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 could do without the touch of religious nonsense and the completely nonsensical science of it all, but even on the significantly smaller home screen 3D experience, Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, 3D Blu-Ray-$44.95 SRP) still packs a powerful visual punch. At a taut 90 minutes, it never overstays its welcome. Bonus materials include over 3 hours of bonus materials chronicling the film’s evolution, special effects, and experience for the actors.
A few years back, Sideshow Collectibles releases a 1/6-scale Darth Vader from A New Hope that many assumed to be definitive, as it was quite a beautiful piece. Not content to rest on their laurels, however, those madcap mavens at Sideshow have revisited the dark lord of the Sith with a brand new figure that manages to not only trump, but blow the previous one out of the water. The new Darth Vader Sixth Scale Figure ($249.99), based on his appearance in Return Of The Jedi, is a truly exquisite representation, from the perfect scale tailoring of his outfit to his outsize proportions (he’s a tall bugger). The figure also sports working LEDs on his breast plate.. In addition to numerous hands hand both his lit and unlit lightsaber, he comes with a swappable post-elder-Anakin reveal head and a light-up base. Oh, and to put the cherry on the cake, there’s a separate light-up display featuring his unhelmeted head with a separate helmet piece, evoking the mediation chamber scene from Empire Strikes Back.
While I enjoyed the first Thor film, I thought it was a lot of potential greatness that didn’t quite gel into an optimum piece, but certainly laid plenty of groundwork. Thor: The Dark World (Marvel, Not Rated, 3D Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) picks up the ball and moves it further down the field, hitting a lot of perfect notes, but still falls just short of being a truly great film. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still a very fun action flick with strong characters and set pieces, but it could have used a much stronger presence from its villain Malekith The Dark Elf (a criminally underused Christopher Eccleston) more in lines with Walt Simonson’s introduction of the character in his comic book run. There are plenty of behind-the-scenes featurettes and a gag reel to be found amongst the bonus features, but the true highlight is the 70s exploitation-tinged short “Hail To The King”, which picks up the post-Iron Man 3 story of incarcerated actor-cum-Mandarin Trevor Slattery. Heck, get the movie just for the short – it’s that good.
Quietly brilliant, Nebraska (Paramount, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) is one of those small films with big characters that tend to stick in your mind even as you’re watching it. Best just to watch this elegiac tale of a son (Will Forte) making a heartfelt if seemingly misguided journey with his aging father (Bruce Dern) for yourself. Bonus materials include a making-of featurette.
Take a psychedelic, mathematical trip with Finn and Jake in the high definition arrival of Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season (Cartoon Network, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$32.07 SRP), containing all 26 episodes. And because bonus features are where it’s at, you get audio commentaries on every episode, an interview with creator Pendleton Ward, and even an alternate show intro.
Long a charitable institution in the UK, The Secret Policeman’s Ball – USA (Eagle Vision, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP) brings the star-studded festivities to New York City for en evening in support of Amnesty International. The bill included a heady mix of comedy and music, with Jon Stewart, Eddie Izzard, Russell Brand, John Oliver, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, and many more. In addition to the film itself, bonus materials include backstage interviews.
The truth of the story may be in doubt, but the adapted true story of Captain Phillips (Sony, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$40.99 SRP) certainly makes for a gripping drama, propelled by a taut performance from not only Tom Hanks, but also the debut performances of the actors portraying the Somali pirates who hijack the cargo ship of Hanks’s titular captain. Bonus materials include an audio commentary and making-of featurettes.
If you’re a fan of obscure and much-desired TV shows that economics have forced to be stranded in the vaults of various studios, then you definitely should be aware of what the fine folks at the Warner Archive have been doing for the past few years. They’ve been making those shows available on an MOD (Manufacture On Demand) basis that means fans have the option to get that which they covet, freed from the vaults. Case in point is the near-complete run of the series The FBI, which is like the Federal version of Dragnet, drawing from actual case files to craft stories around. Currently available are The First Season: Part One, The First Season: Part Two, The Second Season: Part One, and The Second Season: Part Two (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$39.95 each). Ah, but then – lucky! – they changed over to traditionally manufactured discs for The Third Season: Part One, The Third Season: Part Two (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$29.95 each), The Complete Fourth Season, The Complete Fifth Season, The Complete Sixth Season, and The Complete Seventh Season (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$49.95 each). All that’s left is the sure-to-be-forthcoming releases of the final two seasons, and you’ve got the whole cult shebang.
Ah, but as we saw with the latter part of The FBI, they don’t only do MOD for their cult titles. With the Dr. Kildare: Season One and Season Two (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$49.95 each), they’ve gone with regularly manufactured discs. They’ve also done the same with the legendary series Maverick, starring James Garner, of which Season 3 and Season 4 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$39.95 each) are available. Or how about the old west drifter with a heart of gold and thirst for sarsaparilla in Sugarfoot, of which you can get Season 1 and Season 2 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$ each). If that weren’t enough, there’s even the obscure but worth a gander of the long-forgotten Sci-Fi flavored mystery series Search (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$49.95), starring Hugh O’Brian, Tony Franciosa, and the great Doug McClure.
And last but not least, in a most welcome move, the Warner Archive has begun offering high definition Blu-Ray releases of their animated series. While we aren’t getting the likes of Batman: The Animated Series or Batman Beyond in the format yet, we are getting the more recent complete first season of Batman: The Brave And The Bold (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.95) and Batman: Shadows Of Gotham – Season One Part One (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.95). Hopefully this is a trend that eventually leads to those aforementioned catalogue series.
But Warners isn’t the only studio mining their vaults for cinema fans. Fox has their MOD 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives, and they’ve just dropped 12 new titles. Now available are John Barrymore in The Great Profile, Jeffrey Hunter & Robert Wagner in In Love And War, Dale Robertson & Jeanne Crain in City Of Bad Men, Glenn Ford in Follow The Sun, Betty Grable in Mother Wore Tights, Jack Haley in Danger – Love At Work, James Mason in 5 Fingers, Otto Preminger & Milton Berle in Margin For Error, Walter Brennan in Home In Indiana, Gloria Stuart in Island In The Sky, Dan Dailey in The Pride Of St. Louis, and Victor Mature in The Glory Brigade (Fox, Not Rated, MOD DVD-$19.98 SRP each).
Some truly beautiful design work goes into modern videogames, which is more than evident by the conceptual artwork that packs The Art Of Titanfall (Titan Books, $34.95 SRP), which delves into the design process of Respawn Entertainment’s juggernaut of a game. If you’re a fan of the game, or just keen to see some stunning work, give it a gander.
Best to ignore Zack Snyder’s gaudy film and its even gaudier sequel, and instead pick up the beautiful high definition debut of the original tale of Spartan heroics, The 300 Spartans (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP). Bonus materials include TV spots and the original theatrical trailer.
And for one last nail in the coffin of Snyder’s folly, find out the real history behind the Spartan’s sacrifice in The History Channel’s Last Stand Of The 300 And Other Famous Greek Battles (History Channel, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP), which brings together 6 documentaries on the battles of antiquity.
No matter how outrageous the first season of Legit (Fox, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) gets, it still manages to find a nugget of genuine emotion in the oddball relationship between Jim Jefferies’s edgy stand-up comic struggling to make his career “legit” in mainstream LA and his neurotic roommate Steve and Steve’s disabled brother Billy (the great DJ Qualls). Bonus materials include audio commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and a gag reel.
Disappointed in how own son, the proprietor of a prestigious family vineyard finds a much better heir in the son of his dying estate manager in the French psychological thriller You Will Be My Son (Cohen Media Group, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$34.98 SRP). Bonus materials include an interview, deleted scenes, and the theatrical trailer.
And howzabout a new soundtrack round-up for this week? Certainly! You’ve got Tony Morales’s score for Enemies Closer (Lakeshore, $9.99 SRP), Craig Richey’s Girl On A Bicycle (Lakeshore, $ SRP), John Ottman’s Non-Stop (Varese Sarabande, $16.98 SRP), and Michael John Mollo’s score to the game Strider (Capcom, $14.99 on PSN/Xbox Live/Steam).
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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