The Blu Spot

The Film: It's nearly impossible to believe that a show about a bunch of guys doing really stupid things could ever become such a phenomenon, but somehow that's exactly what happened with Johnny Knoxville & his friends when they launched "Jackass" on MTV back in 2000. The show, which lasted a relatively brief 25 episodes over three seasons, had the gang attempting to pull off ridiculous stunts that would generally result in pain, severe injury, and sometimes just plain disgus

The Movie: When The Wayans Brothers gave us the first two "Scary Movie" films back in 2000 & 2001, they were decent box office hits, but as always, that doesn't necessarily mean the films were particularly good. Indeed, the first two films have perhaps a handful of amusing moments, but for the most part, they struggled greatly to deliver any good laughs. After The Wayans departed over creative differences with the producers, the series was handed over to David Zucker and writ

The Film: Way back in 1996, director Wes Craven & screenwriter Kevin Williamson gave us a little horror flick called "Scream," a thrilling slasher that also acted as a brilliant meta dissection of the genre. The film not only received acclaim from critics & fans alike, but was also a massive hit at the box office, leading to an inevitable sequel that was a surprisingly-decent follow-up to the original. However, after that, the series began to run into a few problems. Despite

The Film: Over the decades, there have been numerous films that have focused on people having to defend themselves against animals gone wild. From dogs, birds, sharks, snakes, alligators, wolves, and more, it could easily be said that these films have become their own kind of sub-genre within the realm of horror. However, one that we don't seem to see all that often in the out-of-control animal category are monkeys. Sure, we've had "Monkey Shines," "Link," and, of course, mul

The Film: Back in 1987, an adaptation of Stephen King's (writing as Richard Bachman) 1982 novel "The Running Man" was released with mega-star Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role. It wasn't a major hit at the box office, and the reviews were somewhat negative, but the film did go on to become a cult classic favorite that still holds up quite well today as a fun little action thriller. What's rather interesting is that this original version is only a very loose adaptation of

The Film: Writer/director Derek Cianfrance may not be a filmmaker with a household name, but chances are that you've seen, or have at least heard of, his most well-known projects, which includes "Blue Valentine," "A Place Beyond the Pines," and the HBO miniseries "I Know This Much is True." Looking at his filmography, the material he works with typically skews towards drama, which makes it understandable as to why he would eventually want to try something a little lighter. Th

The Film: When it comes to naming the greatest directors in the history of cinema, I don't think you're going to find many that disagree with Steven Spielberg being somewhere on that list, having given us a multitude of classics that includes "Jaws," "Schindler's List," "Jurassic Park," and most of the "Indiana Jones" films. The unfortunate part is that, in such an extensive filmography that contains so many masterpieces, there are other entries that tend to get overshadowed

The Film: There are no doubt people who know the great Steven Spielberg primarily as a director of powerful dramas like "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan, "Lincoln," and many more, but then there are those who know him mostly for his more adventurous/fun/action-oriented side with films like the "Indiana Jones" series, "Hook," "Jurassic Park," and "Catch Me If You Can." One of those films that falls into the latter category, another that often falls between the cracks w

The Film: There was understandably a fair amount of apprehension when it was announced that there was going to be a reboot of the classic comedy "The Naked Gun," a film that is still highly-revered to this day and which was executed so brilliantly thanks to its amusing gags & the remarkable talents of the legendary Leslie Nielsen. That sense of concern was only elevated when it was additionally announced that Liam Neeson, known most recently for the action films he's made ove

The Film: Between 2011 and 2017, three different "Smurfs" films were brought to the big screen, attempting to keep alive the spirit of the beloved comics from the '50s, which were most famously turned into a popular cartoon series that ran for nine seasons between 1981 and 1989. Sadly, the recent films were not received very well by critics, but that hardly stopped them from being rather successful at the box office, with the first of them grossing well over half a billion do