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 Disney has been slow in releasing their A-List animated films like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, they’ve been doing quite a bang up job of cranking out the rest of their animated features. Coming down the pike this week are a trio of recent films – The Emperor’s New Groove, Atlantis, & Lilo & Stitch (Walt Disney, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP each). All 3 releases also sport their direct-to-video sequels – Kronk’s New Groove, Milo’s Return, and Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has A Glitch. The only disappointment is that the releases are devoid of the bonus materials featured in their deluxe special edition DVDs – save for a handful of featurettes and deleted scenes that supplement Atlantis – which means we’ll inevitable be getting another release of these in the future. Hope it’s the near future.
If I were still a kid, I would probably never leave the Doctor Who TARDIS play tent ($104.99). At 61″ tall and with an interior printed with the 11th Doctor’s control room, it’s every bit the tiny Time Lord fortress of solitude. So, yeah, head on over to Thinkgeek and pick one up. I may crawl into mine right now, in fact.
Lisa Kudrow returns as the dysfunctional online therapist Fiona Wallace in the complete second season of Web Therapy (E1, Not Rated, DVD-$19.99 SRP), which manages to up the daft comedy even further with a star turn of patients that includes Lily Tomlin, Conan O’Brien, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and even Meryl Streep. Bonus materials include deleted scenes, a featurette, outtakes, and more.
I’ve always been fascinated to peek behind the curtain to see the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, so how about a clutch of tomes that do just that? You’ve got Sam Raimi’s recent journey to the world of L. Frank Baum in The Art Of Oz The Great & Powerful (Disney Editions, $40.00 SRP). Then there’s Tim Burton’s tale of a resurrected canine in Frankenweenie: The Visual Companion (Disney Editions, $50.00 SRP). If the adaptation of Max Brooks’s zombie infestation is more your style, then best pick up World War Z: The Art Of The Film (Titan Books, $19.95 SRP). And a last, get a better sense of the context of actual events that informed Steven Spielberg’s epic historical tale with Lincoln: A Cinematic And Historical Companion (Disney Editions, $45.00 SRP).
While the remake was all well and fine, nothing will match the power of Glenn Ford in the original 3:10 To Yuma (Criterion, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.95 SRP), which also just so happens to have gotten the premium high definition treatment from the fine folks at Criterion. Bonus features new interviews and their usual essay booklet.
After spending the first half of the 1970’s in fractured form, the original line-up of the Beach Boys came together, released an album, and were the spotlight of the television documentary Beach Boys: Good Vibrations Tour (Eagle Vision, Not Rated, DVD-$14.97 SRP), that combined concert footage, interviews, and filmed segments, and is now available for you to own and enjoy.
For a comics fan, there are few things in life more delightful than opening up a parcel from the fine folks at Twomorrows Publishing and finding a new clutch of wonderfully interesting tomes to dig into – the latest of which is the 2nd volume of The Best Of Alter Ego (Twomorrows, $19.95 SRP), Roy Thomas’s brilliant celebration of a bygone era, and Dan Spiegle: A Life In Comic Art (Twomorrows, $17.95 SRP), which spotlights the legendary artist.
Catch up with the slackers of TelAmeriCorp in the third season of Workaholics (Comedy Central, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$22.99 SRP), packed with 20 episodes of surprises, spying, roommates, and Jesus. Bone materials include commentary, alternate takes, featurettes, and bloopers.
I think the key takeaway of Stoker (Fox, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP) is to never let a family member move in, as a grieving daughter and her mother (Nicole Kidman) are surprised by the arrival of an uncle (Matthew Goode) they never knew existed in this whip-wicked little mystery. Bonus materials include featurettes, deleted scenes, and galleries.
Eiljah Wood and Jason Gann return as a man and his dog in the complete second season of the still delightfully weird Wilfred (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP). Bonus materials include deleted scenes, an exclusive short, featurettes, and a blooper reel.
Births, babies, and romance are all to be found in the second season of Call The Midwife (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$44.98 SRP), all of the episodes on which include an additional 10 minutes of exclusive runtime not seen in the original broadcast. Bonus materials include cast & crew interviews.
From the writers of The Hangover comes the college version of a trio of friends getting lost in a night of bacchanalia in 21 & Over (Fox, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP), when a straight-A student on the day before a critical interview gets an unexpected visit from a pair of old friends intent on celebrating his 21st birthday. Bonus materials include featurettes and a gag reel.
I can’t say that Jack The Giant Slayer (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP) is a particularly good film, but it does at least try to be a rousing adventure yarn with a wink and a nudge, though never quite able to stick the landing despite game performances from Stanley Tucci and Ewan MacGregor. Bonus materials include an interactive guide with star Nicholas Hoult, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.
Star-studded and with so much potential, sadly Movie 43 (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) is just an obnoxious, crass, crude mess of a film… Which makes sense when you realize it’s from the mind of Peter Farrelly.
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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Like chocolate and peanut butter, Tim Minchin is one of those rare breed of stand-ups that have hit upon the sweet combination of comedy and music, and over the last few years he’s brought his nouveau-cabaret act to audiences that have explosively grown in size and loyalty in both Britain and his native Australia. He’s set his sights on the US next, so be the first on your block to be hip to a wonderful performer I can best describe as combining equal parts theatricality, musicianship, and glorious bombast. Minchin is the Meat Loaf of comedy. For an easy primer, pick up both his most recent DVD – 
Thinkgeek has just recently launched a brilliant new section on their website featuring a plethora of products aimed at proto-geeks from ages 0-10. I’ll be featuring a few items from there over the coming months, but I thought I’d start with one that the music lover in me can really get behind – called the Sweetpea 3, it’s essentially 
Humor in mainstream comics is a rarity, so it’s nice to be reminded of one of the genre’s truly funny classics with the Showcase release of Keith Giffen’s 
Someone described 
Another month, and another batch of new-to-Blu-Ray catalogue releases have come down the pike from Paramount. The best on the list is probably 
Erasure fans will be a half dozen kinds of giddy with the release of the 
The first documentary to take a look at the then fully-reborn Star Wars fan movement – you know, before actually seeing the prequels killed it all off – was 
It’s not exactly a visual feast, but the BBC’s now-classic adaptation of 
They’re trying to sell them as great films, but I think a better way to describe them is 80’s cable comfort food. Either way, the titles comprising “The Lost Collection” (Lionsgate, Rated PG/R, DVD-$14.98 SRP each) are 
Most of the classic MGM musicals library resides over at Warner Bros. – and they’ve been doing a fine job of releasing deluxe special editions of those titles – but there are a few that still remain with MGM, and a trio of them are getting a release – 
Go behind the walls and delve into its past with the Smithsonian Channel’s 
Buy your ticket for the eighth and final season of 
Oh, science fiction. You’ve suffered so many slings and arrows as a genre in recent years, and some of those attacks have even been knife blades to the heart of true classics that have had the misfortune to be remade. In that latter category, I offer you the wretched, abysmal, baffling and dull remake of 
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, 
