The Blu Spot

The Film: As always, when it comes to the over-saturated genre of romantic-comedies, the single biggest hope one can have when watching one of these films is to find one that doesn't have a strict adherence to the standard formula that the vast majority of them can't seem to get away from. Whenever they recycle it yet again, all we end up with is a banal, predictable, cliched mess in which the audience can name every beat well before it happens, making the need for a hefty do

The Film: When "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" came out just three years ago, many fans were hoping that it would be the long-awaited triumph that would finally see everyone's favorite plumber get a proper adaptation after several decades of waiting (and obviously not counting the bizarre 1993 adaptation in which the only commonality to the games were the names). What we got was something of a mixed bag, one where the visuals were gorgeous and the voice acting was great, but wh

The Film: Director Gore Verbinski had quite the career going from the early 2000s to the early 2010s, giving us such hits as a remake of "The Ring," the first three "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, and "Rango," which earned him the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. However, his streak quickly came to an end when he directed two back-to-back critical & box office duds, "The Lone Ranger" and "The Cure for Wellness." It's taken nearly a decade for him to finally get back into th

The Film: It seems like every couple of years we'll get another adaptation of one of William Shakespeare's plays for the big screen, with any attempt to add all of them up at this point appearing to be a near-impossible task. However, what's far more rare are films about the bard himself, ones that dig into his private life and his remarkable talent for penning the most famous plays ever written. Some of these have been highly fictitious, such as the brilliant "Shakespeare in

The Film: When the first two "Five Nights at Freddy's" games were released back in 2014, it's highly doubtful that anyone could've seen just how popular they would become, a popularity that would go on to spawn 11 main games and several spin-offs, with the most recent addition releasing just last year. This made it no surprise that an attempt would be made to develop the franchise into a feature film, which made its way into theaters just two years ago. The reaction to it was

The Film: Writer/director Craig Brewer is another one of those filmmakers who's not exactly a household name, but there's a good chance you've seen or heard of some of his projects, including "Black Snake Moan," "Dolemite is My Name," "and "Coming 2 America." As his filmography shows, music has been quite a large part of his work, leading to projects like "Hustle & Flow," a remake of "Footloose," and the documentary "Katy Perry: Part of Me," which brings us to his latest ende

The Film: In 2024, director Jon M. Chu delivered the first half of what turned out to be a marvelous adaptation of the smash Broadway hit "Wicked," one that earned massive critical acclaim, ten Oscar nominations (including Best Picture), and raked in a stunning $758 million at the box office. Great musicals seem to be more and more rare at the theater nowadays, so getting one that hit all of the right notes was certainly a pleasant & delightful surprise. Now Chu & co. are bac

The Film: Over the last few years, Oscar-nominated director Yorgos Lanthimos has given us quite a fascinating range of films that have also somewhat varied in quality. In 2018, he delivered the marvelous "The Favourite" that told of an intriguing rivalry for a queen's affections. Five years later, this was followed by "Poor Things," a strange tale of a young woman brought back to life who experiences everything anew. The very next year, he sadly dropped off a bit with "Kinds

The Film: When the great Daniel Day-Lewis announced his retirement from acting back in 2017, it was quite a shock to everyone. To think that the man who had given such brilliant performances in films like "Lincoln," "Gangs of New York," "There Will Be Blood," and "My Left Foot, and had earned a remarkable three Oscars for Best Actor, would no longer be gracing the screen with his presence was certainly a disappointing blow. However, hope reignited in the last couple of years

The Film: Just four years ago, Director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill unleashed "The Black Phone" in theaters, adapting Joe Hill's supernatural horror short story into a feature film. The result drew extremely mixed reviews from critics, and indeed the film was something of a mixed bag where the writers certainly could've tried a little harder to do a bit more with its premise, but that hardly stopped it from being an enormous hit at the box office. Indeed,