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…)
So influential is its dynamic of a single event having many different interpretations based on the observer that the very title of Akira Kurosawa’s classic Rashomon (Criterion, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.95 SRP) has become a shorthand to represent in the subjective nature of human observation. As a film, its exploration of truth and justice in the wake of a murder remains a masterwork, heightened by a beautiful sound and picture restoration from the folks at Criterion. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, an interview with Robert Altman, documentaries, interviews, trailers, and Criterion’s standard booklet of essays and ephemera.
So what’s this week’s Thinkgeek goody? Howzabout a new bit of LEGO? The Uruk-hai Army set ($29.99), containing a battlement, Rohan soldier, Eomer, and a quarter of Uruk-hai, is intended as a supplement to the already-massive Helm’s Deep set. So get building and let the battle begin.
I hope you’ve got plenty of bubblegum to chew, because there’s more than enough kick ass to be found in the long-awaited high definition arrival of John Carpenter’s They Live (Shout Factory, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.93 SRP), starring Rowdy Roddy Piper as an everyman who finds a unique pair of sunglasses that allow him to see that some of the people around him are actually aliens bent on enslaving humanity. Oh, it’s just fantastic, and now it looks great, too. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, an interview, featurettes, and more.
If you’re going into The Expendables 2 (Lionsgate, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) looking for a great film, best to probably look elsewhere. However, if you’re looking for an actioner equivalent of Cannonball Run that funs and packed with all of your action heroes from the last 30 years, this is the sequel for you, as it adds in more Bruce, more Arnold, and even Chuck Norris. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.
How do you know an entire generation has come of age? When their childhoods are packaged up and sold back to them as nostalgia. The consumer nostalgia machine has just laid claim to Saban’s Japanese perpetual repurposing machine with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$119.99 SRP), which contains all 3 seasons of the original run, plus the Alien Rangers mini-series and a pair of bonus discs featuring rare archival materials and retrospectives. And if those 19 discs weren’t enough, you can pick up the complimentary Power Rangers: Seasons 4-7 Collection (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-SRP), which picks up where the last set left off with the successor seasons Zeo, Turbo, In Space, and Lost Galaxy, plus EVEN MORE archival materials and retrospectives, and is available only from powerrangersondvd.com. So yes, former kiddies now all grown up, this is the way to snap up your lost youth and sit your own children down in front of it, knowing that you’re right and that Adventure Time they seem to love so much doesn’t make any damn sense.
Kudos to Shout Factory for ensuring classic TV shows make their way to DVD in their entirety, rather than languishing as abandoned single-season releases – as had been the case with the still-sparkling 70’s cop workplace sitcom Barney Miller (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$159.99 SRP). Well, fear not, for it has been rescued by Shout and released as a complete series set, collecting all eight seasons plus interviews, commentaries, the original pilot, and even the entire first season of the spin-off Fish, starring Abe Vigoda. Thanks, Shout!
Oh, you can nerd out for hours, and hours, and hours while re-living scores of childhood memories perusing Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection (Chronicle Books, $40.00 SRP) – a massive tome containing details on every single Star Wars action figure Kenner, then Hasbro, has produced over the past 35 years. Incredible, and just a little bit frightening.
You knew once they wrapped that a big box full of the entire run was inevitable, so relive all of the merry misadventures of the rising star Vincent Chase and his tacky Tinsletown Trio via Entourage: The Complete Series (HBO, $249.99 SRP), which contains all eight seasons of the Hollywood insider bromance. Bonus features include audio commentaries, featurettes, a pair of panel discussions with the cast & crew, a series retrospective and more.
They’ve covered dozens and bands and eras, and while I view it through the filter of my own preferences, I always find the Under Review series fascinating viewing for a music fan. The latest is The Rolling Stones Under Review: 1975-1983 (Sexy Intellectual, Not Rated, DVD-$19.95 SRP), which looks at the first part of the Ronnie Wood years.
It was inevitable that Dreamworks couldn’t resist exploiting the successful – and quite good – How To Train Your Dragon, so we get a TV series whose introductory premiere gets a DVD release with the Dragon Riders Of Berk (Dreamworks, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), featuring 4 episodes of the further adventures of Hiccup, Toothless, and their pals.
How excellent is it that Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (MGM, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP) is now in high definition? Totally excellent. Bonus features include an air guitar featurette, radio ads, a featurette on the real Bill & Ted relationship the film drew upon, and even an episode of the cartoon series.
There have been many cinematic attempts at Zorro (Somerville House, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP), but one of the most enjoyable is one that I not only had never heard of, but also happens to be newly-available in high definition. Produced in 1975, this take stars Alain Delon as the titular masked avenger, and it’s worth a spin.
Only the BBC could produce a show like Call The Midwife (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.98 SRP), about a midwife from a privileged background who joins an order of nursing nuns in poverty-stricken East London in the 1950s. Bonus materials include cast interviews.
Previously available only on DVD, all 4 specials featuring Joss Whedon & John Cassady’s take on Marvel’s mutant superteam are collected together in high definition in Astonishing X-Men (Shout Factory, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.97 SRP), featuring a behind-the-scenes featurette, music video, and interviews with Joe Quesada and Neal Adams.
If you’ve got a toddler about to enter the scary world of preschool, let the Muppets help out by picking them up a copy of the social primer Sesame Street: Preschool Is Cool – Making Friends (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), which provides fun acclimation tips to make things easier.
For this week’s soundtrack round up, we’ve got a pair of releases from Danny Elfman and a film about a boy and a tiger in a boat. First up from Danny Elfman is the score to the biopic Hitchcock (Sony Masterworks, $9.99 SRP), along with Elfman’s score to Silver Linings Playbook (Sony Classical, $8.99 SRP). And as to that flick with the boy and the tiger on a lifeboat, that would be Mychael Danna’s score to Life Of Pi (Sony Classical, $12.99 SRP).
I would be far more accepting of the awful reality and fantasy series filling up their schedule if the History Channel and A&E would just admit it they were no longer History or Arts & Entertainment and just change their names already. But they haven’t, so we get backwoods show about duck call nouveau riche in Duck Dynasty (A&E, Not Rated, DVD-$19.95 SRP) and the atrocious pseudo-history of Ancient Aliens: Season 4 (History, Channel, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.95 SRP). But I suppose simple folk need something to watch.
Hot Toys is well on their way to releasing just about every character seen in The Avengers, so it certainly makes sense that we’d get a figure of SHEILD Agent Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye ($189.99). And as we’ve come to expect from Hot Toys, not only do you get a damn good likeness of actor Jeremy Renner, but it’s also loaded with a slew of incredibly detailed accessories, from his strung bow to a quiver packed with individual arrows, plus a selection of swappable trick arrowheads so you can customize your display. Heck, he’s even got his sunglasses.
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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A long, long, long time ago, at the birth of DVD, one of the earliest releases was a cult classic musical comedy that happened to have had its original downer ending reshot and replaced with a happy ending right before it was originally released in theaters. For the DVD, a black & white workprint of the original ending – which featured spectacular practical miniature effects as the film’s monsters took over the world – was included. And then the DVD was pulled, the original ending was removed, and the film was re-released on DVD, making the first DVD release a collector’s item. Over a dozen years later, that ending has been completely restored and finished off for the 
Thinkgeek time! Worried you or those around you may have had a bit too much to drink? Or want to stop yourself before you get into bad territory? Well, you can estimate your blood alcohol level with the 
I don’t know what I was expecting from the documentary 
While many an armchair collector will snatch up animation cells as some sort of investment, or will cover the idea that they own what is actually seen in the final product, I am a much bigger fan of original production art – the true expression of the artist’s craft, while cells are merely a tracing of that spark. A lot of that very beautiful original production art, from sketches and layouts to model sheets and doodles, is captured in the beautifully conceived 
Disney in the 70’s was an awkward company, desperately trying to maintain the magic post-Walt while churning out a massive amount of live action family films. A few, like Bedknobs & Broomsticks, combined live action, animation, and music in an attempt to repeat the alchemy of Mary Poppins. One attempt that is flawed but is a dear, dear favorite of mine is 
I haven’t really been taken with a Wes Anderson film since Rushmore, as each of his subsequent efforts come across as increasingly affected in attempt to capture a Hal Ashbyian ideal. That said, the most enjoyable film so far has to be 
The 4th season’s heady, happy high of founding Sterling Cooper Draper Price goes darkly sour as Don Draper drifts into an abyss all his own in the wheels within wheels 5th season of 
It’s not the most appealing character design, but while Pixar’s intent is to pull the heartstrings as much as entertain, Dreamworks’ 
Spinning off from Tim & Eric, John C. Reilly’s daft, disturbing creation Dr. Steve Brule gets his very own series and very own DVD release with 
While not a classic, 
After Anne Hathaway was a princess but before she was a Catwoman, she was the titular star of the fairy tale 
If you’ve ever wanted to know exactly why anyone would choose to cooperate with the rise and run of the Nazi regime, 
Long before he became Bond, Daniel Craig starred as an Inspector investigating the mysterious murder of a body found in the titular 
And for this week’s soundtrack pick, we get a brand new, expanded edition of John Carpenter’s original score for 
This week also brings a pair of classic TV releases from the CBS vaults, with the second volumes of both 
Did you know there was a high-spirited western starring Dean Martin and Brian Keith? Neither did I, but once I found out about 
It’s a shame that 
Even when a series gets cancelled, it’s still a safe bet that you may very well see a DVD release, particularly if the show made it a full season – as NBC’s take on the John Grisham novel 
You can’t get further from 24 than Keifer Sutherland’s touchy-feely role in the goopy sci-spirituality mess that is 
After years of pale impressions of brilliant piss-takes Airplane! and Police Squad!, Charlie Brooker does an equally pitch-perfect parody of the TV detective genre with 
Want a quick and idiot proof way to add some versatile LED lighting to your home or office? Try the 
While the criticisms of emotional button-pushing remain, time has only increased my estimation of 
It seems long overdue, but Richard Schickel’s 
And now that you’ve bought your high definition copy of Steven Spielberg’s classic, why not explore its creation and read the screenplay in the illustrated 30th anniversary edition of 
A trio of Major Toms make a mysterious return from Mars and prove to be a conspiracy almost too hot to handle for Jon Pertwee’s 3rd Doctor & companion Liz Shaw in the latest classic Doctor Who release 
It’s a mess in many ways, but there’s a bizarre zeal to the Beatles’ underappreciated TV special 
It can get a bit draggy, but I admit that dozens of childhood cable viewings has endeared John Huston’s wonderfully off-key 
As far as CG has come, it still lacks the subtle charms and realistic touch that can be found in traditional stopmotion animation. The methods have been refined greatly over the last few years, as is readily evident when you explore 
The problem with 
A camp masterpiece gets the high definition treatment with the arrival of the feud-tastic 
It’s difficult to enjoy a musical like 
The DVD release of the ginger legend’s last great sitcom comes to a close with the release of 
Got kids? Pick up the latest brilliant Scholastic Storybook Treasures 
This week’s soundtrack pick is Edgar Rothermich’s faithful reconstruction and performance of Vangelis’ score to 
For hardcore and casual Disney fans alike, Dave Smith’s 
The 7th season of 
Though it’s sometimes been derided by comedy purists who claim it’s a corpse-heavy lowbrow sketch show, but I’ll openly declare those unfortunate souls snobbish fools, because The Carol Burnett Show is one of the best comedy sketch shows ever to hit the small screen. It may not have been as intellectually clever as Monty Python, but the writing was sharp, the comedy was funny, and the performers – Burnett, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, & Lyle Waggoner – were a dream ensemble. Most of all, though, you got the sense that the main cast, and all of the guest stars who would pop up over the years, were genuinely enjoying the experience of performing this comedy together for the audience there in the studio and at home. And the only way to experience it is via the long overdue 22-disc box set 
First it was Star Wars, and we were all delighted. Then came Harry Potter and Indiana Jones, and we were all ecstatic. And Batman and Superman? Giddy. But I never anticipated that one day the fine folks at LEGO would give us brick versions of the Lord of the Rings films. I doubt Tolkien ever envisioned it, either, but here we are, with playsets aplenty featuring everyone’s favorite Fellowship. Right off the bat we’ve got some major highlights – 
Tick another one of the list of classic Disney films that haven’t made it to high definition, as the Mouse House polishes up the glass slipper and drops 
Tim Burton’s 
If there’s anyone that could hold the title of 5th Beatle, it would be the man who gets his own remarkable documentary in 
And speaking of Beatles-related documentaries, the great thing about the documentary 
I’m a sucker for the band Queen and its dynamic frontman Freddie Mercury, and Rhys Thomas has produced a pair of brilliant docs that should be on your viewing list – 
Of all the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp teamings – and there have been some stinkers – my favorite by a mile, 
Disney has kept the new-to-hi-def catalogue floodgates open, dropping another clutch of titles that have been on the desired list… And some that I’m sure have fans. Definitely sure. So what titles are we talking about? How about the still-unsettling comedy-horror 
Although already released on Blu-Ray, the new 25th anniversary edition of 
Go inside HBO’s hit adaptation of George RR Martin’s epic Game Of Thrones with the lushly illustrated and info-packed 
Stephen Fry is brilliant as the titular country solicitor Peter Kingdom in 
Fans were left high and dry when only the first two seasons were released, but now you can get all 3 seasons of the beautifully odd 
It’s not the best of the Stephen King adaptations, but there’s still enough creepy quality to be had in 
Yes, it’s been 7 seasons, but we’re still no closer to finding out 
If you want to risk potential cute-blindness, take your chances and partake of the first season of 
It’s always nice to come across a documentary that illuminates a little slice of history that is both crucial and largely overlooked, and such is the case with 
Honestly, you don’t know what you’re missing until you see a very fine martial arts film like 
This week’s theatrical score pick brings 
Still as delightfully deadpan as ever, Demetri Martin returns with his second standup special 
After suffering many years in the crappy public domain release wilderness, you can now get a spiffy, official 2-volume set collection the entirety of 
If you’re new to the whole sex thing or just could use a few pointers, you might want to pick up a pair of 5-disc collections dedicated to just that – 
We’re yet another step closer to completing the seemingly-infinite run of Roy Clarke’s 
Hard to believe we’re already up to the fourth season of the new 
