My Favorite Horror Remakes

For the past few years, Hollywood has been obsessed with remakes of all kinds to include horror movies. My favorite remakes began in the 80s and have continued through the more recent ones.

5. The Fly (1986) – Ok this is one of the more amazing and visually creative remakes out there. It would have been a little higher on my list but it tipped out my gross-out scale a little to much. Jeff Goldblum gives an absolutely stellar performance as Dr. Brundle. You find yourself unable to take your eyes off the screen watching Dr. Brundle's transformation into a monster and his descent into madness. Not actually scary but still just as disturbing.

4. House of Wax (2005) – This movie earns a spot on the list just for showing Paris Hilton die a horrible death. Not what would technically call a remake but more of a re-imagining that holds the original close to its heart. I really enjoyed this movie – it had a great lead characters and kept the suspense and action moving throughout the picture. The effects used to create the wax images were great and the death scenes are a total delight for horror fans.

3. Friday the 13th (2009) – I liked this remake because the story was interesting and it kept with the original idea of wild/crazy teens partying it up and getting slashed to pieces. I liked how some of the characters were to give Jason a pretty decent fight and liked how there were a few characters that you are shocked when they die. The movie did not try to be something besides a slasher movie and it was proud to be a slasher movie.

2. The Fog (2005) – What made this movie a good remake is that it fleshed out the backstory from the original story and it was very well made. The movie didn't try to be bigger or more intense than the original it was just content to be a great remake. Tom Welling and Selma Blair did a great job bringing Tom Atkins and Adrienne Barbeau's characters back to life.

1. The Thing (1982) – Not only did this movie capture the essence of isolation but it also created a whole new monster that hasn't yet been equaled. John Carpenter did an amazing job at building tension and keeping viewers guessing as to the who the monster was/in. Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley and Keith David really make this movie a joy to watch. I loved the 1953 original and was so excited to know that John Carpenter's remake did not do a disservice to the original or disappoint when taken as a completely separate movie.

A Few of my Favorite Things

In today’s economy, we are all living a budget. My budget has been reduced due to many economic factors just like everyone else’s. BUT, and there is always a but, I have a few items that won’t sacrifice to skinny my budget up. Everyone needs a few “feel good” items in their budgets that keep them going and help them to relax and breath for a moment. So here is a list of a few of my favorite things.

When working out my new budget in 2009, two things had to go which were cable TV and my daily Starbucks. These were difficult decisions to make but I have since founds ways to replace them with items I find much more irreplaceable now. 

Roku Digital Player – This is a digital player that works through a wireless or wired internet connection. There are many different channels to add of which some are free and some are not but most are extremely affordable. There is one channel called Flickstream that has multiple channels which specialize in B-graded movies and TV. There is also an entire channel dedicated to the cartoon Speed Racer. Here is a layout of my favorite channels:

• Netflix Channel – The Roku was the first instant streaming device to offer Netflix. The Netflix channel is free and will link directly to your account. For only $7.99/month plus taxes you can have unlimited access to instant viewing. There are over 20,000 titles (this includes a count of individual episodes for each series) which is pretty extensive. I pay to have one DVD-at-a-time and unlimited instant for those shows that aren’t available through instant. You can even setup and instant queue.
• Amazon Video on Demand (VOD) – The VOD on demand program works great and like Netflix connects to your account. Amazon has amazing weekend deals on movies and television plus Amazon sometimes even offers a digital version of the movie along with the DVD. Your Amazon library can be accessed from everywhere. I love it when Amazon offers 99-cent weekend rentals. Amazon sometimes has movies to own digitally for less than $5. I have all the Harry Potter movies (I paid $4.99 apiece and can watch them anywhere).
• Crackle – This is new discovery of mine and I love it. No need to register or link your account and the content is free. Yes the movies and TV shows do have ads but they are very short compared to some of the ones I watch online. They also offer movies that aren’t available on any of the other channels. Crackle also has great special features for certain movies and television shows.

Pogo Games – this is a free website with many different games and different types of games. There are hidden object, casino, board, word and puzzle that you earn tokens for playing each time. These tokens can be used to buy things like clothes and goodies for your players ‘mini’ and also for badges. Badges are earned if you do certain things while playing games. There is also a play version which opens up many more games, mini items and game badges. I have been a paid playing member for over 10 years and it is the one thing I would not have given up. There is a chat option in the game and I play online games and in tournaments with some great folks from all over the world. It is a great way to relax and be myself after coming home from a long hard day at work.

Keurig – the single cup coffee maker that uses little pods of coffee (called k-cups). I am single and this is a quick simple way to make coffee without having to brew an entire pot. There are many different flavors and brands of coffee and several websites provide subscription shipping so I get coffee every 90 days.

• Green Mountain Coffee Roasters offers many different brands of coffee like Tullys, Caribou, Emerils and their own brand. I like the flavors of their own brand especially the ones under the Fair Trade logo. Green Mountain also has k-cups in 80 count boxes. Using them I have been able to get my coffee price down to less than .50 a cup.
• Café Express is the Green Mountain Coffee subscription service. It offers discounts on prices, shipping and has different options for the frequency of your shipments.
• My K-cup is a device that allows you to use your own ground coffee in the Keurig. This works well for me when I get the urge to have Dunkin’ Donuts coffee (which is awesome).

Scentsy – the scented warmer company that helps me feed my addiction to candles without all the wicks and sooty build up on my walls. They have beautiful warmers and really strong scents that work in both the home and the office. I love them and they also offer great specials for prices.

I hope this helps you find a little enjoyment in these troubled times.

TiVo Undeletables

I admit that some of my friends call me certifiable when it comes to certain TV Shows. Each season I try to fight the urge to buy certain shows on DVD waiting patiently (No not really) for the series to reach its inevitable end so I can buy the entire series on DVD.

In order to quell my retail therapy thirst, I have a tendency to keep certain things on my TiVo for as long as possible. This may include episodes of certain shows, TV-movies or other items I just can’t resist. Here is what is in my current undeletable catalog on the TiVo.

Guilty Pleasures:

• The Crying Child – a movie starring Kin Shriner and Finola Hughes, two of my favorite soap actors from General Hospital
• The Blob – Steve McQueen as a rebellious teen who saves the planet
• Blue Hawaii – Elvis – Nuff Said

Criminal Minds:

• The Tribe, Season 1 - My favorite episode with Hotch
• Jones, Season 2 - JJ meets the cute detective from New Orleans
• Lucky, Season 3 – A true showcase of the relationship between Garcia and Morgan
• Penelope, Season 3 – The continuation of the “Lucky”
• In Heat, Season 3 - JJ gets her happy ending with the New Orleans detective, played by the hot Josh Stewart
• 52 Pickup, Season 4 - One of my favorite episodes involving Prentiss

CSI

• Stalker, Season 2
• Grave Danger, Pt. 1 & 2, Season 5
• Gumdrops, Season 6

--- Okay so I have a little crush on George Eads, who plays Nick Stokes

CSI:NY

• Snow Day, Season 3 – A great showcase of the entire cast especially Mac, Danny and Lindsay

Charmed

• Dead Man Dating, Season 1 – My favorite Piper episode
• Pardon My Past, Season 2 – My favorite Phoebe episode
• Give Me a Sign, Season 2 – My favorite Prue episode

Well that about sums up what I consider “keepers” for the Tivo – is there anything you refuse to delete from your Tivo.

Why Soap Fans Can’t Get Closure

I posted this one originally but it got lost when I lost my blog.

I have read and heard many folks bashing soap opera fans since the announcement of the cancellation of All My Children and One Life To Live. What those folks can’t understand is that there is never any closure or going back for a soap fan.

This will be a fairly short post because there is a simple reason for why us fans of the soap opera genre can’t get closure. The simple reason is that DVDs of soap episodes don’t exist. For that matter, places to find online episodes of our soaps are regulated to a small amount of scenes on YouTube. And don’t mention SoapNet to me because it doesn’t show soaps just like MTV doesn’t play music videos anymore. It is a cheap version of Lifetime.

When other shows get cancelled after many years on the air, fans can buy season sets, series sets and sometimes even ‘best of’ sets of DVDs. These sets contain all kinds of great fun things like featurettes, interviews and even gag reels. This also holds true for sporting events – you can buy the big game on DVD or even a DVD devoted to a whole season of a sport’s team triumphs.

For soap fans, none of this exists. Creators, producers and/or distributers of soap operas have never been able to capture the DVD audience that exists. If a soap fan could simply look forward to a special edition DVD release, it would be a small consolation to losing an entire genre of television. 

With technology and devices like the Roku, Apple TX and Boxee – there are many opportunities to capitalize on the soap fan base. Roku even has an entire channel dedicated to “Speed Racer” – surely us soap fans deserve something like this as well.

Okay, I will get off my soap box and go back to YouTubing things like Stone’s Death, Reva’ s Fountain Confession, Cruz/Eden’s wedding and whatever other nostalgic scenes from soap opera’s glorious past.

OOPS I LOST MY BLOG

Recently realized my blog was gone -- somewhere between combining accounts for Google +.  Luckily I kept my posts on my computer.

I am having to recreate my blog from scratch so you may see some posts you have seen in the past. Trying to wade through to make sure most are relevant before I repost.

Sorry.