Richard's Corner

5 Films That Never, Ever Should Have Been Remade

Richard — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:17:26 +0000

I just read Maggie Van Ostrand’s at article at fandomania entitled “5 Movies That Should Never, Ever Be Remade“, and it really got my blood boiling. Not because I disagree with her, but because I agree 100%. However, the list of films that have already been remade is a lot more depressing. Here are five remakes that never should have been:

5. Black Christmas

The original Black Christmas was released in 1974, and helped to define the slasher genre. Many slasher fans consider it one of the greats, right along side the likes of Halloween and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. However, the remake is not and will never be considered a classic. Take note Hollywood, over-the-top gore and violence does not a classic make.

4. King Kong

Peter Jackson is one of my favorite directors, but ironically, he has also made one of my least favorite films. That film is King Kong. The original is a classic, so remaking it is a feat unto itself. To be honest, Jackson does a decent job, but it never really measures up to the original. I would argue that the worst part of this remake is Jack Black. Is it just me, or does he ruin almost every film he is in? Even when he tries to act normal, he just comes off as a clown that’s faking it.

3. Planet of the Apes

Tim Burton is another favorite of mine, but this film was just plain awful. In fact, this is probably his worst film to date. The original Planet of the Apes is a classic, so by default, a remake that measures up to the original is not likely. My question is…why even try?

2. Psycho

This film would have been number one on my list, but the release of Rob Zombie’s Halloween beat it by a nose. I will get into that piece of garbage in a second. For now, let’s focus on this one. Why oh why would anybody even begin to think of remaking an Alfred Hitchcock classic? The man was a genius, and his films are timeless. They are among the most beloved films of all time, yet someone decided it would be a great idea to make a scene by scene remake of the classic Psycho. For future reference, it is never a good idea to make a scene by scene remake of a classic film. It just makes it all the easier to compare the films side by side, and see just how God awful the remake actually is.

1. Halloween

Oh…Rob Zombie. What were you thinking. You took everything that made the original Halloween a classic and threw it out the window. I guess Zombie decided horror films that rely on suspense and subtlety were too yesterday, and decided to “re-imagine” Halloween as a House of 1000 Corpses-esque splatter fest. Honestly, why mess with perfection? Admittedly, this remake is a good film on it’s own, but it doesn’t even begin to measure up to Carpenter’s original.

Another Random Picture

Richard — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:03:38 +0000

Random Photo

Richard — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:04:50 +0000

I tend to take random photos with Photo Booth when I’m bored. Exciting eh?

Vacation Photos

Richard — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:37:24 +0000

Annette and I just returned from a week-long road trip on Saturday. Our final destination was Mt. Rushmore in Keystone, South Dakota, but we made plenty of stops along the way. I could go on and on about the trip, but I figured uploading some photos would do the trick.

Graph It! Re-Branded, Employment Graphs Added

Richard — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:31:00 +0000

On November 18, 2008, I released an application that allowed users to graph over 200 years of national debt data.

People seemed to like it, so a few months ago, I decided to start working on a second application for graphing unemployment data. I finished it pretty quickly, and I was ready to release it, but then I had a thought. Why not write a single application to graph both sets of data, and re-brand it as something more generic. I decided to move forward with the idea, and “Graph It!” was born.

Feel free to try it out, and let me know what you think!
http://graphit.softworksdevelopment.com

I have some pretty ambitious ideas for improving Graph It!, including more data sets and additional reporting options, so please check back often.

BlazeDS Remoting

Richard — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:31:24 +0000

I have been writing Adobe Flex applications for a few years, and up until now, I have used ColdFusion and AMFPHP for all of my remoting needs. They both have their benefits, but I have been doing a lot more Java programming in recent months, so I wanted to find a Java alternative to these technologies.

Enter BlazeDS. In Adobe’s words, “BlazeDS is the server-based Java remoting and web messaging technology that enables developers to easily connect to back-end distributed data and push data in real-time to Adobe® Flex™ and Adobe AIR™ applications for more responsive rich Internet application (RIA) experiences.” This sounded like a great solution to me, so I decided to give it a try.

After a few hours of fiddling around, with one of my existing Java projects, I was able to get a quick and dirty Flex application working with my back-end Java services. I was able to return ArrayLists of Objects with no difficulty whatsoever. I simply treated the ArrayList as a ArrayCollection, and it worked without a hitch. I was very excited by how well this worked, so I decided to try it out with one of my projects that is built on the Cairngorm MVC framework. Within twenty minutes, I was once again successfully using my back-end Java services.

In short, I was very impressed with BlazeDS. I plan on posting a few tutorials in the very near future, so be sure to check back.

Downgrading iPhone Beta 3.0 to 2.2.1

Richard — Sun, 10 May 2009 19:27:38 +0000

I have been using iPhone OS 3.0 Beta for a while, but I recently ran into a situation that forced me to downgrade to 2.2.1. What was the situation you ask? Well, I was in the middle of a required upgrade from beta 4 to beta 5 when an “Unknown Error (10)” occurred. I tried switching my phone into DFU mode and re-installing the update several times, but I ran into the same issue every time. I also attempted to restore my phone to an earlier version of the OS, but the process would always end with an “Unknown Error (1013)”.

After scouring the web for solutions, I finally found one that worked for me.

Here are the steps I followed. It is probably important to note that this process did not work on my Mac. I had to use my Windows PC (Windows XP SP2) in order for this to work.

Connect your iPhone to your computer via USB.
Download the firmware you want to install and QuickPWN. I personally downloaded 2.2.1 firmware for the iPhone 3G and QuickPwn 2.2.5-2. You can get both here.
Open iTunes
Put your phone into DFU mode. This article explains how to put your phone into DFU mode.
In iTunes, click on the “Restore” button while holding the shift key, and select the firmware file you downloaded.
Let the restore process run until you receive an “Unknown Error (1013)”.
Close iTunes
Open QuickPwn. You should receive a message telling you to hold power and home for 15 seconds. Do it!
Turn your iPhone back on by holding power button for 2 seconds.
iTunes should now recognize your phone, and it should activate automagically.

Here is a quick rundown of the resources utilized in this post:

The walk-through I found:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7304326&postcount=11
iPhone Firmware and QuickPwn:
http://www.quickpwn.com/downloads
Putting your iPhone into DFU mode:
http://limitededitioniphone.com/how-to-put-the-iphone-into-dfu-mode/

Weekend Update

Richard — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:14:30 +0000

SEGA Fanatic Redesign

For those of you who don’t know, I run a SEGA fan site called SEGA Fanatic. The site has been in desperate need of a makeover for quite some time, and I finally got around to doing it. I started with a WordPress theme I purchased from WooThemes.com called “Fresh News” and modified it to suit my needs.Let me know what you think of the new design.

I would love to hear your comments, criticisms, suggestions, etc…

No Video Review Yet

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. It has been almost two weeks since my last post, and I still haven’t posted my first video review. I wrote a review of “Slumdog Millionaire” that I plan to film, but I haven’t had the time. I’m not making any promises, but I will do my best to get it up soon.

Netflix Instant Watch Search

Richard — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:35:25 +0000

To put it simply, I love Netflix. When I talk about Netflix with other people, I am often accused of being a company representative because I rarely have a bad thing to say about the service. That being said, I do have one complaint. I love the Instant Watch feature, but finding titles to watch is very cumbersome. Browsing through by genre is easy enough, but searching by actor, director or title results in a list that combines DVD and Instant Watch titles.

To improve my own Netflix experience, I built a search engine that searches Instant Watch titles exclusively. Keeping it updated is a bit of a pain, but it has made searching for Instant Watch titles a lot less painful. Since it helped me so much, I decided to make it available for all to use. Here’s the link:

http://netflix.softworksdevelopment.com

Let me know what you think. If you find any inconsistencies, or you can think of any ways to improve the site, feel free to leave a comment. Happy searching!

Sega Channel Memories on Video

Richard — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:57:13 +0000

When looking at the history of video games, it is very hard to ignore SEGA’s impact on the industry. One innovation that is often overlooked is SEGA’s groundbreaking on-demand gaming service. SEGA Channel was launched in 1994, and provided 24/7 access to a library of more than fifty games every month. Subscribers also had access to Sega Channel exclusive titles, as well as demo versions of upcoming games.

I had Sega Channel as a teenager, and it never occurred to me to record the intro screens and menus for posterity’s sake. In fact, the possibility of such footage never even crossed my mind until I ran across these videos on YouTube.

As a huge SEGA fan, I owe Azuritereaction a debt of gratitude for posting these videos.