I apologize for the lapse in updates recently. We have actually gotten a lot of new stuff in trade recently (close to 400 just last week, in fact) but we’ve been gigantic slackers in terms of letting our readers know about it.  Now, rather than just run down this big huge list of titles, I’ll just cover a few highlights and interesting tidbits.

Martial arts fans might enjoy the Jet Li stuff we just got in, like The One, Romeo Must Die, Contract Killer and The Corrupter to name just a few. We also got in some Jackie Chan stuff, including Fearless Hyena, First Strike and The Forbidden Kingdom in which he shares the screen with Jet Li. Maybe you’d like Bruce Lee in Fists Of Fury? We’ve got that, too.

If you’re after music videos and/or concert performances, we’ve got you covered with things like Fatboy Slim Live At Brighton Beach, Dream Theater Live At Budokan, Nirvana Unplugged, The Melvins: Salad Of A Thousand Delights, several from Live At Montreaux series, including Curtis Mayfield, Return To Forever, Nile Rogers & Chic, UB40 and Wu Tang Clan. Also Seu Jorge who, if you’re not familiar with him, performed some beautiful songs on Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou like this cover of David Bowie’s Changes:

And speaking of Wes Anderson, I got a chance to watch The Fantastic Mr. Fox this weekend. Two things: Roald Dahl writes some really out there and creative stuff and Wes Ansderson is really well-suited to the task of bringing it to the screen, I think (no offense to Tim Burton. I liked Charlie And The Chocolate Factory a lot!). The story of a fox, forced to give up his life of crime (chicken-stealing) when his wife informs him she’s pregnant (in the middle of a job, no less), this might have worked just as well with humans rather than puppet animals, but there’s something about the voice of George Clooney as the wistful Mr. Fox, aching to pull just one more job (Danny Ocean, anyone?)… rounded out with many of Wes Anderson’s favored stars, like Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson, I highly recommend it. Unless I’m the last one to have seen it. And then I’m firmly in the “that was so good!” camp.

Coincidentally, the other movie I saw this weekend also featured animals and George Clooney. I swear I didn’t plan it that way. The Men Who Stare At Goats? tells the story of The First Earth Battalion, a new-agey approach to war and soldiers that the military really did sink a ton of money and thought into. Touching on a few wonderfully bizarre conspiracy theories (or are they?) like the MK-ULTRA mind control experiments, remote viewing, etc., and peppered with references to Jedi Warriors, I enjoyed this movie quite a lot. Certainly not perfect and possibly could have been better had the Coen Brothers done it but I’m glad I finally got around to seeing it.

So, there’s a little recap on some recent happenings around here. Don’t forget, you can always browse our inventory online, or even shop without having to get dressed with just a click or two. Try it out!

We’ve been having a good time with the shelves on the Wall O’ Cool lately, devoting space to Steve Martin,  Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen, Tim Burton (which morphed into a Johnny Depp shelf), Bruce Willis and John Cusack, to name just a handful. It’s always interesting to sort through the various titles we have on hand to try to put one of these shelves together as sometimes there’s only about enough to fill the shelf (like in the case of Tim Burton) and other times there’s way too much to choose from (in the case of Woody Allen).

Today’s featured artist on the Wall O’ Cool falls somewhere in the middle, with several choices to be made without being completely overwhelming. Of course, there are always titles we want to use but are currently out of stock, but that’s a different story. Anyhow, enough of my yakkin’, let’s boogie.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jackie Chan. Martial arts, slapstick comedy and at well over 3000 years old, he does his own stunts! He’s like a cross between Bruce Lee and Harold Lloyd!

First Strike is the fourth installment in Jackie Chan’s Police Story series, in which Jackie is a cop hot on the trail of stolen nukes!

In Mr. Nice Guy, Chan is a well-known TV chef who also happens to be a martial arts expert (weird, right?). He becomes involved with a news reporter who has a video tape of a shady deal involving a local drug lord and now the two of them are on the run.  This is not Iron Chef!

In Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2 and Rush Hour 3, Chan teams up with the ever-annoying Chris Tucker (maybe it’s just me, but as funny as he is, I just can’t take his voice) in this trilogy of buddy cop films. The first is clearly the best of the bunch, but they are all pretty enjoyable for the action and comedy, both of which are served up in heaping helpings.

In The Tuxedo, Chan is a hapless chauffeur for a suave millionaire who has suffered and accident and lays in a hospital bed. Sent to retrieve some items from his bosses home, Chan tries on a special tuxedo that gives him super-spy powers, sending him into a world of intrigue and danger. Go go gadget tuxedo!

The Forbidden Kingdom pairs Jackie Chan and Jet Li for the first time. A young man in Boston, obsessed with kung-fu movies and Chinese culture, discovers an ancient staff in a pawn shop. After local thugs attempt to rob the pawn shop, our young hero finds himself in possession of the staff and mysteriously transported to ancient China where he embarks on a mythical quest to save the Monkey King. Not as ridiculous as it sounds, actually.

Shanghai Knights is the sequel to Shanghai Noon, which we sadly do not currently have in stock. Chan teams up with Owen Wilson in these East-meets-Old-West action comedies. In this sequel, they find themselves in England chasing after the man who murdered Chan’s father. Hilarity and wild martial arts stunts ensue!

Whatever you’re after, whether it’s laughs or martial arts wizardry, Jackie Chan delivers. And so do we! Come check us out.

Some more recent and newish releases hitting the shelves today, like previewed copies of Lies And Illusions, Shrink, Where The Wild Things Are and 2012, plus more copies of Away We Go, Star Trek and Monsters Vs Aliens.  I may have skipped mentioning that we also have brand spankin’ new copies of Sherlock Holmes in stock, as well as  The Men Who Stare At Goats, Twilight Saga: New Moon, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Blind Side.

Some other cool stuff includes a brand new unopened Mad Men season 2, Bruce Lee: The Master Collection (Fists Of Fury/The Chinese Connection/Return Of The Dragon/Game Of Death/Bruce Lee: The Legend) and a whole box full of stuff I haven’t even looked at yet. Okay, not true. I peeked. It’s loaded with cool stuff.

In other news, it seems that we were duped into thinking the Betamax thing was the wave of the future. I sent all that stuff back.

Happy Friday folks, let the (rainy) weekend begin!