Oscar Film Journal: Sentimental Value (2025)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Seven 2025 nominees down, three to go...

Today I'm looking at Joachim Trier's latest opus, Sentimental Value, a Norwegian family drama of strained parent-child relationships starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as a father and his two adult daughters who become reacquainted after the death of the mother.  We learn via the film's engaging prologue that the parents spent a lot of time screaming at each other, severely damaging the older daughter Nora (Reinsve), who now has trouble getting close to anyone.  The father (Skarsgard) left, only occasionally reconnecting with his children over the following decades, and not very successfully.  

In the present, Nora is now an accomplished theater and television actress, her younger sister Agnes (Lilleaas) did some acting as a child, having starred in one of her father's acclaimed films, but has since left the business.  The father Gustav has enjoyed a long directorial career but hasn't made a feature in fifteen years and now wants to reclaim the family home (which technically on paper still belongs to him).  Not only that, he's written a new screenplay, the best of his career, and wants Nora to star in it.  But Nora rejects the olive branch, refusing to even read the script, and Gustav ends up instead casting famous American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), while also agreeing to several artistic compromises in order to get Netflix to finance the project.  

WWE Elimination Chamber 2026 Preview & Predictions

It's February and that means WWE is offering its annual Elimination Chamber PPV.  Elimination Chamber incidentally is what I call my toilet.  "Hold my calls, I'll be in the Elimination Chamber for the next 20-30 minutes."

Man has it been refreshing to watch WWE's own audience begin to turn on their product over social media, while behind the scenes Triple H and friends are scrambling to put together a WrestleMania lineup that will sell like the last three.  They've even, shockingly, offered discounted tickets to try to close the 18% gap below the 'Mania 41 sales at this point on the calendar, to little avail at all.  They're even cockblocking local Vegas venues from showing it on TV for their patrons to try and encourage said patrons to shell out hundreds of dollars for tickets instead.  Talk about sad desperation.  Turns out that when you put most of your eggs in the basket of a retiring 48-year-old for an entire year (and totally clusterfuck that run), your audience loses interest once he's actually gone.  Who knew?

Anyway so far we have CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns as a confirmed WrestleMania main event, plus Stephanie Vaquer vs. Liv Morgan as the one confirmed Women's Title match, so this show will fill in two more slots on the card.

Let's take a look...

Women's Intercontinental Championship: Becky Lynch vs. AJ Lee

They're in Chicago so both Punk and AJ are featured heavily.  Becky and AJ have wrestled each other in tag matches and have been feuding since September, but I believe this is the first one-on-one match of their feud.  I haven't seen any of AJ's matches post-return since I don't have ESPN Unlimited and don't plan to get it.  I assume this will be fine.  Becky as a heel still doesn't work for me.

Pick: AJ wins the belt

Oscar Film Journal: The Verdict (1982)

Still pluggin' away at these old movies, so let's do another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

The year is 1982, the director is Sidney Lumet, the genre is legal drama (coincidentally the same as the film that put Lumet on the map), the star is Paul Newman, the film is The Verdict.

Based on a 1980 Barry Reed novel and adapted by vaunted playwright-turned-screenwriter David Mamet, The Verdict tells the story of deadbeat ambulance chaser Frank Galvin, who once had a promising career as an attorney but lost that and his marriage to the bottle.  He now scours the Boston Globe obituary section looking for opportunities to convince the bereaved to pursue wrongful death suits.  When we first meet Frank, this strategy is going very badly for him and he is kicked out of a funeral home for attempting to solicit work.  He spends most of his waking hours at a local Irish bar, pounding shots of whiskey and occasionally hitting on women (one of whom, played by Charlotte Rampling actually succumbs to his charms, but isn't quite what she seems).  One day his former partner Mickey (Jack Warden) sends him a medical malpractice case involving a woman admitted to a Catholic hospital during labor, who was seemingly administered the wrong form of anesthesia, leaving her in a coma and on life support.  The woman's sister and brother-in-law have filed suit against the church and the doctor in charge, hoping to land a significant settlement, of which Frank stands to retain one third.  

Oscar Film Journal: Erin Brockovich (2000)

Welcome to Oscar Film Journal entry #138, I think.

Time to take a trip back to the year 2000.  Hey remember when we all thought the year 2000 was gonna be this super-futuristic era with flying cars and no racism?  Good times.  

Anyway we're looking at Best Picture nominee Erin Brockovich, the remarkable true story of an ordinary single mom of three who used her natural savvy, tenacity and charisma to become a high-powered paralegal and activist.  Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film stars Julia Roberts as the title character, in an Oscar-winning tour-de-force.  I was skeptical going into this about whether Roberts' performance would be anywhere near the level of say, Ellen Burstyn's harrowing turn that year in Requiem for a Dream, and while I still think Burstyn's was the superior performance, Roberts' work here is definitely Oscar-worthy.  In fact she's so captivating she more than makes up for the film's script shortcomings.  The structure is pretty standard "scrappy unlikely hero makes good" fare, the dialogue is sometimes hamfisted, and certain relationships are underwritten, but Roberts is so much fun to watch and so squarely the focus of the story that the films works quite well overall.

Oscar Film Journal: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Welcome to another entry in our Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Still chippin' away at the 1970s and a film against which I've long had a bit of a grudge simply because it beat out the timeless masterpiece that is Apocalypse Now in the Best Picture category that year.  I'm talking about Kramer vs. Kramer, written and directed by Robert Benton (based on Avery Corman's novel) and starring Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, and in a performance that made him the youngest Oscar nominee of all time at age eight, Justin Henry.  

Kramer vs. Kramer is a domestic drama about a couple going through a divorce and the effect this change has on their young son.  Ted Kramer is a work-obsessed NYC marketing exec, so detached from his home life he doesn't even know what grade his son Billy is in, and so emotionally distant from his wife Joanna that she decides one day to pack up and leave them.  Ted is so wrapped up in his own stuff he at first thinks she's joking and then barely reacts once she actually exits.  The next morning he haphazardly makes Billy breakfast and just barely gets him to school on time, and we really get a sense of how ill-equipped he is at parenting.  But over the next year he and Billy become very close, and with a little help from the Kramers' neighbor Margaret, Ted develops the skills he needs as a father (illustrated perfectly by a later scene where Ted is making Billy the same breakfast, calmly and adeptly).  Suddenly though, Joanna returns after a year in Los Angeles and asks for custody, and an ugly legal battle ensues.

Oscar Film Journal: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Welcome to another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Strap into the DeLorean and let's head back to the 1970s, specifically to the year of my birth (in fact this film had its NYC premiere the day before I was born)....

Today's subject is the Best Picture winner for 1975, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Jack Nicholson in a role that won him his first Oscar and helped define his storied career.  Directed by Milos Forman and based on Ken Kesey's novel, Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a psychiatric ward in Oregon, where a multi-time petty criminal named Randle McMurphy has finagled a transfer out of the prison system to avoid hard labor.  The administrator suspects McMurphy is faking mental illness but reluctantly agrees to keep him on a trial basis.  McMurphy quickly finds himself in a power struggle with the ward's icy, domineering head nurse Mildred Ratched, ultimately inciting a rebellion among the other patients.

This film was in development hell for over a decade, originally set to star Kirk Douglas, and eventually the property found its way into his son Michael's hands instead.  After thirteen long years of development (and a successful Broadway adaptation), the film was finally made in early '75 and became an instant sensation, finishing second at the box office that year, garnering nine Oscar nominations, and going on to be the second of three films ever to win the five major awards - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best (Adapted) Screenplay.  In pop culture it's been referenced countless times, for example inspiring Metallica's "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" and Stone Cold Steve Austin's iconic match ending moment at WrestleMania 13 where he fought Bret Hart's inescapable Sharpshooter before ultimately passing out (Austin cited Nicholson's attempt to lift an impossibly heavy water fountain as his impetus for that match finish).   

Top Ten Things: Megadeth Albums, Ranked

Welcome to a special extended edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com, where I rank stuff.

Today it's the 40-plus-year album catalog of speed metal titans Megadeth!  That's right, I'll be ranking all seventeen albums released by the former Metallica founding member and his revolving door of backing musicians - of the Big Four thrash bands, Megadeth has been the most prolific, despite their colleagues having a two-year head start.  Man, back in high school and college I lived for Megadeth, holding them higher even than Metallica for several years.  I got my first taste of the band in early 1990 with the purchase of Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? and from then I was hooked (in mouth).  Dave Mustaine was my guitar (and hair) hero, and I spent way too much time copying his playing style (my voice at the time was more suited to Hetfield's so I became a wannabe amalgam of the two).  The release of a new Megadeth album became a long-awaited event every couple years and it was a common occurrence for me to purchase the album and give it multiple listens on the first day.  Sadly as with all 80s metal bands, the mid-to-late 90s were not kind, and Megadeth lost a lot of their cool factor around this time.  They experimented heavily with different sounds and styles with varying results, before returning to a traditional metal timbre in the early aughts.  But while most Megadeth fans fully welcomed the band's thrashy 21st century output, I found myself quite underwhelmed by most of it; to me it sounded like a copycat band trying to recreate Megadeth's signature sound rather than Megadeth returning to form.  So be warned, the bottom half of this list is heavily skewed toward Megadeth's recent work.  But enough blathering on, let's get after it....

17. Endgame

This album got a lot of praise on its release (and ever since) but I think it's probably the band's worst album.  Yes it's heavy and yes it's full of thrashy riff shredding, but Dave apparently had somehow lost the ability to write a vocal melody in the mid-2000s, as nearly all of his vocal parts on this album involve shoehorning lyrics obviously written without a clear melody in mind.  And rather than hone them it sounds like he just slapped on whatever meandering melodic idea would fit the number of syllables.  Aside from the choruses of "1320'," "Head Crusher," "How the Story Ends," and "The Right to Go Insane," there isn't a strong vocal idea on this album, and Dave's range here is nonexistent; when did he lose his upper register?  Couple that with technically impressive but joyless instrumentals (I feel like nearly every lead guitarist/drummer combination since Friedman and Menza has been largely devoid of personality in their playing), and Endgame is a chore to sit through, like a tribute band trying to approximate a Megadeth album.  4.5/10

Key Tracks: "1320'," "Head Crusher," "How the Story Ends"

16. Dystopia

Megadeth's 2016 album may be technically really impressive and convey a bit more enthusiasm than the handful of records before it, but aside from "The Emperor" and "Post-American World" there isn't a memorable song in earshot.  The songwriting is simply not there, nor is Dave's voice up to the task of matching the music's aggression and complexity.  I was into just about every song until his vocals came up.  Also at a certain point the whole "Everything's going to hell," conspiracy-minded right-wing subject matter feels disingenuous coming from a guy who's been rich and famous for the last thirty-five years - what exactly are you rebelling against at this point?  Lyrical gripes aside, if I want to hear a recent metal album that's both aggressive and bursting with technical wizardry I'll pop in Haken's Vector, not this.  5/10

Key Tracks: "The Emperor," "Dystopia," "Conquer or Die!"

 

Movie Review: Frankenstein (2025)

Here's a film I've been rabidly anticipating for a long time.  Guillermo Del Toro's long-planned adaptation of Mary Shelley's iconic novel Frankenstein has hit theaters for a limited run before its Netflix debut on November 7th.  Starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, and Mia Goth, the film is a stylish, tragic epic about ambition, ego, forgiveness, and accountability.  As expected it includes outlandish GDT visual hallmarks, big performances, and lavish production values, and like his 2022 Pinocchio adaptation it is closely inspired by the source material while also veering significantly from it.

Upon the first viewing I had very mixed feelings about this version.  As a decades-long devotee of Shelley's original novel (which I've read four or five times) I've been salivating at the prospect of a film version that faithfully brings her near-perfect story to life, and for some reason no film adaptation thus far has really done that.  Even the 1994 Kenneth Branagh-directed version took unnecessary narrative liberties that distracted from the story rather than enhancing it (not to mention that film is just a hot mess of an exercise in schlocky melodrama).  But when I first saw the trailers for this version it looked like GDT was going to hew very closely to the book.  And in some aspects he's done that, but in others he strayed so far I once again found myself asking "Now why'd he go and change that?" instead of being immersed in this new take on the story.

Oscar Film Journal: Nebraska (2013)

And we're back with yet another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

I'm circling back to the 2010s, to a film I meant to watch at the time but never got around to, it's Alexander Payne's comedy-drama Nebraska, starring Bruce Dern and Will Forte.  Nebraska is a road movie of sorts, about a crotchety septuagenarian named Woody who's convinced he's won a million dollars through the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes and insists on traveling from his home in Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect the winnings.  Initially he thinks he can make the trek on foot, but the police pick him up wandering down the freeway, and despite numerous attempts by his two sons (Forte and Bob Odenkirk) and his hilariously fed up wife Kate (a brilliantly cast June Squibb) to convince him it's all a scam, he refuses to let it go.  Thus his younger son David agrees to drive him to the company's headquarters and find out for sure (Woody doesn't trust the mail system so that's a non-starter).  David knows there's nothing at the end of this particular rainbow but sees the trip as a chance to spend quality time with his emotionally distant father.  Woody quickly lets his drinking get the better of him, falling and hitting his head, and the pair decide to hole up for a few days in Hawthorne, NE, with Woody's brother Ray.  While in Hawthorne they run afoul of Woody's ex-business partner-turned nemesis Ed (a slimy Stacy Keach, recalling his turn in American History X), who upon learning of Woody's alleged newfound wealth attempts to extort David out of some cash (For that matter, so do several of Woody's relatives).

Oscar Film Journal: Casablanca (1943)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

We're looking at the 1940s today, specifically the year 1943 and the Best Pic winner from that year, one of the most beloved films of all time, Casablanca.  Directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, plus Claude Rains, Peter Lorre and Conrad Veidt, Casablanca is based on an unproduced play called Everybody Comes to Rick's and set against the backdrop of World War II, in Nazi-occupied Morocco.  The film's macguffin is a pair of transit authorization letters hidden in Rick's Cafe Americain, brought to Rick by an acquaintance, a petty crook named Ugarte (Lorre), who is quickly arrested after unloading the letters (Said letters allow their bearers passage to Portugal and freedom from German occupation).  Rick is of course Bogart's character, who spends his nights running the most popular nightclub in town and drinking heavily.  One night an old flame visits the club, Ingrid Bergman's character Ilsa, accompanied by her resistance leader husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Heinreid), and this chance meeting dredges up all the old feelings, including Rick's reluctant sense of moral duty, despite claiming he has no dog in the WWII fight.

Oscar Film Journal: Rain Man (1988)

Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!  Heading back to my early teen years, the late 1980s.....

Today's subject was the first Best Picture winner I ever saw prior to its coronation; I went to see it with my parents in the theater at age 13, coincidentally on the same day I shaved for the first time (using an electric razor on my developing sideburns).  Don't ask me why I remember tidbits like that, but I guess it's an apt coincidence considering the film in question.  I'm talking about Rain Man, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, in one of his most famous performances.

Cruise plays hotshot independent car dealer Charlie Babbitt, whose business is in trouble because he's imported four Lamborghinis but is struggling to get them approved by the EPA so he can sell them.  Charlie learns that his estranged but wealthy father has just died, and he travels to his old home in Cincinnati for the funeral.  Much to his chagrin he learns his father only left him some prized rosebushes and an antique car, while the rest of the $3 million estate has been left to a trust.  After doing some digging he discovers the executor of the estate is a doctor at a nearby psychiatric hospital, a close friend of the father's.  He also learns, even more shockingly, that he has a much older long-lost brother named Raymond, a patient at the hospital who will end up being the sole beneficiary.  Raymond is autistic with incredible savant abilities, such as total recall of baseball stats and airline accidents, and the ability to instantly solve complex mathematical problems.  Charlie decides to effectively kidnap Raymond and take him back to Los Angeles to try and gain custody of him, thus giving him bargaining power over the inheritance.  But of course the two brothers form a much deeper bond during their road trip across the country.

AEW Grand Slam Australia 2026 Preview & Predictions

We're just a couple days away from AEW's latest PPV-quality free TV show, Grand Slam Australia 2026!

Holy shitballs, this lineup.  Last year's GSA was an excellent show but it wasn't stacked like this one.  AEW Title match, Continental Title match, TNT Title match, Women's Tag Title match, #1 Contender's match, Hair vs. Hair match.  This thing is more loaded than Trump's diaper.  Speaking of that turd, supposedly WBD executives shied away from featuring anything having to with Brody King on this week's Dynamite, lest the crowd once again chant "Fuck ICE" (which they did a little bit anyway).  WBD denies it of course, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true.

Anyway enough of that shit, let's talk about this lineup.  This is Clash of the Champions 1 quality stuff.

Hair vs. Hair: Toni Storm & Orange Cassidy vs. Marina Shafir & Wheeler Yuta

Toni and OC have incredible chemistry together and I love that they're running with what was supposed to just be a one-off pairing.  Great things have historically happened in wrestling based on unexpected hits, and it's always nice to see a promotion pay attention to that.  The build for this has been quite enjoyable, with both Toni and OC expressing some buyer's remorse about the possibility they could lose their prized locks.  But of course all signs point to Wheeler getting the shave, and there's no better chickenshit heel to fill that role.  The crowd will go bananas when the Death Riders' answer to Tully Blanchard gets humiliated.

Pick: Toni and Orange

Oscar Film Journal: Midnight Express (1978)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

We're taking a trip to the late 70s to look at a harrowing film that was controversial for its less than truthful version of real-world events but nonetheless considered an effective prison drama, Alan Parker's Midnight Express, starring Brad Davis, John Hurt and Randy Quaid.  Based on Billy Hayes' 1977 memoir about his experiences in, and escape from, a Turkish prison, the screenplay was written by the ever-sensationalistic Oliver Stone, winning him his first Oscar. 

In 1970, Billy Hayes attempts to smuggle a couple kilos of hashish out of Turkey, gets caught, gets convicted and sentenced to four years, and stays on his best behavior under the assumption he'll get out in three.  But the Turkish courts, under pressure by the Nixon administration, come down exceptionally hard on drug smugglers and Billy's original sentence gets thrown out in favor of a thirty-year stint.  His objective now becomes taking the "midnight express," or escaping prison.

First the positives.  The film is gorgeously photographed by Michael Seresin, who provided the signature Alan Parker backlit look, similar to that of Ridley and Tony Scott, lending weight and atmosphere to the bleak storytelling.  A later passage in particular when Billy is transferred to the wing for the criminally insane is bathed in shadows and diffused light, immersing us in his hopelessness.  Shot in actual locations in Malta, this movie feels quite authentic and we feel very much out of our element.  

Oscar Film Journal: F1 (2025)

Alright I'm six for ten of the 2025 Best Picture nominees, so let's dive back into the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Movie #6 is the Joseph Kosinski-helmed car racing action-drama F1, starring Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, and Kerry Condon.  Pitt's character Sonny Hayes is an aging car racer who blew his big chance at superstardom thirty years ago in a fiery crash, and now bounces from circuit to circuit just to satisfy his love of driving, while living in a van (down by the river?).  His old friend and teammate Ruben (Javier Bardem in a odd bit of wasted casting) shows up one day to recruit him for his F1 team - it's late in the season and they're doing so poorly Ruben is in danger of losing team ownership.  The team's top driver is a cocky young fella named Joshua Pearce, who has talent but lacks the experience to exploit the rules of the track and eke out some wins.  The cars designed by technical director Kate McKenna (Condon, in an overachieving performance) are also less than ideal and aren't getting the top speeds necessary to win.  Sonny shakes things up and despite initially butting heads with the crew, earns their trust and builds a rapport with both Joshua and Kate, and the assignment provides him with one last shot at glory.  Plus there's a whole lot of car racing.

NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka 2026 Preview & Predictions

It's a new year and a new era, and that means it's time for a New Beginning in Osaka, courtesy of New Japan Pro Wrestling!

The first PPV of the Yota Tsuji era is just a couple days away, and there are some fresh matchups on tap, plus a sendoff for one of the company's biggest-ever Jr. Heavyweight stars.  There's also a really odd choice of main event that seems to be a real sink-or-swim test for the company's new Ace.  Undercard-wise this show looks much stronger than WrestleKingdom.  Main event-wise not so much.

Hiromu Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori vs. United Empire

We're starting things off with Hiromu's final match as a member of the NJPW roster.  Where he's headed we don't know yet, but like his former LIJ stablemates Naito, Sanada, Evil and Bushi, the Time Bomb is moving on.  Wild times.  Anyway I imagine Takahashi will be doing the honors on his way out.  Makes the most sense to me.  Give Francesco Akira and Jakob Austin Young the win.

Pick: United Empire

Shingo Takagi & Drilla Moloney vs. Great-O-Khan & Henare

This is a match of meat warfare.  Shingo works great with both UE guys, Drilla is becoming one of the better slugfest wrestlers on the roster.  Should be a lot of fun if it gets adequate time.  I'll go with Shingo and Drilla.

Pick: War Dragons

Oscar Film Journal: The Awful Truth (1937)

We're officially in the thick of Oscar season, so let's add another page to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Still in the weeds of the 1930s (YouTube is a treasure trove of old public domain stuff), specifically the year 1937 and a screwball comedy by Duck Soup director Leo McCarey.  It's The Awful Truth, starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant.  Based on a 1922 play, The Awful Truth is a simple story about a wealthy couple who have fallen out of love, and each is convinced the other is fooling around.  The husband, Jerry, returns home after a bender with the guys, having told his wife he'd be in Florida (He gets a fake tan to add to the subterfuge).  Meanwhile Lucy spent the night, apparently platonically, with her voice teacher Armand, triggering Jerry's jealousy.  The distrust has reached a breaking point and the couple decide to get a divorce.  Lucy goes to live with her aunt, whose neighbor Dan (Ralph Bellamy) is a rich, unmarried oil man.  Lucy and Dan begin dating and eventually get engaged.  Meanwhile Jerry has been granted visitation rights to his wife's dog Mr. Smith, giving him an avenue to cockblock Lucy and Dan's relationship.  Then later in the film Lucy gets some payback when Jerry starts dating a rich heiress, crashing her parents' dinner party in the guise of Jerry's sister.  Lots of comedic misunderstandings in this film, some of it reminiscent of the Marx Brothers.  The upshot of course is that Jerry and Lucy realize they still have feelings for each other, just as their divorce is being finalized.

Oscar Film Journal: Lady for a Day (1933)

Welcome to another page in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Still in the 1930s weeds (Hey, there's a veritable treasure trove of public domain films on YouTube), and today it's an early Frank Capra talkie, Lady for a Day, starring Warren William and May Robson.  Based on a short story called Madame La Gimp, LFAD centers on a destitute fruit vendor named Apple Annie, who lives in a tiny apartment in Depression Era New York City.  Annie has a daughter Louise who's lived in a Spanish convent since she was a child (We're never told who the father was or why Louise was taken away), with whom she keeps written correspondence, under the pretense that she's a well-to-do dowager.  But one day Annie gets a letter saying Louise is engaged to the son of a wealthy Spanish count who insists on meeting his in-laws before he'll agree to the marriage, and that the three of them are en route to NYC by boat.  Terrified of being found out, Annie begs one of her customers, a gangster and gambler named Dave the Dude, to set her up with a room in the fancy hotel where he lives.  Dave initially refuses but Annie's fellow street peddlers convince him to help with the charade, and Dave himself doesn't want to lose Annie as a vendor because he thinks her apples bring him luck.  Thus Apple Annie becomes Mrs. E. Worthington Manville.  But things get a little complicated when reporters start asking questions, and Dave and his henchmen are forced to kidnap them for a little while.  The scheme must go off without a hitch despite everyone involved being a phony, and Dave and his goons must also evade the snooping police department...

Oscar Film Journal: Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

And we're back with another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Time to head back to that grand decade known as the 1990s!

Today it's the British rom-com Four Weddings and a Funeral, directed by Mike Newell from a script by Richard Curtis, and starring Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Simon Callow.  Inspired by a period in his own life when Curtis went to literally dozens of weddings, this film is your garden-variety meet-cute story, told in an inventive manner, mostly through the titular events.  

Hugh Grant plays Charles, a handsome but socially awkward bachelor, whose group of unmarried friends and relatives routinely gets invited to various nuptial ceremonies en masse.  Charles and his roommate Scarlett are chronically late to these events, usually dashing in just before the bride makes her entrance.  We're introduced to numerous characters and get a sense of their various quirks and relationships to each other, but the exposition is kept mostly organic; we don't even learn what any of them does for work, as Curtis felt they wouldn't be having work-related conversations at these events.  

Oscar Film Journal: I'm Still Here (2024)

What's up, Enuffa.com fans?  Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal!

Doin' a little catch-up from the 2024 slate of Best Pic nominees, today we're looking at I'm Still Here, directed by Walter Salles and starring Fernanda Torres in an Oscar-nominated turn.  This film is a political biopic about one of thousands of families affected by the abhorrent Brazilian military dictatorship that controlled the country from 1964 to 1985.  Dissenters were arrested, silenced, tortured, murdered and/or disappeared.  It's estimated that over 400 people were either killed or went missing, while over 20,000 were tortured, and it should be noted that the inciting coup for this regime in '64 had the full support of the United States government.  We sure do love spreading "freedom" across the globe, don't we?

Anyway, the film depicts the struggles of the Paiva family, led by former Brazilian Congressman Rubens and his wife Eunice.  Rubens has returned to civilian life as an engineer but still surreptitiously aids the resistance without his family's knowledge.  One day men with guns take him away for questioning, while others stay at the house to monitor the family.  Then they take Eunice and her daughter Eliana away as well, keeping Eunice imprisoned for twelve days before sending them both home again.  However Rubens is still missing, the government denies any wrongdoing (of course), and Eunice will have to spend literally decades trying to find out what happened to her husband.

Oscar Film Journal: Bad Girl (1931)

And now it's time for another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

Back to the Depression era we go, with 1931's Bad Girl, an adaptation of the hit 1928 novel by Vina Delmar.  Directed by Frank Borzage and starring relative newcomers Sally Eilers and James Dunn, the film faced significant pushback from the infamous Hays Office for its subject matter.  The novel was a fairly explicit cautionary tale about premarital sex and accidental pregnancy (considered so lurid it was banned in Boston), and the uptight censors felt the story was unfilmable as-is.  But Fox Film Corporation came up with a treatment that cleaned up the story and made it more about an unlikely couple falling in love, getting married, getting unexpectedly pregnant, and worrying about money and each other's commitment level.  Still the studio hedged their bets and only granted a $100,000 budget (equivalent to a scant $2 million today), and cast two unknowns as the leads.  Amazingly the film was a critical and commercial smash hit, pulling in over $1 million and making stars of Eilers and Dunn, who'd be cast together in several subsequent projects.

The History of WWE Royal Rumble (2025)

The 38th WWE Royal Rumble was a solid show, better than it had been in a handful of years anyway.  There wasn't anything great on the show but nothing bad either, aside from one booking decision that proved to be a flop in the end.  Picking a best match and worst match is tough because everything was in the 3.5 to 4 star range.  I had some gripes about some things but we'll get to that.  It was definitely too long a show, that's for sure.  Having two Rumble matches on one show is a lot, and I'm not sure what the solution is.

The show kicked off with the women's Rumble, and I think this was the most fun match for me.  Despite less star power than the men's, this match had a lot of exciting young talent, many of them from NXT, and the match cut a good pace that kept everything moving.  Iyo Sky, Ivy Nile, Lash Legend, Jordynne Grace, and Stephanie Vaquer all looked very good.  Nia Jax got to be the Kane of this match and eliminate 9 women.  I was surprised Becky Lynch didn't return, but instead we got Alexa Bliss.  As expected Charlotte Flair ended up winning, last eliminating Roxanne Perez of all people.  Also Iyo, Roxanne and Liv Morgan all beat Bayley's record from last year, which has really gotten out of hand.  If you keep breaking the longevity record it becomes meaningless.  They certainly didn't need to do it three times in this one match.  Both Rumbles went excessively long, this one at 70 minutes.  Charlotte would go on to have a very bad feud and forgettable 'Mania match against Tiffany Stratton.

The History of WWE Royal Rumble (2024)

The 2024 WWE Royal Rumble was....a show.  Some stuff happened, there were some winners and losers, and the ending was the right one.

Whereas 2023's Rumble show, while not a great PPV, felt purposeful and featured one of the best Rumble matches of all time in the men's edition, 2024's felt rather obligatory and pretty bereft of memorable events, some surprise entrants excepted.  Both Rumble matches where just kinda there, and the crowd responded as such.  The hot San Antonio crowd from 2023 was sorely missed, as the St. Petersburg audience sat on their hands for a lot of the show, which dragged down large chunks of the two Rumble bouts.  The two non-Rumble matches likewise failed to light up the fans, no doubt in part because the results were a forgone conclusion.  Even CM Punk's return to a WWE ring for the first time in a decade didn't land the way it should have (which just further points to AEW executing his return better).

The History of WWE Royal Rumble (2023)

The 2023 Royal Rumble was a large improvement over the previous year's, where two deserving winners earned their WrestleMania title matches (sadly only one actually got their win at 'Mania but that's another conversation), and a major angle took place at the end of the show to set up the main event at Elimination Chamber.

For the first time in seemingly forever, the men's Rumble match had actual stories woven throughout and was designed to set up numerous WrestleMania matches, which is really the bare minimum that should be expected for any Rumble match.  If you just spend a little time creating and/or furthering individual conflicts and sprinkle those things across the hour-long Rumble match, that automatically makes it stand out from the others.  It gives everyone a reason to become invested and makes the 60-plus minutes fly by.  WWE did this in the men's Rumble in 2023.  This Royal Rumble was for me a top-five Rumble match, boosted by the work of Gunther, who entered at number one and was the last man eliminated, breaking the longevity record for a 30-man Rumble (Bryan Danielson still holds the overall record but that Rumble was a 50-man field).  Brock Lesnar entered surprisingly early and after a dominant few minutes was even more surprisingly ousted by Bobby Lashley, thus setting up their Elimination Chamber singles match (which sucked).  Rey Mysterio no-showed his number 17 entrance and it became apparent when his son Dominik entered at 18 wearing Rey's mask that he was attacked backstage (in reality Rey was injured the night before on Smackdown, but this was a pretty good way to cover it up).  Other standouts included Sheamus and Drew McIntyre, who teamed up for most of their time together and looked dominant, Ricochet and Logan Paul, who provided one of the coolest-looking spots ever in a Rumble match, a simultaneous springboard leap that resulted in a massive midair collision, and of course Cody Rhodes, who made his triumphant return at number 30 and survived a brutal seven-minute finale with Gunther to win the whole thing.  This is how you book a Royal Rumble match.  Sadly it was the opening contest and the show never reached these heights again.  

Participants: Gunther, Sheamus, The Miz, Kofi Kingston, Johnny Gargano, Xavier Woods, Karrion Kross, Chad Gable, Drew McIntyre, Santos Escobar, Angelo Dawkins, Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, Baron Corbin, Seth Rollins, Otis, (Rey Mysterio), Dominik Mysterio, Elias, Finn Balor, Booker T, Damian Priest, Montez Ford, Edge, Austin Theory, Omos, Braun Strowman, Ricochet, Logan Paul, Cody Rhodes

Final Four: Cody Rhodes, Gunther, Logan Paul, Seth Rollins

Long Man: Gunther (1:11:40)

The History of WWE Royal Rumble (2022)

Ah WWE circa 2022, a company without highs or lows, where every PPV (ahem, premium live event, a phrase no real human being should ever use in actual conversation) is steeped in mediocrity and there's no reason to get invested in anything because the company will just screw it up anyway.

The 2022 Royal Rumble fits the above description to a tee.  A bunch of just-okay matches, in one ear, out the other, the details of which will all be forgotten by WrestleMania.  No one gets over except the one or two established stars the company wants to push, thus both Rumbles felt like everyone involved was just killing time.  Was it a reasonably entertaining way to spend four hours?  Sure.  Was anything here even close to being a great match or having any historical significance?  Nope.  Even the first-time WWE Title match with a big-fight feel was more of the same ol' shit with repetitious action and a bad finish.  WWE could fuck up a can of Pringles.

Speaking of bad finishes, the show started with Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins, in a very well-worked Universal Title bout where Seth, dressed in his old Shield gear and entering through the crowd to the group's classic theme, resided fully in Roman's head.  No matter how badly Roman beat him down, Seth kept smiling and asking for a fist bump.  Roman couldn't stay on his game and Seth dominated much of the bout.  They did the old spot from 2016 where Roman went for a spear and Seth countered into a Pedigree for a near fall.  This was a very good match.  And then the finish happened.  Roman locked in a guillotine choke, Seth struggled to get to the ropes but fell short and went limp.  The referee lifted Seth's arm for one, two, and on the third drop, Seth's hand fell on the bottom rope.  Yes, the referee inadvertently put Seth's hand on the rope, and then demanded Roman break the hold.  Ummm, what?  How can that be a rope break if the referee is the one who put his hand there?  Roman, the heel, rightly refused to break the choke and was disqualified.  So Seth got legitimately beaten and Roman did something stupid to cost himself a sure victory.  Who was this designed to get over?  This was yet another very good WWE match ruined by stupid WWE booking.  And sadly it was the best thing on the show.  

The History of WWE Royal Rumble (2021)

2021: The Royal Rumble comes to Thunderdome, one Rumble match is used to create a new star, the other is used to.......give an old star a win he didn't need....

Tropicana Field - 1.31.21

The 2021 Rumble took place in front of the virtual Thunderdome crowd and was a very mixed bag of a show, par for the course with WWE circa 2021.  Both Rumbles were entertaining.  One elevated two very deserving young stars and it felt like the company's priorities were in the right place.  The other didn't elevate anyone and boasted the oldest field in Rumble history, with the average age being 39 years old and OVER HALF the field being over 40.  We got a mostly very good Last Man Standing match with a hilariously botched ending, another psychology-free Goldberg match, and a passable women's singles bout.  So not a bad show, but not one that will stand out in the Royal Rumble annals either.

The show opened, mercifully, with the Goldberg match.  I was glad to see them get this one out of the way.  It was of course the usual two-minute finisher fest.  Remember in 2003 when Goldberg actually did five or six different moves?  The two guys started before the bell, with Drew McIntyre shoving Goldberg and hitting him with a spear.  Both guys rolled out of the ring and Goldberg returned the favor, spearing Drew through the ring barricade.  They teased Drew not being able to continue, but he demanded the match be started officially.  Goldberg went for a spear but Drew hit the Claymore and covered him.  Goldberg kicked out, becoming only the second guy to do so, after Brock.  Goldberg hit a spear and jackhammer, Drew kicked out.  Drew hit another Claymore and pinned him.  Goldberg was visibly winded after roughly three minutes of activity.  Goldberg shook Drew's hand and said he passed the test.  Oh, I'm sure Drew was overwhelmingly flattered that the two-move guy now respects him...  This was fine as a dumbass finisher match, but why does the company keep doing these?  Fucking pointless. 

Anyone else tired of seeing this same match over and over?

Next up was Sasha Banks carrying Carmella through a solid women's match for the second time.  Still this wasn't bad.  Carmella's valet Reginald interfered a few times, mostly to catch Carmella as she fell out of the ring.  Late in the match Carmella hit a tope and landed on her face, an absolutely brutal-looking landing that she was lucky didn't leave a mark.  She hit a pair of superkicks but immediately fell victim to the Bank Statement and tapped.  That ending was pretty sudden.  But this match was alright. 

The History of WWE Royal Rumble (2020)

The 2020 Royal Rumble served as the coronation of Drew McIntyre, over a decade after his WWE debut.  In that regard it was a success, if Drew as the top babyface is your cup of tea.  I was underwhelmed.....

The show kicked off with an overlong bells & whistles brawl between Roman Reigns and Baron Corbin. This pairing has never done anything for me and this was no different. They fought in the ring for several minutes and then brawled all around the stadium; since it’s such a big venue this undoubtedly helped bloat the running time. Near the end of the match Roman locked Corbin in a porto-crapper and tipped it over. Uhhh, okay. Then both guys ended up on top of a dugout, where Reigns finished him with the punch/spear combo. At least the finish was fun. This didn’t need more than 15 minutes but it got 21. Shane vs. Miz at Mania 35 was more entertaining. 

The women’s Rumble was shockingly early in the lineup. This was definitely better than 2019’s women’s Rumble but not a great one, and the wrong woman won.  This should've been Shayna Baszler's big moment given her buildup the previous few months.  On the plus side though, Shayna was booked like a monster for her four minutes, and Bianca Belair looked like a huge star in her 33-minute run. Each woman tossed out 8. Other than that we got a helluva run from Beth Phoenix, who withstood a bad cut on the back of her head and made it to the final three after tossing out her bestie Natalya (payback for 2018), and a lot of overly quick eliminations of NXT stars.  It came down to Shayna vs. Charlotte, and rather than go the logical route set up at Survivor Series they had Charlotte head scissor Shayna over the ropes to win. Charlotte would go on to challenge Rhea Ripley for the NXT Title, a match I was really excited about until Charlotte got to beat her, thus derailing Ripley's monster push.  Well done, guys.  This Rumble was fine but I didn’t like the result at all, and history agrees with me.

Participants: Alexa Bliss, Bianca Belair, Mighty Molly, Nikki Cross, Lana, Mercedes Martinez, Liv Morgan, Mandy Rose, Candice LaRae, Sonya Deville, Kairi Sane, Mia Yim, Dana Brooke, Tamina, Dakota Kai, Chelsea Green, Charlotte Flair, Naomi, Beth Phoenix, Toni Storm, Kelly Kelly, Sarah Logan, Natalya, Xia Li, Zelina Vega, Shotzi Blackheart, Carmella, Tegan Nox, Santina Marella, Shayna Baszler

Final Four: Charlotte Flair, Shayna Baszler, Beth Phoenix, Natalya
Long Man: Bianca Belair (35:29)

The History of WWE Royal Rumble (2019)

Well it wasn't the blow-away event it looked to be on paper, but the 2019 Royal Rumble was a fine show with a slew of very good matches and nothing bad.  Hard to complain about that.  Even the pre-show stuff was solid (Check out the blistering Cruiserweight 4-Way especially).

The 2019 Rumble was all about building the two big babyface WrestleMania challengers (who both ended up winning and subsequently started dating, becoming WWE's new power couple).

The show kicked off with a pretty great Asuka-Becky Lynch bout that was rock solid technically and built to a series of traded submission attempts.  After a brutal-looking Asuka cradle neckbreaker off the apron to the floor, Asuka and Becky made their way back into the ring for a climactic stretch where both women attempted to tap the other with her own finisher.  Finally Asuka scored an Asuka lock, and turned it into a Cattle Mutilation-esque variation by bridging on top of Becky for the tapout win.  This match was probably my favorite on the show.  Excellent stuff that made Asuka look really strong but showed Becky could keep up.  I was quite sure we hadn't seen the last of Becky.  Asuka was unfortunately depushed like crazy after this, and took most of the year to recover as they finally built up a rematch.

Next up was the one match I didn't care about, The Bar vs. Shane & Miz.  But this was fun.  Cesaro and Sheamus worked a stiff match as usual, Miz stayed away from most of it, and Shane took some good spots while dishing out a few of his own.  I still have a problem with the near 50-year-old non-wrestler Shane going toe-to-toe with actual wrestlers, but he made it entertaining at least.  The spot of the match was Shane going for a coast-to-coast on both Bar members only for Cesaro to stand up and catch him for a Giant Swing - very cool counter.  Finally Miz hit Cesaro with the Skull Crushing Finale and Shane landed a shooting star press to win the belts.  This title win was designed to build to a Shane-Miz feud, which ended up being horrible and made Miz look like a total geek when he couldn't ever beat his 48-year-old non-wrestler rival.

Oscar Film Journal: Train Dreams (2025)

And we're back with another page in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

I did some 2025 catch-up viewing this past weekend and one of the films in question was Train Dreams, directed and co-written by Clint Bentley and starring Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones and William H. Macy.  Based on a 2011 novella by Denis Johnson, Train Dreams tells the story of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker living mostly in Idaho in the early 20th century.  Robert was orphaned as a child and sort of drifts through life as a young man until he meets Gladys and the two fall instantly in love.  They build a cabin and have a daughter, and Robert supports them by spending months at a time away, working the forests of the Northwest and helping build the railroad that would connect the two halves of the nation.  One day on the job he witnesses a group of his white coworkers murder a Chinese worker, and he becomes wracked with guilt that he didn't do anything to stop them.  For years he's certain he will experience grave misfortune as comeuppance for his inaction.  

The History of WWE Royal Rumble (2018)

Time for one of the better recent Royal Rumble shows....

Wells Fargo Center - 1.28.18

2018 kicked off with a helluva good PPV, as WWE continued its rediscovery of how to put on a fun Royal Rumble.  TWO in fact.  For a while there the Rumble had become one of my least favorite events on their calendar, but by 2018 it had fully returned to form, with one of the best examples of the gimmick, plus an historic first women's edition.  There was nary a bad match on the main card, both Rumbles delivered, there were memorable moments abound, lots of fun surprise entrants, a clear direction for WrestleMania, and a monumental debut to end the show.  Hard to ask much more of a Rumble PPV.

First up, oddly, was the WWE Title match.  AJ Styles defended against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, in a crisply worked 16-minute match.  Nothing spectacular here, but the three of them worked well together and AJ even got to bust out his moonsault-reverse DDT combo (the first WWE instance of this move I remember seeing).  Styles retained after countering an Owens pop-up powerbomb into a roll-up, but Owens and Zayn protested since Owens technically hadn't tagged into the match.  Solid opener.

Next was the Smackdown Tag Title match (SD kinda got shafted with this lineup; both of their bouts went on first), as The Usos defended against Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin.  Energetic, fast-paced and well-booked, with a shocking two straight falls for Jimmy and Jey, this was a fine undercard match.  I liked that the first fall was long and the second fall was surprisingly short - it was realistic and defied the typical structure for a 2/3 Falls match.

The men's Royal Rumble was third out of six, which was pretty baffling until the end of the show when it was made clear why.  I daresay this was the best Rumble match since 2004.  The booking of this match was predictable in a good way; everyone who should've gotten to shine did.  The final five ended up being the five most plausible winners.  Finn Balor entered at number 2 and made the final four, having lasted 57+ minutes.  And of course Shinsuke Nakamura got his WWE career-defining moment by outlasting both John Cena and Roman Reigns to win the whole thing (after 44 minutes of in-ring time).   This is how you book a Royal Rumble match in 2018.  Other notes: The returning Rey Mysterio looked better than he had in ten years, Andrade Almas and Adam Cole both had good showings and it was great to see the NXT guests not geeked out on the main roster for a change (Almas's main roster career is another matter unfortunately).  Anyway, this was a fantastic Rumble match that ranks up there with the 1992 and 2004 editions.  WWE's follow-up on Nak's big moment of course sucked, as he failed to dethrone AJ Styles for the title at four consecutive shows, two of those matches going to a draw.  But for one night it looked like Nak was poised to break the glass ceiling.

Participants: Rusev, Finn Balor, Rhyno, Baron Corbin, Heath Slater, Elias, Andrade Almas, Bray Wyatt, Big E, Sami Zayn, Sheamus, Xavier Woods, Apollo Crews, Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro, Kofi Kingston, Jinder Mahal, Seth Rollins, Matt Hardy, John Cena, The Hurricane, Aiden English, Adam Cole, Randy Orton, Titus O'Neil, The Miz, Rey Mysterio, Roman Reigns, Goldust, Dolph Ziggler
Final Four: Shinsuke Nakamura, Roman Reigns, John Cena, Finn Balor
Long Man: Finn Balor (57:30)

The match given the unenviable post-Rumble spot was Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan vs. The Bar.  This was easily the weakest match on the show and since Jason Jordan was injured and still hasn't returned, the whole angle was pointless, but this was inoffensive.  And The Bar regained the straps as they should have.  So no complaints there.

The History of WWE Royal Rumble (2017)

WWE returns to the Alamodome after 20 years and delivers another strong showing....

The 2017 Rumble (the first to be a four-hour show) and its main event took a lot of flak at the time, mostly due to the booking which was admittedly pretty unexciting.  No one new was positioned to be "made" with this match; it centered around the "safe" choices and we didn't get the expected Samoa Joe debut or a Kurt Angle return.  However we did get a very unpredictable Rumble with a larger field of potential winners than we'd had in a very long time.  There were easily ten or so guys who could reasonably have walked away with the WrestleMania title shot, and that's nothing to sneeze at.  Aside from that, the Rumble match had a couple little surprises, like Tye Dillinger entering at #10 and Jack Gallagher making the most hilarious use of an umbrella I've ever seen.  Other highlights were Jericho as the long man once again (lasting just over an hour), Braun Strowman pulling a 1994 Diesel and killing a buncha guys before being eliminated, Goldberg besting Brock Lesnar for the second time, and Roman Reigns eliminating The Undertaker and setting up their WrestleMania match.  This Rumble match was not unlike the 2001 version in some ways - the surprise entrants were minor but the match had a good amount of star power and primarily served to reinforce the established names.  The real issue with this Rumble match, as is often the case with WWE, was the follow-up.  Randy Orton won the match, turned on his supposed friend (and by this time WWE Champion) Bray Wyatt, and proceeded to have the worst feud of 2017.   I had few gripes about this Rumble match itself - it was fine in a vacuum.  It unfortunately led directly to a road of shit.

But what really made this show stand out was the undercard.  I think this was probably the finest Rumble undercard WWE has ever produced.  Two stellar Title matches and two solid title matches, with not one stinker on the entire PPV.  One can't really ask for more than that out of a Royal Rumble undercard, which generally trends toward uneven at best.

The Women's Title match opened the show and this was the absolute right move to get the San Antonio crowd invested.  Charlotte vs. Bayley felt like the first match in a series, and they got a respectable 13 minutes to tell a story.  This match didn't blow the doors off the place but it wasn't designed to - it felt just about right for its place on the card, and the finish was novel if sudden - Charlotte nailed Natural Selection on the ring apron before rolling Bayley away from the ropes and scoring the pin.  Good opener.

Next up was the first of two monster Title bouts, as Kevin Owens defended against Roman Reigns in a No DQ match with Chris Jericho in a shark cage above the ring.  Unlike their lackluster Roadblock match the month before, this was an energetic, wild brawl that made great use of tables and chairs (though Jericho got less on-camera time for comedy than I was hoping for).  After multiple table powerbomb spots, Reigns seemed a lock to win the Universal Title when Braun Strowman appeared and decimated the unpopular Samoan, allowing Owens a cheap win and leading to a months-long feud between them.  This was a fun bells & whistles kinda match.

The weakest match of the night, by default, was the Rich Swann-Neville Cruiserweight Title match.  But there was nothing wrong here, other than the fact that the audience still didn't care at all about these Cruisers.  Neville captured the Title in 14 minutes with The Rings of Saturn and went on to have easily the best title reign to date of this version of the Cruiserweight division before leaving the company several months later.

The show stealer, as expected, was AJ Styles vs. John Cena for the WWE Title.  Goddamn this was great.  AJ and Cena delivered a strong showing at 2016's Money in the Bank and an insane spotfest at Summerslam, and tonally this match fell somewhere in the middle.  There was more storytelling here than at Summerslam but the traded finishers and kickouts were still prevalent.  Cena finally avenged his two losses to tie Ric Flair's 16-time Championship record, but Styles was kept looking really strong in defeat, kicking out of multiple AAs and only falling to a double AA.  This ranks right up there with the best Rumble undercard matches in history.

So I had almost no complaints about this show as a standalone PPV.  Every match was good or great, the crowd was hot, the Rumble was unpredictable.  Aside from the mostly terrible aftermath of this show there was little to find fault with.  A pretty great Rumble PPV.

Best Match: AJ Styles vs. John Cena
Worst Match: Rich Swann vs. Neville
What I'd Change: I'd have debuted Samoa Joe and had him murder a buncha guys in the Rumble
Most Disappointing Match: I wouldn't say anything was really disappointing
Most Pleasant Surprise: That the Rumble winner was under 40

Overall Rating: 9/10

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2016

2018

Music Review: Megadeth - Megadeth (2026)

The seventeenth and final album by thrash metal pioneers Megadeth has dropped.  Simply titled Megadeth (and boasting one of the band's coolest-ever album covers), the album is pretty much exactly what I expected - a guitar riff-o-rama that's unfortunately hurt dramatically by Dave Mustaine's very limited vocal range and lack of lyrical invention.  

This has been an issue with Megadeth's music for me since 2007's United Abominations.  Mustaine's trademark snarl worked when he was a young, angry, troubled soul.  His music had a sense of danger about it and his voice had the range and intensity to match the molten rage of his lyrics.  You really got the sense that he meant what he was saying, good or bad.  There was real conviction behind it.  But from his mid-forties on he was no longer able to hit those signature screeches and wails, and thus the melodies lost the urgency they once had.  Similarly, Dave's sardonic lyrical nihilism felt genuine in the early days, but began to feel performative as he aged.  Somehow he never learned to replace that outmoded tone with wizened vulnerability and introspection, like James Hetfield did on 72 Seasons for example.  Thus the subject matter of Megadeth lacks an emotional connection, particularly in the album's closer "The Last Note."  What should be a poignant swan song is just another Megadeth track; there's no sense of melancholy or bittersweetness, it's just over.  Then there's "I Don't Care," whose lyrics sound like a teenager wrote them and not a 64-year-old grown-ass man.  After a certain age the youthful rebellion schtick becomes self-parody.