Published: February 03, 2010 08:51 am      

Entertainment Picks (February 5, 2010)

3 Things to check out this weekend

Jetpack Dreams

By Mac Montandon

Softcover, 261 pages ($16.95)



For more than 75 years, the rocket-powered jetpack---with its futuristic promises of freedom and flight---has been a staple of science fiction and pop culture, from Buck Rogers to James Bond. The author goes on a wide-ranging odyssey in search of this elusive invention and why it somehow, in real life, never quite made it off the ground. Fun, funny, fascinating, full of colorful characters and spiked with unexpected drama, “Jetpack Dreams” soars to places that might surprise you.

—Neil Pond, American Profile



The Sherlock Holmes Collection

DVD ($29.99)



Long before the current hit movie starring Robert Downey Jr., the character of Sherlock Holmes was very much alive and well. These five episodes (the only ones in existence) of the celebrated 1960s BBC television series about the dapper super-sleuth, now available in America for the first time on DVD, feature the late, great Peter Cushing in some old-school cloak-and-dagger involving murders, cannibals and---ah, yes---a certain legendary hell-hound that roams the lowland moors around the estate of the Baskervilles.

—Neil Pond, American Profile



Becker: The Third Season

DVD ($39.99)



TV’s crankiest doc (Ted Dansen) finds a lot more to complain about in these 24 episodes of the popular CBS sitcom from 2000-2001, including a bad case of insomnia, a high-school graduating class unimpressed with his commencement address and a getaway cruise that turns out to be something other that just what the doctor ordered.

—Neil Pond, American Profile