That’s right, the beloved director of such films as Ran, Sanjuro, Yojimbo, Dreams, The Hidden Fortress, Rashomon and The Seven Samurai would be one hundred years old today if he were still alive. We don’t actually have any of those titles, so I will instead distract you with this dazzling display of cinematic treasures we’ve just uncovered.

Monty Python fan? We’ve got you covered with all 14 zany crazy volumes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus! Also, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, The Meaning Of Life and Terry Gilliam’s mind-bending Brazil. And speaking of mind-bending and Terry Gilliam, how’sabout the Criterion Collection version of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. Yup, we got that.

Music fans may be interested in Tenacious D: The Complete Masterworks, The Clash: West Way To The World, The Essential Clash or maybe Pink Floyd: The Dark Side Of The Moon, a 2003 release that takes an in-depth look into the creation of one of rock’s timeless recordings.

Maybe you want to get your 80s on: The Breakfast Club, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Fletch and the sequel Fletch Lives, Animal House and one of my all-time favorites: The Blues Brothers.

But wait, there’s more! Rob Zombie’s House Of 1000 Corpses, the two-disc super special edition version of Se7en, Army Of Darkness, Soylent Green, Logan’s Run, The Andromeda Strain (a movie that terrified me when I saw it as a youngster) First Spaceship On Venus/Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet (double feature) and the mother of all crappy movies: Plan 9 From Outer Space (includes The Ed Wood Story with Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Ed Wood’s wife Dolores Fuller and even Vampira herself!).

Want more? Good! Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall smolder in Key Largo, Charlton Heston does what he does best in Ben Hur, Jack Nicholson chews it up in Five Easy Pieces and Chinatown, Paul Newman broods in Hud and The Hustler and Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn and Omar Sharif star in the sweeping epic Lawrence Of Arabia in a two-disc super-special limited edition.

Not finished just yet, but I’m getting there: Fan-favorites Die Hard, The Road Warrior and Fight Club, plus The Last Of The Mohicans and the classics The Conversation (later remade as Enemy Of The State) and High Noon starring Gary Cooper. A couple anime’ titles: Amon Saga and Appleseed, a tongue-in-cheek look back at “educational” films of yore in Social Engineering 201 (which touches on classic 16 mm films shown to schoolchildren from the 1940s to the 1970s like It Must Be The Neighbors and What To Do On A Date), and finally, a blaxploitation triple feature: Bad Azz Muthaz featuring Black Punisher (Jim Brown), Tattoo Connection (Jim Kelly) and Kid Vengeance (Fred Williamson). Ohhh yeah.

There’s a lot more than that, but my typin’ fingers hurt, so come on in and take a look at the Wall O’ Cool and see what strikes your fancy.

So here are a few of my faves that I would take with me to the Island mentioned in my fellow staff member’s posts..Enjoy.

1. Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls- Russ Meyer’s 1970’s camp-classic. This was his first Major-Studio release. It has it all…Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll…the story of an all girl-band getting lost in the strange world of California in the late 1960’s.  Beheadings, Transgenders, Rock Bands &, of course, boobies.  Written with Film critic Roger Ebert, this one includes an apperance by The Strawberry Alarm Clock!

2. Man Bites Dog- A quite disturbing “mockumenatry”  from Belgium. A film crew follows around a serial killer who shares with them his views on life, love & his profession.  Extremly dark comedy…not for everyone. But everyone should see it.

3. The Kentucky Fried Movie. One of my favourites as a teen. The first Zucker Brothers (AIRPLANE!) This one featuring parodies of feature films, commrecials other such foolishness. Worth it for “Catholic Highschool Girls In Trouble” alone. Oh…and boobies.

4. Goodfellas- An obvious choice. But what can be said about this Scorsese classic?  Wall to wall violence, great dialogue & amazing music. It’s over two hour length flies by. Can still watch it from begining to end at any given time.

5.  National Lampoon’s Animal House- Another obvious classic. I think this may be a perfect comedy. A precursor to the well-written AND raunchy comedies of people like Judd Apatow,  this is another I can watch again & again.  Based on a bunch of short stories from the National Lampoon magazine’s golden years, it chronicles the early 1960’s frat life of a bunch of slackers. Oh…and boobies.

I tried to balance out a few more undgerground picks with the mainstream here…so this list may not be entirely honest….I think I might just wind up watching Freddy Got Fingered over and over again and then wind up being mauled to death by a wild boar whilst picking berries.

GRR