The Blu Spot

The Show: 60 years ago, the great Gene Roddenberry gifted us with his optimistic vision of the future in a little show called "Star Trek," whose basic premise involved a crew traveling the stars in a spaceship, but which provided the perfect template for Gene & his team to discuss important topics and themes such as race, class, tolerance, and the general betterment of humanity. It may not have been a tremendous hit at the time (though most of you likely already know of the f

The Film: Who would've thought that the little yellow Minions, first introduced as Gru's helpers in the original "Despicable Me" in 2010, would become so popular that not only would they be a prominent part of four films in that series, but also go on to star in two solo outings of their own. The reviews may not have been great for all of them, but that's hardly stopped each of these films from being a box office juggernaut, with a couple of them crossing the billion-dollar m

The Film: Ever since its release in 1970, Judy Blume's beloved coming-of-age novel "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." has received widespread acclaim, with The New York Times naming it Outstanding Book of the Year and Time including it on their list of All-Time 100 Novels written in English since 1923. With such popularity & honors, you would think that an adaptation of some sort would have followed relatively quickly, but strangely enough, Blume opted to reject all offe

The Film: For over 20 years, director Makoto Shinkai has been making a name for himself in the realm of animation by delivering such critically-acclaimed, box office hits as "Weathering with You" and "Suzume," but the one that really put him on the map and made him a global success was his ambitious 2016 endeavor entitled "Your Name." The film was not only a smash hit that pulled in over $400 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Japanese film at the time, but als

The Film: The great Sir Christopher Lee became quite well-known for a number of roles he played throughout his prolific career, including Saruman in "The Lord of the Rings," Fu Manchu in five different films, and Lord Summerisle in the horror classic "The Wicker Man," though, of course, there are those who will forever remember him as one of the very best to take on the role of Count Dracula, a part he played a grand total of ten times over the course of 18 years, seven of wh

The Film: The legendary Steven Spielberg is obviously no stranger to science-fiction, having touched on the genre several times in classics like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," and "Jurassic Park," so whenever he decides to make a return to it, it comes with a grand sense of anticipation at the thought of another potential work of greatness. His latest project, "Disclosure Day," does indeed mark not only a return to the genre, but once aga

The Film: Popular indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has been working at his craft for nearly half a century, giving us a strange, eclectic group of films that has included "Coffee and Cigarettes," "Broken Flowers," "Only Lovers Left Alive," and "The Dead Don't Die." After taking a lengthy six-year break, he is back with his latest entitled "Father Mother Sister Brother," another small work that received decent reviews after its premiere in Venice last year, but then shocked everyo

The Film: Writer/Director James Mangold has had quite an eclectic career that has included musical biopics like "Walk the Line" & "A Complete Unknown," action adventures like "3:10 to Yuma" & "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," and even a couple of superhero outings with "Logan" & "The Wolverine." With five Oscar nominations under his belt, and a long list of big projects, people tend to forget that he also gave us the rather intriguing psychological thriller "Identity"

The Film: It's hard to believe that it's already been 25 years since the original "The Fast and the Furious" was released in theaters. What most critics seemed to dismiss as a silly little car flick was quite heavily embraced by the public, who not only enjoyed its exciting action sequences & undercover cop narrative, but also made it a rather large hit that saw it grossing over $200 million worldwide (about six times its production budget). Little did anyone know that it wou

The Film: Nate Bargatze is a comedian whose name you probably haven't heard of, but for more than two decades, his career has seen him doing stand-up in clubs and on a few different talk shows, appearances that eventually gave him the chance to make a few specials for various networks (one of which earned him a pair of Emmy nominations). This success even led him to release a movie earlier this year entitled "The Breadwinner," which he co-wrote, co-produced, and stars in. Sad