We’ve got a whole lot of really cool stuff going up on the shelves today, some of it unopened and brand new (old titles, new copies)! Titles like A Beautiful Mind, The Clearing, Cradle 2 The Grave, Michael Clayton, The Craft, A Mighty Heart, Zodiac, Titan A. E., Uncle Buck, Trading Places and a ton more. Lots of not-new stuff going out too, like The Ninth Gate, Great Expectations, The James Bond Collection Volume 1 (seven titles: Dr. No; Goldfinger; The Man With The Golden Gun; The Spy Who Loved Me; License To Kill; Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies), The Trip To Bountiful, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and lots lots more!

Over the weekend I watched a few movies and realized at the end of it that they were all docudramas, movies based on real people and events. Not a huge surprise, as it’s one of my favorite genres.  I watched Bonnie And Clyde, Amelia and Monster. The only one I hadn’t seen before was Amelia, starring Hilary Swank as Amelia Erhart, one of the world’s favorite missing persons. It’s a fascinating story and I thought the movie was well done, without attempting to explain or speculate about her disappearance. See it if you get the chance.

We’ve got a shelf on the Wall O’Cool right now dedicated to stories about real people and events:

Breach tells the story of Robert Hanssen, played to creepy perfection by Chris Cooper, who sold secrets to the Russians during his 25-year tenure with the FBI.

In Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts plays the woman who helped bring down a power company accused of polluting a small town’s water supply.

Party Monster stars Macauley Culkin and Seth Green in very different roles for both of them, as flamboyant “club kids” Michael Alig and James St. James respectively. In the late 80s and early 90s, they hosted insane parties in clubs around New York City, did lots of drugs and ultimately killed one of their roommates.

Frost/Nixon is a fascinating look at the drama around and behind the scenes of David Frost’s post-Watergate interviews with Richard Nixon.

W. is another political biopic that’s fascinating to watch, no matter what your politics are. Chronicling the rise and downward slide of George W. Bush, it’s well worth your time.

Philip Seymour Hoffman is fantastic as Truman Capote in Capote. In 1959, two small-time criminals kill an entire family during a break-in. After their arrest, Truman Capote plans to write a New Yorker article about the crime, but ultimately decides to write the book In Cold Blood instead (a book I read when I was 12 or so and which fueled a life-long interest in true crime novels and movies). It’s interesting to see this movie alongside the film version of the book if you get the chance.

Shattered Glass tells the amazing story of journalist Stephen Glass, a writer for the prestigious The New Republic in the mid-90s.  By the end of his time there, it was found that 27 of the 41 articles he’d written for them were partially or completely fabricated. Hayden Christensen is whiny and annoying throughout most of the movie, but this is offset by the story and the rest of the cast, including Chloe Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Steve Zahn, Rosario Dawson and the adorable Melanie Lynskey.

Bringing up the rear (pun slightly intended) of this collection is The Notorious Bettie Page, the story the number one pin-up girl of the 1950s. Told in flashback style as Bettie waits to testify before a Senate sub-committee investigating the effects of pornographic material on American adolescents and juveniles, it’s equal parts sexy, sad and funny.

Plenty of stuff to see here, folks. And if you get this coupon, it’s all 20% off for a couple more days!

And we have more copies of the wonderful post-apocalyptic stop-motion adventure 9; the hugely underrated Moon (I don’t follow movie awards, but seriously, how this is not up for an Oscar or three is beyond comprehension); alien/apartheid parallels in District 9; the crew of the Enterprise takes to the stars in Star Trek; girl power on wheels in Whip It and good old-fashioned zombie killin’ in Zombieland. Great movies, great values.

And as if our prices aren’t already low enough, skulk on over to our special offers page and get you a coupon and save 20% on everything you could want!

New release this week is Where The Wild Things Are, the Spike Jonez adaptation of the classic beloved children’s story by Maurice Sendak. Features original songs written and performed by Karen O of  Yeah Yeah Yeahs (I did not know that).

Cool new trades lately include a Wes Anderson trifecta: Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tennenbaums and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou; Lawrence Of Arabia, Singin’ In The Rain, Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb, The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, The Long Kiss Goodnight, a super-duper special edition Sin City, Princess Mononoke and The Muppets Take Manhattan. And a metric butt-load of VHS.

Hot recent releases are hot: Moon, The Invention Of Lying, Surrogates, Whip It and A Perfect Getaway to name but a few.

And let’s not forget we have a coupon over in the land of special offers: 20% off anything in the store through March 17th. Save yourself a pot of gold, don’tcha know.

We also have Lethal Weapon, Dear Frankie, Paycheck, Smart People, the story of the rise and fall and, ultimately, murder of Bob Crane in Auto Focus, and speaking of showbiz and murder we also have Wonderland, the story of the horrific murders of four small-time criminals back in 1981 that would probably have been forgotten if the case hadn’t involved John Holmes. 

Hmm. Grim.

On a happier note, we have the original version of The Ladykillers starring Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom.

Don’t forget: save 20% off all romantic comedies through Sunday. Get a coupon right here.