…”Do I feel lucky?”

We do, that’s a fact. We’ve got so many Clint Eastwood films here in the store we’ve  given the man his own shelf on the Wall O’ Cool.  Whether he’s The Man With No Name or he’s the .44-Magnum-toting, authority-bucking Harry Callahan, you gotta love Clint.

Dirty Harry is one of my all-time favorite films. Loosely inspired by the Zodiac Killer who terrorized San Francisco in the late ’60s and into the ’70s, this film introduced us to the the ultimate take-no-crap cop: Harry Callahan. The only thing Harry hates more than criminals is, well, everyone else. You definitely do not want to get on the wrong side of Harry’s code of honor.

And then there’s the followup, Magnum Force, in which Harry goes after a rogue group of vigilante cops who are taking the law into their own hands and picking off the bad guys that slip through the system’s cracks. Of course, Harry hates rogue vigilante cops maybe even more than criminals and, well, everyone else. Plus, this is the film that contains one of my favorite quotes ever: “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

One thing I was surprised to discover was just how many Clint Eastwood films he’s directed as well. The Outlaw Josey Wales is just one of those. Josey Wales is essentially The Man With No Name (from his old Spaghetti Western days), only this time around he has a name. After his avenging his family’s murder, Josey Wales is on run as a pack of killers hunts him down. Along the way he picks up a rag-tag group of hangers-on (including long-time girlfriend Sondra Locke, who ended up costarring with him several more times in the ’70s and ’80s) that he feels compelled to protect.

Clint didn’t do another western for 9 years after Josey Wales, not until 1986’s Pale Rider (again directed by himself). As a man known only as “Preacher”, he  goes up against an evil mining boss bent on driving the local independent miners out of the area. The boss hires some killers who work for whomever pays, and he pays in gold. On the other hand, Preacher pays in lead.

Up next we’ve got a couple of political thrillers featuring Clint on both sides of the law. In Absolute Power, he plays a career thief named Luther Whitney who witnesses a murder which could spell scandal for the President of the United States and finds himself in a game of cat-and-mouse with local cops and the Secret Service. Also stars Gene Hackman and Ed Harris and is once again directed by Mr. Eastwood.

Speaking of the Secret Service, In The Line Of Fire has our man playing veteran agent Frank Horrigan who has the unfortunate distinction of having been unable to protect JFK on that fateful day in November 1963. Now, many years later, that failure still haunts him as he’s drawn into a plot to kill the current President. The would-be assassin, a former-CIA agent played with creepy brilliance by John Malkovich, taunts him by phone and teases him with clues, giving Horrigan the chance at redemption he so desperately craves.

In True Crime, Clint is Steve Everett, a boozing, skirt-chasing reporter whose job is on the line when he’s assigned to interview a death row inmate in the hours before his scheduled execution. After just a little research, Everett is convinced that an innocent man is about to die and it becomes a race against time. Of course, when you’re a drunk, a bad dad and you’ve slept with the wife of your boss, who’s gonna listen to you? Costars Denis Leary and James Woods.

And to round things out we have Million Dollar Baby, another film directed by Clint, in which he plays trainer Frankie Dunn who is quick to growl “I don’t train girls!” Of course, when the girl is Hilary Swank and won’t quit showing up at the gym, what’s a cranky old guy to do but take her in? Costarring Morgan Freeman as the gym caretaker and non-cranky old guy. Clint Eastwood also composed music for this one. Is there anything he can’t do?

So that wraps up the Clint Eastwood shrine on our Wall O’ Cool. There were some also-rans that didn’t make the cut, like The Bridges Of Madison County, Blood Work, Flags Of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima and Space Cowboys, not to mention titles we’re out of right now, like Gran Torino, Unforgiven, High Plains Drifter…. the list really truly goes on and on. Come on in and check it out. We might just make your day.

Come see what we have going on the shelves today!

“Gran Torino” and “Rudy” to serve your drama needs.

For laughs, we have “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and the movie “Bottle Shock”, starring Alan Rickman as a wine connoisseur in 1976 who challenges wineries in Napa Valley’s burgeoning wine country to a blind tasting against the French.

How about some 007? Shaken, not stirred? We have “Thunderball”, “Goldfinger” and “Casino Royale.”

And finally a collection of fun family stuff! “Chicken Little”, “Monster House”, “Zoom: Academy of Superheroes”, and “Homeward Bound- The Incredible Journey.”

A little of everything to cover your Saturday night movie needs!!! Stop on by!