales to go a more traditional big-box route, fans can now pick up the complete second seasons of both 
John Krasinski takes David Foster Wallace’s 
In its 5th season, 
I have been waiting years for someone to deliver something the ridiculously straightforward 
Want a pair of classic TV shows cheap and in one fell swoop? Well, now you can get the complete 3 season run of Steve McQueen in 
The History Channel continues down the path of its bizarre “Must make movie reenactments” form of documentary filmmaking with 
For a last look at what an amazing talent she was, and what we lost with her unexpected death, look no further than 
If Juno was just a bit too cutesy for you but you love that quirky vibe, then check out 
Warner Bros. is still rolling out new additions to their on-demand “Archive Edition”, making available some catalogue titles that otherwise would sit in the vaults. Newly added to the available list is the made-for-TV 70’s horror films 
While it was a step up from the bewilderingly awful seventh season, the eighth season of 
Though seen as groundbreaking at the time, 
Sad that the nicely pleasant Chrstina Applegate series 
Need a RomCom fix? Or simply need to recommend a RomCom to a significant other, to keep them occupied? Then here’s this week’s recommendation – 
Take The Sopranos, set it in a biker gang led by Ron Perlman, and you’ve essentially got 
David Duchovney returns as writer Hank Moody – single-father, ex-boyfriend, and a man keen on sex, liquor, and drugs – in the second season of 
Seeing as how it’s from the same producers, I can understand why 
Even though they’re inferior to the multigenerational writing of iCarly, preteens will probably hound the parents for the first volumes of Suite Life spin-off 
Turns out 
Turn the people reading skills of and creepy skilled charm of Derren Brown into a deception expert played by Tim Roth, and you’ve got the series 
Nick Cannon stars as 19-year-old Mike Holland in 
Schlocky and not a terribly good adaptation of Stephen King’s original short story, but a cult following has grown up around 
Smithsonian Networks has a trio of new documentaries on tap – first up being 
Want to see a show that’s lost the plot and really doesn’t know what to do with itself anymore? Look no further than the 8th season of 
Would you be surprised to find out that a movie with the title