How you feel about the characters is important in this film, for the blob doesn't show up and start eating people. Well, not right away. A homeless guy accidentally stumbles across a meteorite that cracks open and gurgles. Baby blob! After attaching itself to the guy's hand, the teenagers crash into him and do the right thing. They take him to a hospital where things get really messy. The only trouble is that no one believes Meg (Shawnee Smith) or Brian (Kevin Dillon) or any of the other teenagers that something strange is going on.

The Blob portrayed is pretty interesting to me. It's more than just pink goo that slithers its way across town. It's an amoeba that can ooze, twist, digest and grow. Sometimes it's fast and other times it's slow. Since this life-form has the properties of a thick liquid, it can get beneath you by worming its way through the sewers or drain pipes, too. The thing that I thought was pretty cool was that it can also spontaneously generate. Separate a piece of The Blob from the rest of its mass, and you have micro-blob!

The original B-Movie film starred Steve McQueen, but based on the reviews a lot of fans liked this movie better and I can see why. I loved watching this 80s film because it takes risks. First, it stays true to what a mindless, bloodthirsty monster does: it kills indiscriminately. Kids and adults die in this horror flick. Second, look at who the heroes are in this movie and you'll find that it's not so cut-and-dry. Adults, teens and kids all try to fight for their survival, even moreso when they find out The Blob's weakness.

Now, I can't verify whether or not this is true, but other horror fans have speculated that there might be a reason why The Blob is pink and why it's vulnerable to cold. When the original movie was created in 1958, the United States was in the midst of the Cold War. Khrushchev became the Premier of the Soviet Union. NASA was formed and the microchip was invented. The Blob was originally designed to be a slow-moving, invisible mass that changed to red the more humans it consumed. Did the creators intend that to be an analogy for the Cold War? Well, I think I better leave that for you to decide.

For me, I suppose this is the part where I stop spoiling the plot and talk about whether or not I was freaked out by The Blob. There were some really funny moments that made me laugh, so my emotional attention span wasn't always focused on the horror. Admittedly, a few scenes did make me jump. (Yes, I spilled my coffee.) Although there was a lot of camp, I really had a good time watching this horror movie and will definitely think twice about how I unclog a drain. Admittedly, I have a weak spot for horror movies with strong female characters instead of women who faint and simply wait to be rescued. It was nice to watch Meg kick some proverbial microbe-butt.

So, if you're a fan of '80s horror and don't mind a little laughter mixed into with a creepy monster, I'd definitely check out The Blob on Crackle.com. Just make sure you don't have a drink in your hand when you do.

Monica Valentinelli - Contributing Author to Crackle.com and Flamesrising.com

All this month on Crackle check out the horror films in our Halloween Collection, and come back to the blog each week as horror expert Monica Valentinelli continues to write about some of the monsters that creep her out. - Ed.

So you're stuck in a dentist's office, and you want to watch a movie. In the past you had no choice but to pick up a decade old copy of Highlights. But now, just take out your Android phone, because as of now you can watch what's on Crackle wherever you are thanks to the brand new Crackle Mobile App.

This one of a kind app, available today on the Android, brings full-length TV shows, legendary Hollywood films and premium original web series direct to you, even if you're trapped in Count Chocula's Dungeon (it exists). This means high quality, unedited, commercial free blockbusters are now wherever you happen to be stuck -- which will make Alpine avalanches and stalled elevators a hell of a lot more interesting.

If you download the free app you'll have access to hundreds of free Crackle Originals and TV Minisodes (and this blog), but -- if you so choose -- for only $4.99 a month, you can upgrade and have access to full-length movies and TV series with more coming each and every month. Here are just a few highlights of what's available right now:

The Quick and the Dead
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Drunken Master
Philadelphia
Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip
His Girl Friday
See no Evil, Hear no Evil
Shampoo
Taxi Driver
In Cold Blood
La Femme Nikita

So pull out your phone, head over to the Android Market, and get yourself prepared to watch a hell of a lot of movies during for an extended hostage situation, today!

Jack @ Crackle - Crackle Blog Editor

You have to check out these pictures from Vanity Fair Magazine of the Jackass 3D crew all dressed up and doing their best Moe, Larry and Curly (side note: the shoot was done at the same facilities as The Bannen Way). This coming weekend the movie Jackass 3D (click for ticket info) comes to theaters. I can't wait for flying fecal matter in 3D, but to prepare I've gon through and pulled out top seven on screen injuries from the original kings of pain, The Three Stooges.

7. Slippery Silks (watch the full short now)

We start off slow and gentle. This film had to make the list because it has the very first Stooges pie fight. Yes, before this they'd thrown clay at each other, and had just generally made a mess, but this is the high art of mess making. It's hard to imagine any life threatening injuries coming out of this ... but perhaps this is the cultural origin of America's struggle with diabetes?

6. A Pain in the Pullman (watch the full short now)

This was the very first time that The Three Stooges were referred to as The Three Stooges within the context of a film. That's like being there the moment someone yelled "Slash!" at a concert and Saul Hudson responded, "What can I do you for?"

This tale required the Stooges to go to town on some treif tidbits. Moe had an aversion to the crab legs in the spread, and when he just couldn't get into it, they even had the prop guy make a dupe of the claw out of colored sugar. Said Moe Howard in his autobiographical profile of the stooges, "I was afraid they had coated the real shell with sugar and that that awful claw was underneath. I chewed that claw during the scene, but if you'll notice, I did it very gingerly."

The injury? Curly apparently dug right in and used the shell as a chew toy, thoroughly cutting up the inside of his mouth.

5. The Three Troubledoers (click for Amazon purchase)

Moe may have outlived the other stooges, but he also seems to have had the most incidents that could have left him blind. In this short a soot bazooka was designed to backfire into Moe's face. The director Edward Bernds claimed that the special effects guy used too much air presssuere, and (via Wikipedia), "They had to pry his eyes open and remove these big chunks of black powder from his eye. I was terrified; I thought the poor guy had been blinded."

Of course this wasn't the first time, back in '39 it was black goo under the eyelids in Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise (watch the full short now).

4. Brideless Groom (click for Amazon purchase)

Here Shemp gets in on the action. In a scene where actress Christine McIntyre was just supposed to slap the poor guy, she actually wound up breaking his nose. What's even better -- they left the shot in the final product. If you watch it carefully you can see the pain all over his face.

3. Violent is the Word For Curly (watch the full short now)

The name of this short alone implies that people are going to get hurt. Here they put Curly on a spit, then put the spit over a real fire. In a bit that was apparently designed to burn him all over his body, his weight caused the straps to slip, and he just hung in one place over the confligration. The good news? He managed to stay both warm and juicy.

2. Three Dumb Clucks (watch the full short now)

I keep wanting to read this title differently ...

Poor Curly. This was just supposed to be a simple matter of throwing him down an elevator shaft. Unfortunately he managed to missed the padded portion at the bottom of the shaft, and he tore a hole in his scalp thanks to a head first landing on a two foot by four foot panel. Instead of being taken to the nearest emergency room, the studio doc applied stitches, glued hair over the wound and gave him some good ol' fashioned pain pills (back when that meant something). In the scene where he's trying on hats, watch for a slight wobble and "hop" -- and his subtle head patch.

1. Three Little Pigskins (watch the full short now)

It's worth watching this short just to catch a look at a young and blond Lucille Ball. Add to that all the injuries, and this becomes priceless. The Stooges were afflicted with plenty of pain on this one. Curly broke a leg on the dumbwaiter, and Larry lost a tooth to a misplaced face punch. In fact it could have been much worse, since the stooges actually went out of their way to avoid what became the biggest mess on a Stooge set.

The boys were told to take some photographers out in a pig pile. They told the director to get the stuntmen, after some back and forth he relented. They shot the scene, and in the end two of the three stuntmen, as well as the actors playing the photographers wound up with broken arms and legs.

If all of this has left you in pain, perhaps you should watch another classic Stooges short, Men in Black, where they play doctor. Or even better, watch them survive every indignity you can imagine through out The Three Stooges Collection here on Crackle.

Jack @ Crackle - Crackle Blog Editor

"You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" is one of my favorite short stories from the Stephen King collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Like many of King's best work it involves rock music, a bucolic town and the dead. On Crackle, when it comes to King, you can check out his campy creep-fest about vampire cats, Sleepwalkers. Yet but when it comes to music and the dead, we say forget the fiction and catch some must see music documentaries, Biggie and Tupac and Kurt and Courtney, available free today on Crackle.

Both of these films are brought to you by British documentarian Nick Broomfield, who's style is marked by a bare bones crew and the chance that you'll see him off to the side holding the mic directly up to his subject's faces. More than just bare bones crews, he has a bold style that The Guardian profiled ("Following the Leader"), :

"Broomfield bravado is nothing new, providing such memorable moments as his standing up at an American Civil Liberties Union awards ceremony, where Courtney Love was guest of honour, to denounce her for threatening journalists (Kurt and Courtney, 1997), and walking into an American high-security prison yard to interview Suge Knight, the jailed head of a record company called Death Row, whom he suspected was behind the murders of the famous rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls (Biggie and Tupac, 2002)."

It's a documentary style known as "Les Nouvelles Egotistes" (read more about it at the British Film Institute) that we're familiar with in the states thanks to people like Morgan Spurlock and Michael Moore, but Broomfield made it so popular in the UK that he wound up doing his act as part of a Volkswagen commercial campaign.

Biggie and Tupac (click to watch the full feature now)

In an effort to show my own bias, I will start by confessing that I was more of a Biggie fan. But I ask you, can anyone today compare to the prolific and boundless talent of either of these two? Ebert gave this film three and a half stars, all while calling Bloomfield, "the Geraldo Rivera of celebrity documentarians." This film supposes to resolve the as of yet still unanswered question of who shot these two rap legends. My suggestion is that anyone watching this documentary needs to ask themselves if the whole story is being told by the police  -- or the documentarian. What do you think? Is this film a documentary with solid leads that aren't being followed or is it all creative conjecture?

Kurt and Courtney (click to watch the full feature now)

Kurt makes an "appearance" in King's "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band," and it would be hard for me to imagine high school without "Heart-Shaped Box" blaring in the background. According to a 1998 CNN article, Bloomfield states, "I don't think anyone who does a film or an in-depth story about Kurt Cobain and his death can ignore the fact that there are a number of people who believe that he was murdered, not the least of all a private detective that Courtney hired." This was a film that was banned by Ms. Love at the Sundance Film Festival, and then later modified and reinstated. Is this another case of conspiracy?

Today spend some time with two of the works of Nick Broomfield, and leave your thoughts on the lives and deaths of these three music legends below.

When you're done with that, check out some more music legends in Crackle's Stuff that Rocks Collection which includes everyone from Little Richard and Bill Haley to John Densmore from The Doors.

Jack @ Crackle - Crackle Blog Editor

The big three releases this week are all for different parts of the film market. You have a horror picture, a sports drama and a romantic comedy -- who will win at the box office? I really don't care. If it's a good movie, I'll watch it. Maybe I'm just wistful for the old days, but I'd love to see Wes Craven come out on top this weekend with My Soul to Take ... I mean October is the perfect month for resurrections.

My Soul to Take (click for ticket info)

If you're heading out to see this picture, the easiest recommendation I can give is for you all to check out Crackle's Halloween Collection which is filled with all sorts of stuff to fulfill your creepy fantasies, but we can break it down even further ...

In My Soul to Take a serial killer "returns" to his hometown to stalk the kids who share the same birthday as the date he died. It's a perfect lead in to, Happy Birthday to Me. Besides the fact that Happy Birthday was referenced in Craven's Scream, and actor Matt Craven (no relation) is in it, it involves a birthday and the killing of teens. Ladies and gents, this pic's a gore fest. If you like bits, pieces and parts, this one's for you -- take a peek.

Then in a plot that crosses paths with another Wes Craven penned picture, Shocker, we have two Oscar winners (the Philadelphia of horror pictures?) and an electric chair in Guilty As Charged. Rod Steiger, Isaac Hayes, a young Heather Graham and that small creepy psychic chick from Poltergeist (Zelda Rubinstein) appear in this darkly comic horror film worth seeing at least once.

Also coming out in a very limited theatrical release this weekend is the remake of the '78 film I Spit on Your Grave (a.k.a. Day of the Woman). In I Spit on Your Grave (click for ticket info) a writer goes out for a peaceful writing retreat, only to be brutalized and left for dead ... setting up some delightfully graphic revenge scenarios.

If it's revenge tales make your nurple purple, we have some prime cuts at the top of the list. First there's Carver which tells the supposedly true tale a hiking trip turned into a human charcuterie lesson. Then there's ghostly revenge with cocktail flair in Urban Legends: Bloody Mary ...

The one face you'll probably recognize here is actress Kate Mara from Entourage, Shooter and the upcoming 127 Hours. But, how can you pas up a film with classy stuff like a guy getting electrocuted through his pee-pee? As I said before people love dead teens, and this movie doesn't disappoint on terrorized teenyboppers.

If you like your supernatural revenge tales with slightly older dead people there's always Rise: Blood Hunter from Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures.

As you can see from the trailer this film has both crossbows and Lucy Liu in a lesbian lip lock. Plus, if you've been getting into the new show No Ordinary Family or you loved The Shield (a.k.a. Commish: The Revenge) you'll get your RDA of Michael Chiklis by watching this as well.

One of the great things about decent horror plots is that they can survive anything -- even remakes -- here are some examples. There's the original 13 Ghosts (read more about this Castle classic here) which was remade in 2001. There's the 1988 version of The Blob which was originally made in '58 and is headed for another remake in 2011. There's The Bride which allowed Sting (a.k.a "Gordon") to try to bring The Bride of Frankenstein back to life. Lastly there's so many versions of Bram Stoker's Dracula you'll want to spit blood. I'm partial to this version from Coppola - it has the best Keanu sex scenes out of all of them.

Before we leave the hearty world of dismemberment, I need to put in my vote for the film that I promise to watch over and over again this October -- the Joan Collins movie that brings together the best of Cirque Du Soleil with the worst of '60s slasher cinema, Berserk.

Secretariat (click for ticket info)

Turning away from horror, we have the above flick which is a true life dramic sports tale. If that's your thing, you'll probably dig the true story of Chicago Bears football players Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers. Sayers came to Piccolo's aid when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and it was a story so good, they made the movie twice. This 2001 version of Brian's Song stars Mekhi Phifer as Sayers and Sean Maher from Firefly as Piccolo.

Of course if it's real drama you're after, you need to check out our Marlon Brando double feature that includes the film that gave The Beatles their name, The Wild One, and the Academy Award winning On the Waterfront.

Also coming to theaters this weekend is Life As We Know It (click for ticket info), a romantic comedy with a cute kid. If you need a cute kid, check out Nick Nolte in the big person/precocious child comedy I'll Do Anything. But if you need more romance in your comedy, check the following:

His Girl Friday - Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell star in this comedy about a newsman who's trying to win back his wife.
Holiday - More Grant, this time joined by Katherine Hepburn, as a man who has to choose between sisters.
Mr. Deeds Goes To Town - More romantic entanglements with rich guys and news folk, but this time it's Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur.
Bell, Book, and Candle - Perfect for Halloween, Jimmy Stewart falls for the "witchy ways" of Kim Novak in the film that inspired Bewitched.
Blind Date - Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger go on date that involves drunkenness, robbery and gun play.
I Love You To Death - Starring Tracy Ulman and Kevin Klein this is loosely based on an attempted murder in 1984, where a lady tried to kill her husband. Cute!

Notice how these romantic flicks get more violent as they get closer to the present day? I wonder what that means? Well, spend the weekend watching them, and let us know what you think in the comments below.

Jack @ Crackle - Crackle Blog Editor

If you love scary movies, grab your popcorn and take a seat. All this month on Crackle you can check out the horror films in our Halloween Collection. On top of that, each week on the blog we'll be talking about some of the monsters that creep us out with help from our friend, writer extraordinaire, Monica Valentinelli. To kick off this "Fan's Guide to Scary Movies," Monica dives deep into William Castle's 13 Ghosts. - Ed.

Before I watched the original 13 Ghosts here on Crackle.com, I did a little research on William Castle, who produced this movie in 1960. Turns out, Castle also produced several classic horror movies including the original House on Haunted Hill, Rosemary's Baby and an early 70s horror TV series called Circle of Fear. If my sources are correct, his low-budget films were influenced by Alfred Hitchcock's style of film making. After watching 13 Ghosts, I can definitely see how Hitchcock might have influenced Castle.

The opening credits for this movie really grabbed me. There's groaning, there's moaning, and there were thirteen ghosts rolling right down the screen. Immediately after the credits, William Castle popped up with a message to the audience about a "ghost viewer." At different points in this primarily black-and-white film, the audience was encouraged to use a pair of glasses to either see or avoid the ghosts by looking through red or blue lenses.

The movie opened with an emphasis on the penniless Zorba family, who felt lucky to have inherited a sprawling mansion filled with ghosts. In order to see the ghosts, they have to look at them through a special pair of glasses. That's right. Professor Cyrus, his wife Hilda and their two kids, Medea and Buck, could only see the ghosts by looking through a pair of glasses, too. This movie had a few moments of meta-storytelling that really played with the audience's perspective.

The first time I saw their new house, I remembered what I love about black-and-white horror movies. To me, haunted houses give a filmmaker the opportunity to really emphasize its towering windows, hidden passageways and heavy draperies using shades of black-and-white. Of course, the somber housekeeper really added to the mood, too. The second I saw Elaine Zacharides, I thought, "That has to be the Wicked Witch of the West." And, it was! Played by Margaret Hamilton, Buck even accused her character of being a witch when he first saw her.

Although the ghosts didn't make their first appearance right away, I felt their introduction was totally worth the wait. There were a lot of occult elements in this movie, like the use of a Ouija board and a book filled with Latin text, that really added to the chilling atmosphere. Many of the ghosts were filmed as misty fragments and archetypal symbols rather than clear images.

The plot of 13 Ghosts wasn't as straightforward as other horror films I've seen; several mysteries in this ghost movie intersected with one another. How did Plato control the ghosts? Why are they in the house? What does the attorney want? Who is the maid? Will the Zorba family stick around? While I don't want to give anything else away, I will tell you that this movie is nothing like its contemporary remake.

All right, so I guess it's time for me to make a true confession. Just how scary was the original 13 Ghosts? I have to admit that the ghosts didn't freak me out that much, because I felt the emphasis in this film was more on the suspense than the shock value. Many of the scenes were filmed with stark contrast and creepy piano music, so I definitely got into the mood. One of my favorite moments in this movie was when a pair of black shoes covered in cobwebs slowly shuffled across a room toward its victim.

By now you're probably wondering why Castle provided the glasses in the first place, since the scare factor for me wasn't that high. Remember, this movie was produced about fifty years ago. To put things into perspective, 13 Ghosts hit the theaters the same year when Elvis Presley songs were topping the charts and John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States. Translation? 13 Ghosts is a classic horror film. Tastes were different back then and, to a lot of people, this movie probably sent shivers up their spine.

Bottom line? 13 Ghosts crackles because it offers contemporary viewers a great plot and an excellent atmosphere of occult horror. If you're looking for a shining example of a black-and-white horror film, then this movie is definitely worth checking out.

Monica Valentinelli - Contributing Author to Crackle.com and Flamesrising.com

Today is a great day for people who love movies, and I'm not just saying that because of all the interest surrounding our corporate parent's flick hitting theaters The Social Network (click here for showtimes). It's the month of Halloween and there's a bunch of other horror movies coming to a theater near you including Let Me In, Hatchet II and Case 39 (click for showtimes). It's also a new month so that means a whole slew of new movies available free for you right now, right here on Crackle.

First, the new releases in theaters today:

The Social Network (click here for showtimes) Catch the latest installment of Why it Crackles where we go behind the scenes of The Social Network:

This movie is expected to go far both at the box office, and with the critics. How would I describe it? It's Harry Potter, but with money instead of magic, and everyone is in Slytherin. Now I love a good smart ass college story, you can see Val Kilmer do his own Mark Zuckerberg impression by watching Real Genius right here on Crackle.

Let Me In (click here for showtimes)

More Vampires! If you love human leaches, it's time for you to catch up with Forever Knight -- or, since Let Me In was adapted from a Swedish film, maybe you want to go the Chinese vampire route with Tsui Hark’s Vampire Hunters.

Hatchet II (click here for showtimes)

The Hatchet series brings back one of the legends of horror Kane Hodder (a.k.a. "Jason Voorhees"). If you're a fan of classic horror stars, you can also find Hodder along with the original "Freddy," Robert Englund in Fear Clinic.

Of course, this past Tuesday, a number of DVDs on sale, including Iron Man 2 (click for Amazon purchase), Get Him to the Greek (click for Amazon purchase) and The Killer Inside Me (click for Amazon purchase) -- but if you're not in the mood to drop the cash on a shinny disk of fun, check out all of the new this month on Crackle below.

Already Dead (watch the full length feature now)

Christopher Plummer and Til Schweiger show up in this revenge tale.

Bell, Book and Candle (watch the full length feature now)

Based on John Van Druten's 1950 Broadway play, this flick puts the cast of Vertigo in the romantic comedy that inspired Bewitched. Watch a witchy Kim Novak fall in love with James Stewart, all while dealing with a warlock Jack Lemmon and a drunken Ernie Kovacs.

Breakout (watch the full length feature now)

Watch this great '70s flick starring Robert Duvall, Charles Bronson and Randy Quaid. It's the story of a Texas bush pilot hired to break her innocent husband out of a Mexican jail.

8MM (watch the full length feature now)

Award winning actors Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener and Peter Stormare join forces in this story of a private eye hired to investigate the truth behind an actual snuff film.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (watch the full length feature now)

The voices of Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Donald Sutherland, James Woods and Peri Gilpin in this, the first full length CGI film.

The Fisher King (watch the full length feature now)

Terry Gilliam directs this comedic, touching masterpiece about a homeless History Professor, Robin Williams, who rescues a shock jock, Jeff Bridges, and involves him in his imaginary world of castles, red knights and the holy grail.

Glory (watch the full length feature now)

This truly amazing story of America's first unit of African American soldiers during the Civil War stars Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman. Check it out today.

Impact Point (watch the full length feature now)

Bouncing volleyballs and bouncing bikinis meet in this story of a pro beach volleyball star who deals with fierce competitors, the press and the man of her dreams.

Interview (watch the full length feature now)

After falling out with his editor, a fading political journalist (Steve Buscemi) is forced to interview America's most popular soap actress (Sienna Miller).

The Waterfront (watch the full length feature now)

One of Marlon Brando's signature performances, which chronicles the conflict between a corrupt labor boss and a crusading Catholic priest.

The Quiet (watch the full length feature now)

Sent to live with a foster family, Dot, a deaf orphan girl, soon realizes that all is not copacetic in her new, seemingly average home.

Revolver (watch the full length feature now)

Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Vincent Pastore and Andre Benjamin appear in this Guy Ritchie movie about a hotshot gambler who always wins.

Tortured (watch the full length feature now)

Cole Hauser, James Cromwell, Laurence Fishburne, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Jon Cryer, James Denton and Kevin Pollak star in this flick about a FBI agent who goes undercover as an organized crime enforcer.

Vampires: The Turning (watch the full length feature now)

It's action meets horror when an American kick boxer in Thailand joins up with a group of vampire slayers.

The Wild One (watch the full length feature now)

More classic Brando in this film that even inspired the name of one of the biggest rock groups of all time ...

The Devil's Own (watch the full length feature now)

Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt star in this harrowing thriller about an IRA gunman who draws an American family into the crossfire of terrorism.

The Last Dragon (watch the full length feature now)

Motown's Barry Gordy brings you the story of Bruce Leroy, an inner city kid who wants to kick it with Vanity and be a kung fu master. But I ask you, who, in fact, is the master?

See This Movie (watch the full length feature now)

Seth Meyers and John Cho (watch for him in the upcoming show Backwash) star in this story about a guy who graduates from three-day film school, and then cons his way into the Montreal Film Festival with a film that doesn't exist - yet.

The Quick And The Dead (watch the full length feature now)

Sam Raimi directs this story of a female gunslinger (Sharon Stone) who goes gun to gun with Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Leonardo Di Caprio.

The Revenge Of Frankenstein (watch the full length feature now)

It's classic horror at its classiest. Watch Peter Cushing in this story that continues the tale of Baron Frankenstein's controversial experiments to create life.

Underworld Evolution (watch the full length feature now)

Kate Beckinsale is back as vampire heroine Selene in the highly anticipated sequel to Underworld.

American Strays (watch the full length feature now)

This film's a trip. It brings together Luke Perry, Eric Roberts, Jennifer Tilly, Carol Kane and more appear in this tale of a quirky cast of characters living on the edge.

Biggie and Tupac (watch the full length feature now)

It's a no holds barred investigation into the still unsolved murders of the two biggest superstars rap has ever produced.

Carver (watch the full length feature now)

Based on a true story, this flick depicts the real life events of a group of 20-something's that went camping and never returned.

Going Down (watch the full length feature now)

A blowout party, one trashed house, two teenage misfits, three hot girls, four dumb jocks, a hooker, a dead body and ... three hours to clean up the mess.

Hack (watch the full length feature now)

Seven college students, (including "Winnie Cooper") travel to a private island where a mysterious killer begins killing the students one-by-one, and modeling them after gory murder scenes from numerous horror films.

Kurt and Courtney (watch the full length feature now)

This flick started as an observation of the music of Kurt Cobain and took a different turn when Courtney Love intervened.

Night Junkies (watch the full length feature now)

Against a London backdrop of seedy nightclubs and dark alleyways, a modern-day "Jack the Ripper" stalks his prey.

You have so many movies to watch, so you better get started, and report back below.

Jack @ Crackle - Crackle Blog Editor

One of the rolls of any good sci-fi story is that it imagines a future that no one else could quite see. Sure there are over the top flicks like 2012 that claim to have all the answers about a not too distant future, but there are cases where what seemed to be rampant speculation turned out to be more fact than fiction.

7. Blade Runner

Ok - so we're starting off slow. No there aren't android and android killers walking amongst us and, as much as I hate to say this, I don't think we'll ever have those flying cars that we've all be waiting for. On the other hand there are some things that have arrived ...

For starters "retinal scanning" is used by today's CIA, FBI and NASA. There's also the large digital billboards that are at the very least all over LA. But what's the amazing thing that's carried through? Try synthetic genomics, or creating organisms from artificial DNA, something that's actually been accomplished by the J. Craig Venter Institute.

6. Short Circuit

This one's listed on Total Film's "9 Movies That Predicted The Future" and it's all about a lovable robot that attains sentience. As much as I would love to say that Johnny Five is indeed alive, it's a little more complicated than that. While the artificial intelligence part is still a ways off, we do have drones on the land sea and air fighting wars for us and exploring the galaxy ... I mean, doesn't the Mars Rover doesn't look a little like a Johnny Jr.?

5. Gattaca (watch the full feature now)

Popular Mechanic's declared this one of "The 10 Most Prophetic Sci-Fi Movies Ever" mostly because ever since we've figured out the whole human genome thing (thanks again Craig) it's becoming easier and easier to figure out just who we're going to be even before we leave the womb. We're not exactly doing the design a baby thing yet, but heck just last week they discovered the genes tied to asthma.

Once they discover the Ethan Hawke gene, the future will be complete.

4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

There are always things we would like to forget. Luckily for me, most of my worst memories have already been washed away in a "Leberkleister" tide. Six years ago Slate reported on "The Science of Eternal Sunshine" and I'm sure that by now, someone, somewhere is waiting to take the memory of your disastrous fourth grade Christmas play away for only a small fee.

3. Real Genius (watch the full feature now)

Who knew that Val Kilmer would create the device that could destroy the world? This is one that we've talked about before on the blog ("Real Genius Proves that Sociopaths are Funny"). The fact is that just this past January they tested out a laser that seems an awful lot like the one in this flick ... check it out.

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

So you're traveling, and you need something the size of a book that can tell you almost anything about any place, can act as a translator, and will even tell you where to find the nearest place selling the perfect towel? When the original radio show hit the airwaves in '78, I wonder if Douglas Adams knew people would be making and selling their own "Don't Panic" iPad covers?

1. The China Syndrome (watch the full feature now)

In an odd turn the number one film on this list doesn't have a touch of sci-fi in it. The China Syndrome, a comment on the possible dangers of nuclear energy, managed to beat the partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island by just 12 days. Supposedly the producers didn’t want to be seen as taking advantage of a bad situation, so they even pulled the movie from some theaters. That's pretty spot on, even if the window of prediction was pretty tight.

What are some of your favorite moments of movies predicting the future? List your favorites below.

Jack @ Crackle - Crackle Blog Editor

With a full name like Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III it was probably in young Richard Pryor's best interest to be funny. Even after setting himself on fire, being diagnosed with MS and appearing in Superman III -- this guy kept making people laugh. Right now Crackle presents this opportunity to educate yourself on the work of one of the greatest comedians of all time with The Richard Pryor Collection.

Richard Pryor Live On the Sunset Strip (watch the full feature now)

"Why me? Ten million motherfuckers freebasing, and I'm the one who blows up!" - Richard Pryor

If you're going to watch some Pryor, you might as well get waist deep in what made the man famous, stand-up. This is one of the best examples of Pryor in his natural habitat ever captured on screen. It's not for the delicate or sensitive, so you may not want to watch this one at work. Filmed in '82 he goes deep into his sex life, his trip to Africa, and his problems with substance abuse. It's a crash course on the events that helped make this man a legend.

This was the biggest box office success of his concert films, and if you watch closely you'll see Jesse Jackson busting a gut in the audience, and maybe you'll be able to spot some of the jokes from one of the uncredited writers on this special, the legendary Paul Mooney who also worked on Dave Chappelle's one of a kind sketch show.

Richard Pryor Here and Now (watch the full feature now)

Mooney again shows up here as both a writer and an announcer in this, Pryor's last concert film. More than just a stand up special, this has the strong after taste of a more traditional documentary. While the man may have been clean and sober, in this special both his language and the New Orleans audience watching the show most definitely aren't.

While this special may not get the respect of some of his earlier ones, one of Pryor's talents that was rarely caught on camera is on display here. This is the show that demonstrates how the man could work a room. Watching him handling the hecklers and the drunks in the crowd is amazing in and of itself.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil (watch the full feature now)

It's really hard to talk about Pryor without mentioning Gene Wilder. The duo made a total of four films together starting with Silver Streak. New York Magazine listed Pryor and Wilder's characters from the film Stir Crazy at number nine above "Riggs and Murtah" on "The Buddy List: The Fifteen Most Dynamic Duos in Pop Culture History." Interestingly enough, their could of been at least one more classic on this list. Supposedly Mel Brooks had wanted Pryor to play opposite Wilder in the role of Sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles, but Warner Brothers felt that Pryor's wild reputation was too much to bet on.

According to the Gene Wilder's autobiography, Kiss Me Like A Stranger ... he and Pryor were never as close as their films would imply. See No Evil, Hear No Evil was their third film together, and it reunited them with their Silver Streak director Arthur Hiller. This film is also notable as it it includes an early performance from Kevin Spacey (preparation for "Keyser Söze" perhaps).

For more on this duo, check out this article from Round, "Wilder/Richard Pryor Filmography (or how they made the same movie four times).

The Toy (watch the full feature now)

Here Pryor gets to play opposite Jackie Gleason. It's a movie that may not have gotten a lot of critical love, but it was a top 20 box office hit in '82 which means it stood its ground against E.T. It's also got a character named "Master Bates," and that has to be worth something too.

After watching this movie where Pryor plays a children's plaything, you should also go over to Retrojunk and check out the intro to Pryor's very short lived 1984 CBS children's show, Pryor’s Place -- yes, you read that correctly.

California Suite (watch the full feature now)

While it's a smaller role for Pryor, it's notable because he appears here opposite Bill Cosby as a Doctor from Chicago. Early in his career, before he took on his more aggressive persona, Pryor had been refereed to as a Cosby imitator. It's also notable because this film is an Oscar winner (Maggie Smith for Best Supporting Actress).

If you're looking for Pryor opposite Oscar winners, you can also check out the below episode of The Partridge Family which features a young Richard Pryor and a pre-Academy Award winning Louis Gossett Jr.

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (watch the full feature now)

For such an odd title, this may be one of the more under appreciated Pryor films. While it wasn't a blockbuster, it made back it's budget and it got three stars from Roger Ebert. Pryor co-wrote this (again with help from comedy legend Paul Mooney) and it was also his directorial debut.

Pryor stated that the film wasn't as true to life as it might have seemed, even though others called this his "auto-biopic." There are some glaring parallels to his real life, including the fact that "Jo Jo," like Pryor, grew up in his grandmother's brothel, and that the story unfolds after Jo Jo sets himself on fire.

So spend some time with a comedy legend today, and let us know what you think are the best Richard Pryor performances in the comments below.

Jack @ Crackle - Crackle Blog Editor

This weekend, along with some of the more family friendly fare You Again and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole there's also some stuff that's rated above a PG-13. If you're in the mood for the return of an '80s classic, check out Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (click for ticket info). Then if you love seeing superhero du jour Ryan Reynolds sealed up in a box, there's always the limited opening of Buried (click for ticket info). If it's knowledge you're looking for there's also the documentary on education, Waiting for "Superman" (click for ticket info). But if you're either lazy, low on cash, or both ... we have even more for you.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (click for ticket info)

Ah yes, the Gekko is back. If you've been waiting since 1987 for his return, I imagine you'll be at the theater this weekend. If you're looking for more classic tales of power corrupting, you can't do much better than the Oscar winning classic from '49 All The King's Men. But if you're just looking to see a young man get caught up in big money pitfalls, watch a young Kevin Bacon get swallowed up by Hollywood in The Big Picture. But wait ... there's more!

Do you miss the young and virile Michael Douglas? How about the Michael Douglas who could predict the future? Watch him in the movie that predicted Three Mile Island, The China Syndrome.

If you're looking for a few delightful jabs at Oliver Stone on the other hand there are at least two parodies that come via Dana Carvey, Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell. Check out a full episode where the troupe does a Nixon redux in The Pepsi Stuff Dana Carvey Show -- or watch Colbert do his very best Stone impression below:

If it's more ha-ha stories from Wall Street you crave, check out these episodes of Dilbert: "The Takeover" and NewsRadio: "Stocks" -- then watch Kevin Bacon (again) fall from from the heights of Wall Street to the depths of a NY bike messenger in Quicksilver.

Moving on from the pursuit of currency with insomnia, we go to putting Ryan Reynold's ridiculously pretty face into the ground.

Buried (click for ticket info)

If it's a ripping horror yarn you're looking for, it might be worth your while to check out an overlooked camp classic with Burgess Meredith and Peter Cushing, Torture Garden. Or if you're a fan of one of Buried's cast members, Stephen Tobolowsky, you can catch him in this clip from Groundhog Day. Better yet? There's the Crackle Original Buried Alive which has more in common with this film than just the title.

Also released this weekend is the documentary on the American educational system Waiting for "Superman" (click for ticket info). If you're in the mood for a good doc, we have two relatively new ones on the site you should check out. Both are all about famous musicians with tragic ends, and both are here and free for you to watch today: Kurt And Courtney and Biggie And Tupac. But if you'd prefer a tongue in cheek comedic doc spoof, check out Mating Habits Of The Earthbound Human which is only here until the end of September.

As a final note, this past week the recent flick Robin Hood (click for Amazon purchase) was released on DVD -- you can buy it of course, or you can watch Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn do a turn as the famous 'Hood and 'Marian respectively in Robin and Marian:

Watch 'em all, and let us know what you think is worth watching, below.

Jack @ Crackle - Crackle Blog Editor