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 Quick Stop Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
(Also, please support Quick Stop by using the links below to make any impulse purchases – it helps to keep us going…)
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 – So Fucking Rock (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-£15.99) – and his most recent CD, Ready For This? Live At The Queen Elizabeth Hall, London (£10), available directly from his website at www.TimMinchin.com.
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 Baby’s First MP3 Player ($59.99). Coated in durable rubber, it features 3 large buttons, sports an idle auto-shutoff, and contains 1 gig of storage. It’s the perfect carry along for kiddies, and parents can pack it full of Sesame Street, Spongebob, and Fraggle Rock tunes. At least that’s what I’ll be doing for my nephews.
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 Ambush Bug (DC Comics, $16.99 SRP). Where else can you get nearly 500 pages of insane fun for such a low, low price these days? Exactly!
Someone described Skins (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) as the teenage years we all wish we had – full of sex, parties, and drama aplenty – but we more often, in reality, found ourselves at home with a book, or constantly wondering where exactly all of the drunken debauchery was taking place. That said, Skins certainly is gripping TV, even more so in its second season, now available on DVD here in the US. The 3-disc set features all 10 episodes, plus auditions, bonus stories, and the Christmas special.
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 Mean Girls (Paramount, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP), which ports over the original release’s audio commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes, and bloopers. Next up is Happy Madison’s great outdoors comedy Strange Wilderness (Paramount, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP), featuring deleted scenes, featurettes, and the Comedy Central Reel Comedy special. Zach Braff stars in the rom-com The Last Kiss (Paramount, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP), with a pair of commentaries, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and a music video. Last up is polar bears and walruses in the nature film Arctic Tale (Paramount, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP), which contains featurettes and the theatrical trailer.
Erasure fans will be a half dozen kinds of giddy with the release of the Total Pop! Deluxe Box set (Rhino, $54.98 SRP). Not only does it contain 2 discs collecting 40 of their hits and most beloved tracks, but there’s also 3rd disc of just live tracks and a DVD featuring their numerous appearances on various BBC programs, including Top Of The Pops and Later with Jools Holland. Top notch.
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 A Galaxy Far Far Away (Cinevolve, Not Rated, DVD-$19.95 SRP), which is actually celebrating its 10th anniversary with a brand new special addition contains additional commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and more.
It’s not exactly a visual feast, but the BBC’s now-classic adaptation of Pride & Prejudice (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$49.95 SRP) – starring Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy – finds it’s way to high definition in a 2-disc special edition which ports over the featurettes found on the original special edition DVD release.
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 Irreconcilable Differences, The Night Before, My Best Friend Is A Vampire, Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home, Repossessed, Hiding Out, Homer & Eddie, and Slaughter High.
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 – A Song Is Born, The Goldwyn Follies, & It’s A Pleasure! (MGM, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP each).
Go behind the walls and delve into its past with the Smithsonian Channel’s China’s Forbidden City (Infinity, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP),which takes a look at the 500+ year history of Beijing’s architectural and political enigma.
Buy your ticket for the eighth and final season of Wings (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) and put another tick in the box on your “fully released on DVD” checklist. The 3-disc set features all 23 episodes of Sandpiper Air’s swan song.
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 The Day The Earth Stood Still (Fox, Rated PG-13, DVD-$34.98 SRP), starring Keanu Reeves as the enigmatic alien Klatuu who decides Earth needs saving from itself through the use of intense boredom. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, galleries, and a making-of documentary. The Blu-Ray edition ($39.99 SRP) adds a bonus disc with the original – and far superior – film. Watch that instead.
And I know it’s not the holidays, but let’s wrap things up this week with a limited edition vinyl figure from Medicom that the fine folks at Sideshow have imported and made available here in the States – Santa Stitch & Scrump ($64.99). As always, the Medicom sculpts are dead-on to the source material, and the festive accoutrements will certainly make a fine display at the end of the year.
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 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.
I’m Ken Plume, and soon you’ll be listening to “A Bit Of A Chat” with me, Ken Plume.
In this episode, I’m having a bit of a chat with comedian, actor, and musician Tim Minchin.