Each Thursday (or Friday, since some weeks we seem to be running behind on everything), Needcoffee.com's staff of whackos will wrack our brains to give you interesting and new things to do over the
weekend. Books, movies, whatever. We'll throw them out, you do with them what you will. And hey...if you have something
you want to recommend--whatever it is--drop us a line.
Incidentally, we've provided links where we can for you to buy the stuff or find out more if you're interested, courtesy
of those Amazon types, in the US, the UK and Canada.
Hey, come on, we can't be totally selfless in this, can we?
October 29, 2004
Book of the Week:
by Lemony Snicket. If the upcoming Jim Carrey movie scares you as much as it does us, take some solace in this,
the latest (eleventh) in the series. It gives you everything you need to know about the water cycle. And, occasionally,
it relates the latest in the adventure of the Baudelaire orphans. You should be prepared for the worst, however, since these
latest misfortunes involve, as the book states, "mushrooms, a desperate search for something lost, a mechanical monster,
a distressing message from a lost friend, and tap dancing." Hilariously morbid.
(UK)
(CAN)
Audiobook of the Week:
, read by Sean Penn. If you ever wanted to know was behind the music, the lyrics and the...ah...mumbling, then
here it is straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. He jumps around, talking about his development as an artist, though
his more famous albums aren't touched upon...yet. This first volume, abridged, is out from Simon & Schuster Audio,
read for you by Sean Penn.
(UK)
(CAN)
Comic Book of the Week:Planetary #21
by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday. Ellis is morphing into Alan Moore, or so it would seem by this issue. Now that the Four has been reduced
to three, our buddy Elijah Snow needs to figure out just what the hell to do next. So he takes a trip--pretty much literally--past
reality...and learns something about what his destiny is supposed to be. No idea what the hell it all means, but hey, we dig
metaphysical rambling as much as the next guy. Rock on.
Graphic Novel of the Week:
by Garth Ennis & various artists. Ennis writes many things well: humor, harsh stuff and war being among his
strengths. Here, you get a little bit of everything all in one--and it's all damn good. Four stories are collected in this
trade, covering everything from a German tank crew's attempts to get captured by the right army to the fight in Italy
by soldiers accused of cowardice. Published in the UK by Titan.
(UK)
(CAN)
TV DVD of the Week:
. A&E Home Video wants the Brit-lovers among you to check this out for the weekend. It's a three-disc set
with eleven episodes from Mr. Hill's series, which were never broadcast in the States in their complete form. This includes
some black and white footage, a bonus docu regarding Mr. Hill, the "Cheeky Challenge Trivia Quiz." The video's never looked
better. Stewie would show it at a "sexy party," that's for sure.
(UK)
(CAN)
DVD of the Week:
. Spend Halloween with everybody's favorite investigative journalist: Kolchak! MGM's release brings you both
the original TV movie and its sequel, so you can get the background on the series that Moonstone Books continues. He takes
on a vampire in Vegas and then a serial killer who's very, very patient. In addition to the two films, you get
two featurettes: one an interview with producer Dan Curtis and one a featurette on directing the sequel.
(UK)
(CAN)
Docu DVD of the Week:
. Home Vision brings you this docu about George Ryan, governor of Illinois, who discovered that, on his
way out of office, that there were people on death row who could be innocent. So what does he do, leave the rest of them
to die or pardon them all? He pardoned them. All 167 of them. And this DVD tells he tale. You get, as bonus stuff, an interview with the
directors and additional scenes.
(UK)
(CAN)
Adverse Video of the Week:
. Cameron's had it tough. He's a psychokinetic. He's also got a creature living in his closet, a demon, that comes out and kills people.
Unless they, you know, come to it. And it's up to a cop and a therapist to try and fix his little friend's problem before
the body count rises. Lots of requisite gore abound, but the monster is Velveeta at its finest. You could do a lot better
for Halloween viewing, but if you want MST3K action, here's a nice suggestion.
(UK)
(CAN)
Anime DVD of the Week:
. Our boy Kiichi is getting a steady stream of people who want to kick his ass since Iron Kiba won't let anyone
fight Kiba until they take down Kiichi. However when somebody takes down a buddy of his in such a way that's designed to
make Kiichi lose focus. He has to get that focus back if he wants to keep his block from getting knocked off. The only
feature on this Central Park Media release is a gallery of stills.
(CAN)
DVD Boxed Set of the Week:
. Nothing quite like a PBS DVD boxed set that could stop a bullet, eh? This ten disc monstrosity has
all twenty-five hours of the Ken Burns docu--and when you consider that the Red Sox just broke their curse, what a better
time to check it out? And if that wasn't enough to take up your entire weekend, you also get one hundred-plus virtual
baseball cards, over two hundred trivia questions, and a mini-slew of Charlie Rose interviews.
(UK)
(CAN)
Kung Fu DVD of the Week:
. From producer Sammo Hung (and hitting DVD thanks to Fox), it's Master Ko, an Eastern version of a ghostbuster,
vs. the undead. A corpse springs to life and with its gang and some ghosts starts to raise some havoc, it's up to Ko
and his apprentices to put them back in the earth again. Or try, anyway. Funny stuff, it's a nice humorous change of pace
for your Halloween weekend.
(UK)
(CAN)
Family DVD of the Week:
. Kids will enjoy the film even though it wasn't exactly Disney's finest hour. But hey, at least you're getting
a bunch of bonus features for the investment of time. There are deleted scenes
with an intro by one of the directors, a deleted musical number, featurettes, art and design galleries, music
videos (with one by Jackie Chan), an audio commentary with the directors and producer, and a whole lot more.
(UK)
(CAN)
Music DVD of the Week:
. This straight concert DVD is out from Hip-O Records. And I just love the circumstances of its creation:
what do you do if you love blues and you happen to have a camera crew handy? Well, if you're on hiatus and you're on the
show Gunsmoke, you hit the road and go film the likes of George "Harmonica" Smith, Big Joe Turner and Muddy Waters.
You get complete performances with angle selections, audio tracks and interviews. Nice.
(CAN)
Music CD of the Week:
by No Doubt. This collection of remixes, B-sides and rarities hits from Interscope. And it's luckily more than just a
disc of dregs from the band's archives. Alternative rocky stuff is the name of the game with solid tracks like "New Friend,"
"Big Distraction" and the title track. Eminently listenable.
(UK)
(CAN)
Book of the Week:
by Lemony Snicket. If the upcoming Jim Carrey movie scares you as much as it does us, take some solace in this,
the latest (eleventh) in the series. It gives you everything you need to know about the water cycle. And, occasionally,
it relates the latest in the adventure of the Baudelaire orphans. You should be prepared for the worst, however, since these
latest misfortunes involve, as the book states, "mushrooms, a desperate search for something lost, a mechanical monster,
a distressing message from a lost friend, and tap dancing." Hilariously morbid.
(UK)
(CAN)
Comic Book of the Week: Planetary #21
by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday. Ellis is morphing into Alan Moore, or so it would seem by this issue. Now that the Four has been reduced
to three, our buddy Elijah Snow needs to figure out just what the hell to do next. So he takes a trip--pretty much literally--past
reality...and learns something about what his destiny is supposed to be. No idea what the hell it all means, but hey, we dig
metaphysical rambling as much as the next guy. Rock on.
