The Blu Spot

The Film: James Whale's 1935 classic "The Bride of Frankenstein" is considered by many to be one of the very best horror sequels in cinematic history. In fact, there are those that would even place it above Whale's original "Frankenstein" from 1931, so to attempt to do anything new with the material is already seen somewhat as treading on sacred ground. After Universal's plans for a "Dark Universe" of the classic monsters, which included a new retelling of the story, fell th

The Film: When "Speed Racer" first debuted in manga form 60 years ago, it quickly gained quite a following, so much so that an anime was launched the very next year that's become quite a fan-favorite over the decades. It seemed almost inevitable that a filmmaker would want to try their hand at adapting it into a film somewhere down the line, which brings us to The Wachowskis and their 2008 attempt to adapt the material for the big screen. To say that the critics didn't care f

The Show: Ever since its publication in 1986, "IT" has been one of Stephen King's single most popular works, spawning not only a beloved miniseries adaptation in 1990, but also a much more recent two-part rendition from director Andy Muschietti in 2017 and 2019. The latter of the two attempts had somewhat mixed results, with Chapter One giving us a fantastic adaptation of the story that focused on the main characters as kids, while Chapter Two gave us a rather bland, over-lon

The Film: Emily Bronte's 1847 classic "Wuthering Heights" has been adapted dozens of times for film, TV, and the stage, with the most famous iteration being William Wyler's 1939 version starring Sir Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, which received an impressive eight Oscar nominations (winning just one for Cinematography). Considered one of the greatest novels of all time, it has indeed inspired many to try to bring it to life in one form or another, but in doing so, one has

The Show: When writer Brad Ingelsby last graced our television screens back in 2021, he brought us the remarkably compelling miniseries "Mare of Easttown," a fascinating murder mystery that garnered him a WGA Award and an Emmy nomination (which he most definitely should have won). The show was an amazing success and resulted in an extended deal with HBO, which leads us to his next television effort known as "Task," another series that takes us to a small & remote town where t

The Film: Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson has given us a number of classics throughout his illustrious career, including "Rain Man" (winner of the Best Picture Oscar), "Good Morning Vietnam," "Diner," and "Bugsy," but one of his surprise hits that doesn't seem to get mentioned all that much from his impressive filmography is a little film called "Sleepers," which is celebrating its remarkable 30th anniversary this year. The film didn't have that much success wit

The Show: Back in 2014, a small, curious animated outing called "Over the Garden Wall" appeared on Cartoon Network from creator Patrick McHale ("Adventure Time") that utilized the rather simple premise of two young brothers trying to get home in order to take the viewer on quite a strange adventure. Told in ten episodes of about 11 minutes each, the miniseries was not only popular with audiences, but was a major critical success as well, a wave that it rode all the way to the

The Film: Throughout cinematic history, there have been few monumental epics that have achieved the standing of William Wyler's 1959 masterpiece "Ben-Hur." To this day, its sheer size & scope are still marveled at by all who see it, putting to shame films that now have to cheat with CGI to achieve the same scale. At the time of its making, if you wanted to see significant portions of Rome, it had to be built. If you needed to have a scene featuring thousands of people, you ha

The Film: There have been many films about investigative journalism over the course of cinematic history, including "The Post," "The Insider," "She Said," and, of course, "Spotlight," which garnered the Oscar for Best Picture a decade ago. However, none of these have been quite as revered as Alan J. Pakula's 1976 classic "All the President's Men," which tells the timeless story of the two reporters who put their lives on the line to investigate the infamous break-in at the Wa

The Film: Ever since it premiered way back in 1959, Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" has been a much-beloved program that is often cited as one of the greatest shows ever made. Over the course of five seasons, it told fascinating moral tales that often had endings you weren't quite expecting, delighting & entertaining audiences of all ages. This made it no surprise that, 20 years later, the idea was brought up to bring the concept to theaters, with four big directors (John L