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…)
Matt Stone & Trey Parker show no signs of flagging in the seventeenth season of South Park (Comedy Central, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.98 SRP), as it contains the truly epic “Black Friday” trilogy, which is the show at its social pop commentary best, The 2-disc set contains all 10 episodes, plus the standard clutch of mini-commentaries and deleted scenes, plus a new #socialcommentary feature, with behind-the-scenes tweets from the official @SouthPark account.
The soul stealers at Hot Toys continue their magical miracles with their latest take on Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow (Sideshow, $189.99), this time portrayed with her updated look in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. While the costume has seen only minor changes over the course of her three figures (dating back to Hot Toys’ take from Iron Man 2), the biggest change is in both her maturing head sculpt and different hairstyle, accomplished once again by astonishingly well-realized rooted hair rather than a sculpt. The figure has the usual complement of extra hands and wrist gauntlets (featuring her “widow’s bite” lasers), plus a pair of pistols ad a cell phone. And did I mention again how eerily realistic she is?
Some of the freshest, funniest sketch work being done on TV can be found in the third season of Key & Peele (Comedy Central, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.99 SRP), as the duo tackle everything from paintboobs to PB & J. The 2-disc set contains a best of seasons 1 & 2 special, “The Van & Mike Show”, and a gag reel.
It seems the US is taking a page from the UK’s longstanding policy of quickly releasing episodes to home video prior to a big season box set with the drop of Doctor Who: Deep Breath (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP), which sports the feature-length debut of modern Who‘s 8th season and Peter Capaldi’s Doctor. To make the impulse purchase a little sweeter, the BBC have added in a behind-the-scenes featurette, a prequel, “The Real History Of Science Fiction: Time” documentary, and last year’s live special in which Capaldi was announced as the Doctor.
If there’s one reason and one reason alone to watch the BBC’s The Musketeers (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$49.96 SRP), it’s to catch the mighty Peter Capaldi in his turn as Cardinal Richelieu. And really, isn’t that enough? Bonus materials include a quartet of featurettes.
A landmark science fiction anime gets the high definition treatment it deserves with the 25th anniversary edition of Ghost In The Shell (Anchor Bay, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP), which means if you’ve never seen its mind-blowing craziness, now is the perfect time to do so.
It definitely grew on me, and by the end of its first season, I was looking forward to spending time with the crack ensemble of Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$44.98 SRP). The 3-disc set contains all 22 episodes, plus deleted scenes.
Sure, it’s not the Belushi/Aykroyd black comedy I was hoping for, but the Seth Rogen/Zac Efron Neighbors (Universal, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$34.98 SRP) still has its comedic moments, many coming from Rogen aging into the role of one-half of a young couple (with Rose Byrne) whose quiet suburban life in their new home with their newborn child is ruptured when a college fraternity moves in next door, fronted by frat boy Efron. And then they go to war. Of course. Bonus materials include an alternate opening, deleted/alternate scenes, featurettes, and a gag reel.
It’s as lowbrow as most Chuck Lorre comedies, but there’s no denying the appeal of leads Allison Janney and Anna Faris in Mom (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$44.98 SRP), which finds Faris as a newly-sober single mom thrown up against her own mother (Janney) as comedic sparks fly. The sole bonus feature is an often-funnier-than-the-show gag reel.
For those of you who still watch the seemingly neverending pandering emptiness and truly wasted ensemble cast of Big Bang Theory (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$44.98 SRP), the seventh season is more of the same, including a decided increase in guest stars and wacky t-shirts. Bonus materials include a clutch of featurettes, the 2013 Comic-Con panel, and a gag reel.
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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It’s become cliché to call a Spike Jonze film “quirky”, but there’s a reason clichés become cliché, and his latest, 
Magnets and gyroscopes – two nerd tastes that taste great together, and that’s exactly the dynamic duo that’s combined in ball form with the 
It can be a dicey proposition fraught with peril, going back and revisiting past successes, but the triumphant trio of Mike, Bill, & Kevin manage it in true style with 
The most fascinating part of 
Yeah, it should come as no surprise that Kenny Powers as a suburban dad would not last for long, so the fourth and final season of 
Watching the documentary series 
Making a pledge to remain firmly entrenched in the swinging single life winds a trio of friends (Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan) into plenty of mildly amusing situations when the chief proponent of the vow, Jason (Efron), meets a girl (Imogen Poots) who he can’t get out of his mind in 
Fedor Bondarchuk’s 
The mystery series based on Craig Johnson’s best-selling 
Hey hey! It’s time for this week’s soundtrack round up! So what cinematic audio delights do we have available this go round? There’s John Ottman’s score for 
I’ve banged on about it for years, and I’ll continue to bang on about the absolute greatness of the British comedy panel show QI, which makes the discovery of interesting knowledge a hilarious affair. A few years back, they brought the immense database of general ignorance (little factoids the disprove much of what be believe to be true) to books, a pair of which have gotten a release in paperback – The revised & expanded 
There’s plenty of high-end goodies to be had over at Thinkgeek, but some of the best stuff id the reasonably-priced, highly-practical items. For example, I give you the 
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – as created by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird – are celebrating their 25th anniversary. Yes – you heard me right. And to celebrate, all four feature films have been pulled together on high definition into the 
Hot on the heels of Role Models (which I enjoyed), Paul Rudd returns with 
I’m a sucker for a 50’s monster flick, and it’s nice when a modern filmmaker tries to recreate that era – which is exactly what 
Right from the start, I was impressed with both the concept and visuals of 
Get over the idea that Zac Efron eventually grew up to be Matthew Perry, and 
From the raw gyrations that greeted viewers watching his 1956 debut, 
Through a production quirk, the episodes featured in 
While it doesn’t fully illuminate the poor decision-making skills that went into making such a horrid adaptation, 
Score aficionados should be on the lookout for Ben Foster’s soundtrack to 
The wife of a good friend of mine is a big fan of the porcine children’s book star 
Lionsgate has opened up the floodgates and released a trio of catalogue titles in high definition – one of which is a certified guilty… well, I hesitate to say “pleasure”. That one is Renny Harlin’s awkward pirate epic 
There used to be a show named 
I’ve heard that there are people who watch the updated version of the high school tribulations of those wacky West Beverly students on 
It’s a shame that Gordon Ramsay is mostly known for the over-produced Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares when his UK output is so wonderfully engaging. Case in point – and well worth checking out – is his celebration of food, 
I should have spotlighted this last week with the re-released Back To The Future DVDs, but as there’s no time machine currently available, I’ll just have to let you know now about the pretty darn nifty 
One of the few shows I actively miss is Showtime’s late, lamented piece of macabre humor, Dead Like Me, about a group of “Reapers” tasked with delivering the souls of the just-about-to-be-deceased to the afterlife right before their often grisly deaths. If you’re unfamiliar with the show, the best way to go is the brand new 
Some have attacked it as “snarky” or “one-sided”, but I’m not entirely sure what film they were seeing, as I found Bill Maher’s 
Sleuthing angel of death Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) returns to her suspicious ways in the complete ninth season of 
Another week, another high definition catalogue upgrade – this time it’s the still great 
The fifth season of 
I know it’s been praised and it has quite a pedigree, but I found 
It’s not one of his better films, but there’s enough Friday-night popcorn thriller energy to Ridley Scott’s 
Barbra Streisand’s directorial opus 
Equal parts Losin’ It and American Pie, 
They’re certainly not his finest or most memorable films, but Warners has decided to dip into the vaults for what its branding as the “Paul Newman Film Series”. The five films being released are 
The High School Musical hubbub leaves me cold, but I know there are easily dozens of teens that will eagerly snap up the big screen iteration of the quickly aging teens’ tuneful adventures, 
I really wanted to like the adaptation of Toby Young’s 
The Clampett’s adventures in the land cement ponds continues in the full, official, and sparkling release of the complete third season of 
We’ve finally caught up with the current season with the release of