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…)
It was with some trepidation that fans entered the 5th season of Doctor Who (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$89.98 SRP) – Not only were we losing fan-favorite David Tennant as the 10th Doctor, but the 11th Doctor would be the ridiculously young unknown Matt Smith. Surely this would be when the new series stumbled. Well, no. No it didn’t. In fact, Matt Smith is a wonder in the role, and has more than made it its own, and new companion Amy Pond puts all former Nu-Who companions to shame. Add to that some brilliant writing and a true sense of fun (Remember when sci-fi wasn’t just maudlin navel-gazing?), and you have a brilliant season. Bonus materials include newly-filmed short interludes between episodes, video diaries, Doctor Who Confidential, in-vision commentaries, Monster Files, outtakes, teasers, and trailers.
If you’re keen on the environment but also really, really like to make a lot of noise, why not try the reusable EcoBlast Air Horn ($29.99 SRP), which allows us to use a simple air pump to refill a plastic bottle with air – and believe you me, this thing makes one hell of a loud noise.
Another could-have-been-a-disaster moment turned out to be gold with Steven Moffat & Mark Gatiss’s modern take on Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock (BBC, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.98 SRP), which managed to make the mythos current without undermining the essence of what has made the character a perennial. My only regret? That the first season is on 3 feature-length episodes long. Bonus materials include audio commentaries, a making-of featurette, and the original pilot episode.
It’s a been a few months, and you know what that means – a new Mystery Science Theater 3000 set! Continuing their yearly tradition, this holiday period box set comes packed with another bot action figure, and this times it’s the absolutely massive (and wonderfully accurate) Gypsy. If that weren’t enough, the movies contained in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Volume XIX (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$69.97 SRP) are the 1st season episode Robot Monster (with a Josh Weinstein intro), season 4’s Bride Of The Monster, and the Sci-Fi era Devil Doll and Devil Fish. Bonus materials include featurettes on Bride & Devil Doll, a look at the “Invention Exchange”, a panel from CONvergence 2009, and trailers.
No one but Edgar Wright could have made a film quite as eccentrically experimental yet firmly rooted in pop culture geekery as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Universal, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$39.98 SRP), based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s genre-blender comic series about a 22-year-old going-nowhere bass player that falls head-over-heels for Ramona Flowers, a girl with Seven Evil Exes bent on destroying Pilgrim. Yeah, that about sums it up. And yes, you’ll want to get the Blu-Ray, loaded with commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, music videos, the Adult Swim animated short, bloopers, and more.
They’re absolute classics and seasonal must-haves, and now the Peanuts: Deluxe Holiday Collection (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$42.98 SRP) has made its debut in high definition. The 6-disc set contains It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, & A Charlie Brown Christmas, each of which contains bonus specials and making-of featurettes, as well as standard DVDs.
A few months has gone by, which means that the BBC vault has opened and another pair of classic Doctor Who releases have made their way out – specifically the Tom Baker years Revenge Of The Cybermen & the Sylvester McCoy Silver Nemesis (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP each). Both contain the usual plethora of bonus materials, including audio commentaries, featurettes, interviews, galleries, and more.
Push Clooney & Pitt out of your mind for a moment and revel in the HD glory of The Rat Pack’s grand heist, as the 50th anniversary edition of Ocean’s 11 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP) significantly upgrades the picture and sound in what remains a mostly swinging relic of a bygone age. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, an interactive Vegas: Then & Now map, casino vignettes, and a segment of Angie Dickinson appearing on The Tonight Show with guest host Sinatra.
It’s the holiday season, and Warners has added to their set of deluxe holiday Ultimate Collections (previous entries include A Christmas Story & Christmas Vacation) with the Elf: Ultimate Edition (Warner Bros., Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$49.99 SRP). Not only does it feature the film’s high definition debut (with commentaries, featurettes, and deleted/alternate scenes), but also a stocking, present tags, a soundtrack sampler CD, and a magnetic picture frame, all packed in a collectible tin.
Fans of the recent direct-to-DVD DC animated fare will no that many of those came with bonus shorts starring other characters within the DC universe. Well, extended versions of those shorts have been collected with a brand new one – that new one being the titular Superman/Shazam!: The Return Of Black Adam (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.99 SRP). Bonus features include audio commentaries on all 4 shorts.
It’s a shame that Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP) wasn’t independently produced, because it then could have told the real story about how a once-great company full of iconic characters has pissed away a publishing empire and lost generation after generation of new readers with blinkered incompetence at the highest executive levels who insist on pandering to wank-happy fanboys by destroying those selfsame iconic characters that built the company. Shame, that.
As a film, it’s a big mess, but there’s plenty of fun still to be had in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (MGM, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$34.99 SRP), even if – with its inferior Sherman Brothers songs and Dick Van Dyke – it seems like a poor man’s Mary Poppins. Still, it’s a beautiful Blu-Ray restoration and hey! Flying car! And a ridiculously infectious title song. Bonus materials include retrospective & vintage featurettes, and galleries.
They might not be as popular or prevalent as they once were, but there’s still something alluring to life under the big top – a life which is explored in the documentary Circus (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$34.99 SRP), which follows the Big Apple Circus on its 350-show tour. Bonus materials include additional footage and profiles.
Economize your high definition kiddie-slick purchase with the Scooby-Doo 1 & 2 Collection (Warner Bros., Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$24.98 SRP), which brings together both live action big screen outings, with bonus materials including audio commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, and music videos.
Where the US version of the UK’s middle-age male crisis dramedy Manchild never got past pilot, the similarly themed Men Of A Certain Age (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) – starring Ray Romano, Andre Braugher, and Scott Bakula – seems to be going strong. The first season set contains audio commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.
The big screen version may be moving in fits and spurts, but the BBC’s live action adaptation of The Chronicles Of Narnia (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP) has now been collected into one complete set, complete with featurettes, outtakes, and a 2003 reunion of the cast.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I’m not a fan, but I know may out there will have been champing at the bit for Metalocalypse: Season 3 (Adult Swim, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP). And for them, there’s all 10 episodes in high definition, plus a bucketload of bonus features.
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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While the MST3K version is still near and dear to my heart, it is fun to see the restored original 
Matt Smith’s tenure as the new Doctor on Doctor Who isn’t the only change that producer Steven Moffat has wrought – there’s also a brand new 
One of the things I eagerly await is the arrival of a new volume of classic Charlie Brown & co., and 
You know what other book always delights me when it arrives? A new installment in the wonderfully awkward misadventures of dim-witted detective Frank Burly, courtesy of author John Swartzwelder (writer of 59 episodes of The Simpsons). The latest is 
There’ve been plenty of young actresses tackling vintage royalty in recent years, but a gold crown to Emily Blunt’s portrayal of a young Queen Victoria in the appropriately named 
There’s many a stand-up release that comes down the pike where I merely shrug my shoulders and say, “Eh.” And then there’s the new release from Reggie Watts, 
With 
It’s by no means a bad film – in fact, 
I still haven’t figured out what I think of 
A trio of cryogenically frozen astronauts return to an asteroid-devastated, rough-and-tumble post-apocalyptic Earth 150 years in the future in Gene Roddenberry’s 
What doe Tom Selleck, Yul Brynner, Leonard Nimoy, and Sam Elliott have in common? They all star in at least one of the three movies contained in Warners 
If you were to make the It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World of romantic films, it would be director Garry Marshall’s 
You know the Warner Archive is dedicated to fulfilling every obscure nostalgic wish when they release Kid ‘N Play’s 
Any time we can get fully remastered editions of the Studio Ghibli films, color me delighted – and that’s just we’ve got with new 2-disc special editions of 
Eliminate all of those excuses about it being far too difficult and time consuming to brew a proper mug of tea by picking up the 
Prior to starring in John Carpenter’s 
The market’s being flooded with any movie or special that ever bore the name, but what sets the 1966 BBC production of 
It’s a memorable book, but Maurice Sendak’s 
It’s a trippy, Teutonic mess of a children’s film (What can you expect from Wolfgang Petersen?), but thousands of viewings on 1980’s HBO endeared me to 
The Daleks get their due in a pair of classic Doctor Who releases, starting with the 4-disc 
Get your fill of good ol’ country lawyerin’ with the complete fourth season of Abe Simpson’s favorite show, 
If you’re a fan of The Sarah Silverman Program and have been endlessly wondering if they’d ever release all of the music featured in the show, you can now cease your endless wondering and simply pick up a copy of 
Calling 
The trailers for the movie have left me cold, but I’ve been an admirer of Chris Sanders’ artwork since Lilo & Stitch, so to see it pop up in the design for the titular beast in Dreamworks’ How To Train Your Dragon was welcome, and I’m always a fan of pouring through books like 
The film itself lags in spots, but Robin Wright proves again how powerful she can be on screen as the titular middle-aged housewife and mother in 
I’m sure car nuts enjoy TLC’s reality series focusing on the refurbishment of old cars, 
It’s dangerous and sensationalistic, but for the footage of the storms alone, I’m always going to be entranced by a show like 
After releasing them as full seasons, they’ve decided to start the whole split-season thing with 
Cut down in its prime by a network that didn’t understand the greatness it was letting slip away (Hello, BBC!), 
I love musical instruments. I have absolutely no talent for learning or playing them, but I do love to own and tinker with them. The 
Time to wrap up the tenure of the 10th Doctor (played by David Tennant) with the release of the final two specials – 
The releases have been heavily delayed and the wait has been difficult, but the 6th season of 
If you were unable or unwilling to pony up the cash for the deluxe edition of The Godfather Trilogy on Blu-Ray, now’s your chance to pick and choose either 
Much like DC’s direct-to-video adaptations of their comic book story arcs, Marvel has leapt into that pool with an animated adaptation of 
Returning with her second HBO special and her A game direct from the nation’s capital, 
A staple of my late-80’s Nick At Nite viewing, I’m delighted that the goofily fun 
I think we’ve just about completed Terry Gilliam’s catalogue transition to high definition with the release of 
Granted, the contestants are long gone, but if I’m roaming the cable channels and happen across the Game Show Network, I’m often sucked into watching games shows that were recorded up to a half-century ago. If you’re like me, then you’ll probably want to pick up 
The transition to the big screen isn’t wholly successful, but there’s still much to love in the high-definition debut of Meredith Wilson’s 
It’s a big, messy, ensemble love letter to the city that never sleeps, and like any patchwork film made up of numerous director’s vignettes, there’s some good and some bad to be found in 
Warners continues its budget-conscious TCM Greatest Classic Films Collections with a trio of new additions to the roster – 
Of his recent flicks, Clint Eastwood’s 
I don’t really get the appeal of the Air Bud series, but there’s certainly enough of a demand that Disney is releasing a special edition of 
Yeah, the writing is on the wall in the penultimate 9th season of 
What made the comedy of Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind work so well was the actual musicianship of its principal trio, who’ve decided to take center stage as themselves for 
Having seen it’s uber-cool, nerd-pleasing beauty firsthand as it illuminated my hotel room for both myself and Doc Hammer, I have nothing but praise for the 
Though often viewed as a lesser light when compared with the juggernaut that is Mary Poppins, I’m quite fond of Disney’s 70’s, post-Walt stab at recapturing some of that magic – 
One of the films that I’ve been anticipating a high-def release for is Robert Altman’s 
Long before he had to scream over the bombastic production of the US Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay was more straightforward, less caricatured, and more helpful with struggling restaurants in the original UK 
After a disastrous, catastrophically bungled second season fumble, 
Not as beloved as the original iteration, there are still fans that are waiting for the fourth volume of 
Ever wondered 
It’s a slow recovery, but the 5th season of 
Though Sherlock Holmes is the only one that has remained a household name, there were plenty of other detectives found in Victorian literature – 13 of which are featured in 
The fourth season of 
More classic Doctor Who hitting DVD with the release of a Sylvester McCoy adventure, 
Bringing a little slice of their True Life Adventures into the digital age, Disney Nature has crafted a new documentary that pulls together a globe-spanning menagerie with high definition-ready exotic locales for 
WWII buff? You’ll want the Ultimate Collections box set of 
The drama and intrigue on not-so-sleepy Wisteria Lane continues in the 5th season of 
How do you know Halloween is fast approaching – at least by studio standards? The Halloween DVDs are already coming out. Disney has repackaged their previously available 
I’ve dipped back in occasionally (like when Dana Snyder guested), but have never really gotten swept up in 
This past season, JJ Abrams returned to TV with 
You know, it’s a shame that the network couldn’t see fit to give 
I’m always delighted when a show that I have zero expectations about blindsides me by being a nice little piece of television. Such is the case with 
It’s unfortunate that 
The previous iterations with a hoot, and I’m glad that Sony is continuing to release some offbeat catalogue titles from the vaults under their “Martini Movies” banner. The latest batch includes a young Michael Douglas in 
With Amy Poehler in the lead and surrounded by a seasoned comedy cast, it makes it all the more unfortunate that 
It’s a shame that Nickelodeon’s other big live action kid-friendly sitcom, 
After what has seemed like an endless series of delays, the mother of all mockumentaries has finally made its way to high-def with the release of 
As someone who prefers quiet walks at night when traffic isn’t quite as busy, it’s nice to have a practical hat like the 
If you’re only exposure to 
The episodes have been released in single-disc releases thus far, but now you can get 
It’s the beginning of the end as the first of showrunner Russell T. Davies’ four telemovie swan songs comes to DVD in the form of 
Oh, Torchwood– you are such a flawed little spin-off. So desperate to be adult and differentiate yourself from parent Doctor Who, you’re just a mess of poorly realized characters, awkward writing, and unrealized potential. Still, fans can pick up 
It’s my second favorite Irwin Allen disaster flick (after the wondrous Poseidon Adventure, but 
Ever since being informed of its existence by the great Graham Linehan, I’ve been dying to see 
Joss Whedon lost my trust during the abysmal final season of Buffy. I never got into Firefly, and every time I tried to watch his latest, 
Weaving seldom-seen interviews, footage, and interviews with those who knew him, 
Though many will get their stuff in a bunch, I thought the finale of Battlestar Galactica was a big, awkward disappointment that jumped from “Huh?” to “What?” moments with reckless abandon. Still, fans are sure to snap up the final set, 
There are a lot of catalogue titles making their way into the Blu-Ray roster, but it’s always nice when the films of a personal favorite filmmaker get a spin – such as Terry Gilliam’s 
Quirky and fun, 
I guess the best way to describe 
Before Polanski went mainstream with Rosemary’s Baby, he was spending the 1960’s making chilling cinema like 
Of all the direct-to-DVD DC animated adventures to come down the pike thus far, 
It went out with a bit of a whimper, but fans at least can now pick up the wrap-up with 
Besides featuring an early TV performance from a young Ian McKellen, 
I never cared for The Fast & The Furious, but even I could see diminishing returns in its sequels. So, too, did the studio, who decided to go back to basics – cast and all – with the cleverly named 
When 
Oh, relaunched Knight Rider. You were so very hopeful that your self-important, lackluster new take on the 80’s hit would actually have a future, you didn’t even bother to call your DVD release The Complete Series even though you’ve been cancelled. So now people can buy 
The film is one of those cult faves, and Lalo Schifrin’s score to 
Gary Hobkins and his rather unique ability to foresee and hopefully avert the future – literally, he’s delivered the next day’s edition of the newspaper – returns with the complete second season of 
Fans were lucky to get one – MAYBE 2 – Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collections each year during the old Rhino days, but Shout! Factory has really stepped up the pace as we now get their THIRD release, 
Sometimes you just have to sit back and admire a piece of equipment that takes a standard device and just plusses the heck out of it. Such is the case with the 
As much as I love Derren Brown’s various series (and I do love them so), I think I dig his live shows even more. There’s something supremely entertaining seeing a master mentalist and showman at work in front of an audience, where the energy is palpable. His latest show to make its way to DVD is 
The cast has been shaken up (Deputies Garcia, Johnson, & Kimball are absent and Joe Lo Truglio and Ian Roberts have joined as Deputies Rizzo & Declan) and the comedy has gone even more into the realm of bizarre slapstick, but the sixth season of 
Thee Beebs roll out of classic Doctor Who continues with a pair of new releases. The first comes from the William Hartnell years – 
Celebrate the launch of Apollo 11 and mankind’s trip to the moon with 
While most of the attention has been paid to contemporaries like Peter Cook, John Cleese, and David Frost, let me take a moment to give some proper attention to “The Two Johns” – Bird & Fortune – and the numerous gifts they’ve given to the field of brilliant satire. Much of their recent contributions are featured in 
What otherwise might be an interesting, enjoyable thriller turns to mush when it stars Nic Cage, which is a shame when 
Personally, I can’t get into the charm and wit of The Prairie Home Companion. Regardless, I did enjoy the documentary 
I’m not going to mention what recent film 
It’s not the feature-laden special edition that some were hoping for, but at least we have a nice, widescreen, spiffy high-def edition of 
Like most procedural shows, by the time you’ve seen a half-dozen episodes, you’ve pretty much seen all the rest – for good or ill. 
A little bit The Exorcist, a little The Omen, and a little Japanese horror, 
Take a very funny Australian sitcom about a white trash mother and daughter, remake it, put it on NBC starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair, and watch all of the funny disappear. Such is the sad case with the first season of 
Oh, Power Rangers – you never seem to stop, like some kind of Energizer Bunny. The latest iteration is hitting DVD with 
I admit – I was wary of Wall-E. Cars had left me a little cold (and the creepy, post-apocalyptic, human-less but made by humans world it was set in was just disturbing), but Ratatouille was more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be, and my faith in Pixar was ready to be fully restored. And it was. It helps that I experienced the film sitting beside my 4-year-old nephew, who was in the process of taking in his very first movie on a movie theater’s BIG SCREEN. It was a magical time from start to finish, and the DVD brings it on home. If standard definition is still your cup of tea, then I recommend the 
Kudos to Stephen Colbert for reviving the tradition of a pundit holiday special – just like the George Plimpton celebrations of yore – with 
While I don’t think it’s quite the revelatory masterpiece that the hype made it out to be, I did enjoy 
After a pair of unsatisfying “best-of” compilations spanning the show’s entire run, we finally go back to the beginning for a proper complete first season set of 
After her turn in the Christmas special “The Runaway Bride”, some were worried about Catherine Tate reprising her role of Donna Noble as the 10th Doctor’s new companion in the fourth series of 
There’ve been a boxful of previous soundtrack releases for the Indiana Jones films, but now we’ve got 
If you’ve been patiently avoiding the single-disc releases for the next seasonal batch of that happy chap that lives in a pineapple under the sea, then you’ll rejoice in your purchase of 
Criterion sprinkles their cinematic fairy dust and delivers to film geeks another stellar special edition, this time for the acclaimed 1965 adaptation of John le Carre’s 
I view the remastered editions of the original Star Trek to be a unique aberration that sometimes succeeds in providing a richer experience than the original effects work, but often just plays as just an awkward exercise. Still, you can now wrap things up with the release of the final season, 
It’s been edited to remove Kermit, but Jim Henson’s 
By now, when one goes into a Werner Herzog film, one expects an experience wholly unique. That’s certainly what you get with 
Fans of The Who have been waiting years for a pristine release of the band’s 1977 concert in Kilburn, North London, and 
You know, I didn’t think I’d get anything out of 
When it first premiered, I had Bones pegged as one of those quirky shows that couldn’t possibly survive the network ignoramusi for long. But here we are with 
The idea of Will Smith playing an antisocial ex-superhero who gets hooked up with an image consultant played by Jason Bateman seems like it should delight me to no end, but 
The third season of 
A&E Home Video has leapt into the world of high definition with a pair of pre-existing catalogue releases that certainly set the stage for some nice drops in the future. First up is the inaugural season of their interstellar documentary series 
Full disclosure time. I consider my very first crush to be on Punky Brewster. Just to show how aware I was at the time, as a wee lad, I even knew that the precocious Punky was played by a girl named Soleil Moon Frye – who I vowed I would one day marry. At least that’s what I told my friends while we played in our junk wood playhouse at the top of the hill behind Quantico base housing all those years ago. I never did marry Soleil (her loss, really), but I did watch her show. Now, thanks to those pop culture machiavellis at Shout! Factory, I can relive that long-ago crush with all four seasons of 
It’s hard for them to dig themselves out of the hole the show has been going deeper and deeper into the past few years after its stellar first few seasons, but they at least attempted some course correction during the 7th season of 
It’s a legendary concert and now it’s gotten a suitably reverent release with 
Minoru Kawasaki is a bizarre filmmaker whose bizareness is matched only by that of his films themselves. Don’t believe me? Check out the psychological thriller starring a 6-foot office-working 
Tick another one off the list, as the fifth and final season of 
One of my nephew’s favorite Nick shows is The Fairly Oddparents, so I’m sure he’ll eagerly devour 
I am not the target audience. At all. But I know the target audience is probably screaming in giddy anticipation for the release of 
A staple of my 80’s Nick At Nite viewing returns with its sophomore outing in the form of 
There were times during the 3rd season of 
The pants-loving foursome is back in 
Though they’ve halved the disc count, beggars can’t be choosers when we get another clutch of classic cartoons, fully restored, with 
Though seen as one of the lesser lights of the classic Disney animated feature firmament, I was always fond of 
Everybody’s doing it, so you might as well bite the bullet, grab a friend or two, and join the podcasting craze that’s sweeping the net like the flu. Getting the right gear can be a nightmare, but you can eliminate all the guesswork by snagging the 
Go under the sea with everyone’s favorite Time Lord in 
All these years later, it’s interesting to look back on 
Here we are in the 9th season of 
If you’ve been holding off any purchasing any of the BBC’s wonderful Walking With… history series, you can get the whole lot in the new 
Largely forgotten by the public, Beach Boy’s Dennis Wilson’s legendary solo album 
I’m usually rather apathetic toward the films of Martin Lawrence, but based on a trailer that actually managed to elicit a laugh or two from me in the theaters a few months back, I decided to give 
Rest assured that even a Disneyland uberfan like Dana Snyder would want a copy of 
If they’re not yet ready for the encroaching adulthood and edgy songwriting of Disney’s Jonas Brothers, then rest assure that today’s kids are watching those fake tweenyboppers, the Naked Brothers Band. For those still-innocent kiddies, the band has a new movie, 
Rudolph may get all the press, but Rankin/Bass made plenty of other stop motion specials – including one called 
It was during the third season of 
If you were essentially to do a remake of Six Days, Seven Nights and replace Harrison Ford and Anne Heche with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, you’ve pretty much got the action romcom 
Neither memorable nor boring, the best thing I can say about the high school enemy body switch comedy