Oscar Film Journal: Patton (1970)

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

One of several calendar years where I have serious holes in my game is the year 1970.  Of the five nominees I'd only ever seen Five Easy Pieces, and that was decades ago (I'll need to give that a rewatch at some point).  So I decided to start at the top of the list and watch the Best Picture winner, Patton, starring George C. Scott as the titular controversial World War II General.

Patton is both a character study and a war film (some might even call it anti-war), which focuses specifically on George S. Patton's exploits and views the war mostly through his eyes.  We begin with the famous speech to his men, in the iconic opening scene depicting the General standing in front of a giant US flag that fills the entire frame, Patton himself lined up perfectly with the bottom edge, as though he's on a stage speaking directly to the audience.  This speech conveys a ton of information about the man, just through his attitude toward war.  "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country," he tells his troops, "He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country."  To call George Patton a war hawk would be an understatement.  War was his entire raison d'être.  "I love it more than my own life," he tells a colleague.  His passion for battle was so well-known even the German Captain Steiger, who had studied Patton's career, pitied his imminent obsolescence as the Allies took Berlin.  

Movie Review: Sinners (2025)

Hollywood is still battling to bring people back to the cinemas in a marketplace soaked to the skin with at-home streaming content, and one of its early 2025 success stories is Ryan Coogler's latest film Sinners.  Shot on a combination of 65mm and IMAX film stock, Sinners is a period vampire film set in the Jim Crow South of the early 1930s.  Twin entrepreneurs of sorts Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore (a charismatic double performance by Michael B. Jordan) return home to Mississippi after a stint in Chicago gangland, with the intention of opening up a "juke joint," a house of live music, drinking and dancing, catered primarily to black clientele.  They recruit their cousin Sammie (a very natural Miles Caton), a prodigious blues guitarist, as one of the club's featured talents, as well as a host of friends and acquaintances to work on their staff.  The Juke Club's grand opening seems to be a rousing success, but things begin to go very awry when those damn vampires show up.....

***Some spoilers ahead***

Awesomely Shitty Movies: The Patriot

Hello and welcome to another edition of Awesomely Shitty Movies at Enuffa.com, where I analyze and interpret a piece of cinematic art/product and try to decide whether it's awesome or shitty.

This week I thought I'd revisit the 2000 Mel Gibson historical epic The Patriot, directed by Roland Emmerich (of Independence Day fame) and co-starring the late Heath Ledger.

The Patriot tells the story of Benjamin Martin, a widower and veteran of the French-Indian War who has retired to his home in Charleston, SC with his seven children.  As tensions mount between the American colonies and Great Britain, Martin is called upon to vote on the formation of a Continental Army.  He refuses to support such a measure, fearing no good will come of a war with England, but the Army is approved regardless, and his eldest son Gabriel enlists.  From there the Revolutionary War escalates, and after the ruthless English Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs) kills Martin's son Thomas, Martin finds himself fully embroiled in the War and becomes one of the Americans' most skillful military leaders.  What follows is a dramatic, action-oriented historical piece covering Martin's exploits as a guerrilla fighter who vexes General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) at every turn, while Colonel Tavington counters with particularly cruel tactics.

So what worked and what didn't?  Well let's take a look....


The Awesome

Mel Gibson

As always, Gibson turns in a compelling, dynamic performance, blending his proficiency as an action-hero with his more nuanced dramatic chops to create a convincingly human protagonist.  Despite being praised as a war hero, Martin has a much more realistic view of himself as a man who has done things for which he is ashamed, and who, as a single father, can no longer afford to be the idealist he once was.  This establishes a captivating friction, both between Martin and his superiors, and between Martin and Gabriel, who wants to contribute to the war effort despite his father's objections.  During the later parts of the film the evils of battle take their toll on Martin and he feels the loss of his own humanity.  Gibson conveys all this superbly and is completely believable in the role (Again, the man's a sick asshole in real life but I'll be damned if he wasn't one of the best actors out there for a while).

Oddly this is his mugshot from that 2004 DUI.

Awesomely Shitty Movies: Independence Day

Welcome to another Awesomely Shitty Movies, here at Enuffa.com, where I overanalyze some big dumb slab of escapist entertainment to the point that you unfriend me on social media*.

*Please don't unfriend me, I'm so lonely....

Today's victim-- er, subject is the 1996 blockbuster event picture Independence Day, directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman.

Independence Day's release twenty-nine years ago was preceded by mucho fanfare, with moviegoers anticipating that generation's defining summer movie, a la Star Wars.  Its interest bolstered by promotional images of landmark buildings being decimated by giant alien saucers, ID4 made an absolute KILLING at the box office, garnering over $800 million worldwide on a $75 mil budget.  It was assumed this would be the first of a trilogy since it was supposed to sorta be the next Star Wars and it grossed a fuckton.  But oddly a sequel was never made until two decades later.  Maybe the filmmakers didn't have another story to tell.  

Anywho, you might ask yourself "Why does ID4 qualify as an Awesomely Shitty Movie?"  Well my reasons this time are slightly different than usual.  For me, this film was unabashedly awesome the first time I watched it, and agonizingly shitty on every repeat viewing.  This is a prime example of a film you should only watch one time.  Then throw it away and never speak of it again.  Don't even think about it.  You'll only break your brain and end up in a home.

So let's pick apart this ham-fisted clod of a summer movie, shall we?



The Awesome

Effects

The special effects in this movie looked amazing at the time and for the most part still look at least pretty good a few decades later.  Some of the compositing is a little messy, particularly when they show the Earth from space, but the alien craft are still convincing, the model work (which I almost always prefer over excessive CG) looks tangible and believable, and there are multiple shots in the first hour or so that still hold up.

This part still works

Alien Ships Appear

For example the moments when the giant saucers appear over the various major cities.  We see several shots of the massive ships emerging from behind the clouds and it looks great.  The filmmakers expertly conveyed the scope of the spacecraft, showing us just how insanely huge and intimidating they are.  Few things are as immediately threatening as an alien ship blocking out the sun and spanning the width of an entire city.  Super cool-looking stuff.

So does this

Iconic Imagery

This film also provided several lasting images, such as the saucer blowing up the White House, the Empire State Building, etc.  These moments would have a huge influence on Hollywood blockbusters even to this day (More on that later).  Even the poster looked boss, depicting one of the ships hovering over New York City.  The marketing team certainly earned their keep with this movie.

And this

Oscar Film Journal: Bridge of Spies (2015)

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

I'm swingin' back around to recent years, specifically a decade ago to those carefree days of 2015.  For some reason there were three recent Steven Spielberg Best Picture nominees I hadn't seen, so I've taken care of one of them here, and that's Bridge of Spies, the political drama chronicling a Cold War-era prisoner exchange between the US and the Soviet Union.

The story covers events from 1957 to 1961, kicking things off with the arrest and trial of suspected Soviet operative Rudolf Abel.  Assigned to his defense (mostly for optics) is New York insurance attorney James B. Donovan, who takes the case seriously despite the US government's intention to railroad Abel to the electric chair while putting on the charade of a fair trial.  The presiding judge makes it clear to Donovan he believes Abel to be guilty and refuses the lawyer's request to disqualify illegally obtained evidence, or even to grant a continuance so Donovan can better prepare Abel's defense.  Donovan's neighbors and even his wife also resent him for taking the case at all.  Abel is convicted, but Donovan convinces the judge not to give him the death penalty, lest any US spies be captured in the USSR and the government should be interested in a trade.  This hypothetical comes true when American spy Francis Gary Powers' U-2 surveillance plane is shot down in Soviet airspace and he is imprisoned, and the CIA enlists Donovan to facilitate an exchange (The Agency is of course too cowardly to send him as an official government representative).  Donovan is sent to Berlin to meet with a KGB agent and an East German lawyer, about Powers and another American who's been detained.  

Oscar Film Journal: The French Connection (1971)

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

Still chipping away at the 1970s, today I'm talking about a film I watched years ago but didn't remember all that well, so I've given it another look.  It's the 1971 Best Picture winner, The French Connection, directed by William Friedkin and starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider.  The film loosely chronicles the exploits of NYC detective Eddie Egan (renamed Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in the movie), who famously uncovered and helped dismantle a French heroin smuggling ring in the early 60s, as described in the 1969 non-fiction book of the same name.  Set a decade later and somewhat fictionalized, the film version plays as more of a character study of this unscrupulous, rather dirty cop whose prodigious instincts and street smarts help him sniff out this conspiracy.  Doyle's police captain Simonson (played by Eddie Egan himself) disapproves of his methods and gives him the latitude to pursue the case against his own better judgment.  The film cuts back and forth between Doyle's investigation and dingy lifestyle, and the smuggling racket.  A narrative tension is established between Doyle's correct conclusions and his ability or lack thereof to prove he's right.  Doyle and his partner "Cloudy" Russo tail the suspected principles for weeks without much success, until one of them decides to try and murder Doyle, finally creating a break in the case.

Oscar Film Journal: Jaws (1975)

Welcome to a special Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the iconic film about a giant fish that eats people, the movie that defined the cinematic blockbuster as we know it, the project that put Steven Spielberg on the map as arguably the greatest popcorn film director of all time, Jaws!

Few things can be said about this masterpiece that others haven't already said more eloquently, but I'll say them anyway, so humor me for a bit....

Jaws was of course originally a novel conceived by former news editor Peter Benchley, after reading stories of shark attacks off Long Island.  As he put it, "I wondered what would happen if one of these things showed up and wouldn't go away."  Three years later the novel was published and became an instant sensation, and film producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown snapped up the movie rights, ultimately hiring then 27-year-old Spielberg to helm the project.  The youthful, adventurous Spielberg was just the right age and experience level for this massive undertaking; he didn't yet know how backbreaking it would be to film on the water - an infamously cruel and unpredictable setting - and to deal with an even more infamously unpredictable mechanical prop as the film's centerpiece.  

Oscar Film Journal: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!  It may be summertime but there's still time for a Best Picture nominee of years past.

This one is a doozy.  It's the 1962 Best Pic winner (one of seven trophies this film took home that year), the David Lean-helmed epic Lawrence of Arabia, starring Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Claude Rains, Omar Sharif, and shockingly billed last with an "Introducing" credit, Peter O'Toole in his breakout role.  The film tells the somewhat true story of T.E. Lawrence, a British officer stationed in the Middle East during World War I, who led a successful Arab campaign against Turkish forces and found himself torn between British and Arabian loyalty.  Shot on 70mm film, Lawrence was a massive cinematic roadshow event, playing out over a sprawling 216 minutes plus overtures and intermission.  It proved highly influential, inspiring in many ways Frank Herbert's Dune series, the original Star Wars, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and so on (Steven Spielberg cites this film as his all-time favorite and credits it as the movie that made him want to make movies).  

But does it live up to the iconic status it's achieved in the last sixty-plus years?  For me that answer is "Well, yes and no."

NJPW Dominion 2025 Preview & Predictions

This Sunday is Father's Day but it's also NJPW Dominion 2025, New Japan's second-biggest show of the year behind WrestleKingdom.  I guess technically third-biggest now that Forbidden Door exists, but that's a co-promoted show.  Anyway, this lineup looks quite solid, so let's get to it!

Bullet Club War Dogs vs. House of Torture

This is the BCWD B-team vs. three of Evil's lieutenants plus a TBA.  No idea who that'll be.  But since the War Dogs won the big match to determine who gets the Bullet Club name, I'll go with HoT to get some payback.

Pick: House of Torture

Shota Umino & El Phantasmo vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa

Very odd that Shota and ZSJ are this low on the card in some rando tag match.  Should be a good one though if it gets time.

Pick: My gut says Team Zack

WWE Money in the Bank 2025 Preview & Predictions

Time for another half-assed "premium live event" from WWE.  Ya know, I used to think PLEs and PPVs were the same thing, but WWE keeps proving that theory wrong, don't they?  AEW's Double or Nothing was an absolute banger, one of the best shows they've ever produced, easily the best show of 2025 thus far, but hold up, here comes a near-throwaway PLE from the bastion of mediocrity!

Four matches, two of them Money in the Bank ladder matches, and if you've read my stuff at all over the past several years I've been saying for a long time it's time to retire this concept.  It's a lazy, undisciplined way to elevate new stars and usually doesn't do much to elevate anyone long-term (not to mention the multi-person ladder match is so beyond played out at this point).  Surely the "Booker of the Year" can figure out an effective way to get someone over without resorting to a cheap cash-in after the champion's already wrestled.

Anyway, let's look at the lineup (For the record, only one black wrestler on the card, Naomi.  Never Beating Those Allegations.  N.B.T.A.).....

Women's Intercontinental Championship: Lyra Valkyria vs. Becky Lynch

I expect this to steal the show like it did at Backlash, and it's Becky's "last chance" so I imagine she'll win the title here.  I guess Becky/WWE wanted to give Lyra a big win before taking the belt off her.  It does however follow WWE's tired pattern of "Babyface champion beats heel challenger clean but gives heel challenger another shot anyway."  

Pick: Becky

Oscar Film Journal: Tootsie (1982)

It's been a little while, but welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

We're heading back to the early 1980s and the Sydney Pollack-directed romantic comedy Tootsie, starring Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr and Bill Murray.  Hoffman stars as struggling New York actor Michael Dorsey who is such an opinionated perfectionist he's burned all his bridges in town, and his agent (played by Pollack himself) has essentially given up on him.  Dorsey's roommate Jeff (Murray in an understated but still very funny performance) has written a quite promising play but the pair have no money to get it off the ground.  Dorsey's other close friend and acting student Sandy (Garr) has an audition for a soap opera but is quickly dismissed by the show's misogynistic director (Dabney Coleman) for not looking the part.  Dorsey then has the idea to audition for the role himself, in drag, and blows away the show's producers with snappy improvisation and a strong-willed presentation.  The character played by "Dorothy Michaels" becomes a sensation with the soap's audience, and Michael finds himself in a conundrum when he not only begins to fall for his co-star Julie (Lange) but the network wants to sign Dorothy to a long-term contract.

Awesomely Shitty Movies: The Rock

Welcome to another edition of Awesomely Shitty Movies, here at Enuffa.com!  For those just joining us in progress, ASM is a regular feature where I pick apart a film that neither qualifies as a particularly good film nor as a piece of junk.  Every movie spotlighted in this column is something I either enjoy despite itself, or a movie that could be really good if the filmmakers just got out of their own way.

Today's ASM is the 1996 Michael Bay action vehicle, The Rock, starring Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris.  The Rock tells the story of a former US General who hijacks Alcatraz Island, taking 80 civilians hostage, and threatens to launch a poison gas missile into San Francisco if his demands aren't met.  The US Government, not wanting to negotiate, sends in a team of Navy Seals, plus a former Alcatraz inmate who knows how to enter the prison undetected, and a chemical weapons expert to disarm the missiles.  As expected, things don't quite go according to plan and all hell breaks loose in the prison.

So why was The Rock both good and bad?  Let's find out....


The Awesome

Lead Actors/Characters

The Rock really begins and ends with its three lead actors. 

Nicolas Cage is spot-on as Stanley Goodspeed, the everyman type who's been thrust into an extraordinary situation and repeatedly survives by the skin of his teeth.  He is our eyes and ears throughout the story, keeping his head down during the intense action and letting the more experienced military characters do the heavy lifting while he concentrates on disarming missiles.  The fact that he has a pregnant girlfriend waiting for him at home adds consequence and sympathy to his plight; we reaaaallly hope he gets out of this alive.

Sean Connery as John Mason essentially plays an older James Bond type - a grizzled SAS veteran brought in to show the Navy Seals how to get in and out of the prison.  When we first meet him, Mason has been imprisoned by the US Government for 30 years without being charged, for refusing to divulge classified information.  During the ensuing combat, Mason is always in control of the situation and never gets rattled.  He forms an unlikely bond with Goodspeed and more or less guides/protects him (and us) through the action.  Mason initially wants to run once the shit hits the fan, but Goodspeed reminds him that his daughter would be within the blast radius if the bad guys launch their missiles.  So he has to juggle helping Goodspeed while also planning his escape at the end.

AEW Double or Nothing 2025: Hangman Adam Page Wins the Owen

Welp, the seventh edition of AEW Double or Nothing turned out to be the best one to date.  Six years exactly from the company's first-ever show, they knocked another one out of the park.  Also after three years the streak of AEW Revolution being the best show of the year has come to an end.  This show was fucking fantastic, albeit long.

Double or Nothing has set the stage for AEW's biggest-ever show on US soil, All In 2025, with two epic Owen Cup finals, the best Anarchy in the Arena match to date, and a slew of good-to-excellent undercard matches.  But the biggest story of the night was Hangman Adam Page finally getting himself on the path to redemption after three years of frustrating losses and soul-destroying evil deeds.

Page and Will Ospreay had an absolute epic of a main event, a 37-minute war of attrition boasting insane false finishes, both men kicking out of each other's finishes, and a really dangerous Styles Clash spot off the ring apron (plus a prematurely broken announce table spot a la Triple H-Kurt Angle in 2000).  Thankfully both guys are okay after that one.  Ospreay got cocky at one point as each man stood on opposite sides of the ring, Will inside with his Hidden Blade arm exposed, Page on the apron ready to deliver a Buckshot Lariat.  Will thought he could beat Page to the punch but came up short and Page leveled him for a nearfall.  Ospreay countered another Buckshot attempt with the Hidden Blade and hit a Stormbreaker for another nearfall.  Then each man went for former rivals' finishers - Ospreay tried a One-Winged Angel but Page escaped and hit Swerve's Big Pressure driver for a nearfall.  After evading another Stormbreaker, Page hit a lariat and a final Buckshot to win.  What a goddamn match.  I said going into this I was fine with either result, and I was, but Page winning felt like THE right choice; his journey back to the title is the more compelling story of these two men.  Ospreay will live to fight another day and we'll definitely be seeing this matchup again, likely for the championship.  One of the best PPV main events in AEW history.  *****

Top Ten Things: Owen Hart Matches

Welcome to a special Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  Today is the anniversary of what was for me the most tragic death in wrestling history, that of Owen Hart.

For those of you not familiar (by this point that's probably no one), on May 23, 1999 Owen was the victim of a horrific stunt gone wrong, when the harness in which he was supposed to descend from the ceiling released prematurely, causing Owen to fall 70 feet to his death.  Owen was 34 years old.  Unlike so many untimely pro wrestling deaths, Owen's wasn't the result of drugs or steroids or neglect of his health.  Owen was a happily married family man who had planned to retire early from wrestling to enjoy a quiet life as a father and husband.  I've said for years that if I could go back and save one person in the wrestling business from dying young, it would be Owen.  He deserved to live a long, content life and enjoy the fruits of his success.

In the ring Owen was possibly the most athletically gifted of all the Harts, possessing a natural grace and agility surpassing even Bret's.  Bret may have been more technically sound, but Owen seemed innately suited for pro wrestling, employing a mix of grappling and aerial techniques that made him one of the most well-rounded performers of his generation.

Owen toiled in the WWF undercard for a few years before finally getting a big heel push as Bret's disgruntled little brother.  The two had a legendary feud, tearing the house down every time they met, and as a result Owen became one of the most dependable top names in the company, eventually winning every available heavyweight title except the big one (Whenever I'm asked who was the best wrestler never to win a world title, my two answers are always Owen and Davey Boy).  Then in 1997 Bret and Owen, now both heels, reunited to form the new Hart Foundation stable, prompting the best feud of that year which pitted the American wrestlers (and fans) against the Harts (and basically all non-American fans).  On the back of this unprecedented feud, the WWF churned out must-see television nearly every week, and Owen was a huge part of it all.

After Bret's messy WWF departure (along with Davey Boy and Jim Neidhart), Owen was the only Hart Foundation member left, and as an old-school character he struggled to fit into the new WWF Attitude era.  Owen enjoyed modest success for his remaining time in the company, but was repeatedly asked to take part in sexualized angles with which he wasn't comfortable.  The compromise was repackaging him as a dorkier version of the Blue Blazer (his 1989 persona), hence the fateful ceiling descent on May 23rd.

It's a shame the company wasn't able to find something more dignified for him to do, or wasn't willing to release him from his contract when Bret left.  In either scenario he'd undoubtedly still be with us today.

Owen was a one-of-a-kind talent who left the wrestling industry better than he found it, who was beloved by all who worked with him, and who stayed true to himself and his family in a business where such a thing was increasingly rare.  Two decades later, the wrestling business still feels incomplete without him.

Now let's take a look at his best matches.....

Honorable Mention: Owen Hart vs. 1-2-3 Kid - King of the Ring - 6.19.94

Yeah I know, this match only went 3-1/2 minutes, but holy lord what a match considering.  These two packed about as much action into 217 seconds as you possibly could, delivering one of only two good matches on this PPV.  Owen made the Kid submit with a Sharpshooter in this semi-final match, on his way to becoming the second PPV King of the Ring.  It's a great illustration of what Owen (and X-Pac) were capable of even with severe time constraints.

10. Owen Hart & British Bulldog vs. Vader & Mankind - WrestleMania 13 - 3.23.97

One of the forgotten WrestleMania gems was this rare heels vs. heels Tag Title match, where Owen and Davey had teased splitting up for weeks.  Owen had become jealous of all the attention Davey was getting, particularly after Davey bested him to become the inaugural European Champion.  Between the champs not being on the same page and the physical dominance of Vader and Mankind, it looked like we might see a title change here, but this wild brawl ended unceremoniously with a double countout, as Mankind subdued Davey with a Mandible Claw on the outside.  A better finish would've undoubtedly elevated this match, but as it was I still consider this one very underrated.

AEW Double or Nothing 2025 Preview & Predictions

This weekend marks the sevenths (SEVENTH) annual AEW Double or Nothing PPV, and also the sixth anniversary of the company's first show, DON 2019.  Man, what a game-changing time it's been these last six years of All Elite Wrestling.  Here's to many, many more...

Well it took them until the final 7-10 days to actually put this whole lineup together, but Double or Nothing 2025 is looking like a helluva show on paper.  Two huge tournament finals, one of which will fittingly headline the show, the annual Anarchy in the Arena match, a women's title bout, and two undercard matches that should deliver big.  Plus the PPV return of Nigel McGuinness!

AEW Tag Team Championship: The Hurt Syndicate vs. The Sons of Texas

The one match that likely won't be above TV quality is this one, pitting the dominant tag champs against the unlikely challenger tandem of Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara (whose last PPV main card match was at Worlds End 2023!).  Obviously there's no chance of Dustin and Sammy winning this, it'll just be a means to further the MJF storyline.  Will he get involved, and will Bobby and Shelton appreciate it?  And when the MJF thing inevitably goes south for Bobby and Shelton, who will he team up with against them?  Wardlow?

Pick: Hurt Syndicate retain

Paragon vs. Don Callis Family

This one was just added on Collision and is a helluva trios lineup.  Glad to see Takeshita and Fletcher weren't forgotten on this show.  I have a feeling this will be used to set up one or more TNT Title challengers for Adam Cole.  Should be fun.

Pick: Don Callis Family

FTR vs. Nigel McGuinness & Daniel Garcia

This one should be fun.  I love that Nigel gets to wrestle once in a while; in his prime he was one of the best in the world and he deserved a better career end than he got in 2010.  The story here is Nigel doubting he and Danny have a snowball's chance in hell of beating FTR.  But undoubtedly they'll put up a gallant fight.  I think FTR wins in the end, and they should, but it'll be a fun watch.

Pick: FTR

Top Ten Things: Star Trek Films RANKED

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!

I've been a Star Trek fan since about the age of four when my parents were watching the original series on TV and I wandered into the room to see a weird dude with pointy ears and a bowl cut prattling on about space anomalies and whatnot.  From then I was hooked, and despite not understanding much of the sci-fi technobabble at that age, I could somehow easily identify with the gallant Captain Kirk, the crotchety Dr. McCoy, and of course the computer-minded Mr. Spock.  My fandom increased tenfold in the early 80s when I went to see Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and these characters and their adventures were presented on a much larger scale.  We were still treated to philosophical explorations of the human condition, but with much slicker production values and effects.

The Star Trek films were major events for me every 2-3 years and some of them still hold up among my favorite science fiction movies.  Thus far we've had three series of films; from 1979-1991 the original Star Trek cast graced the big screen, and then from 1994-2002 the Next Generation crew got their turn.  Finally in 2009 Paramount rebooted the series completely, recasting the original characters and converting Star Trek into more of a Star Wars-esque action franchise.

But how do the 13 movies stack up against each other?  

13. Star Trek: Insurrection

Star Trek: Insurrection has to be the weakest in the entire series, with its half-hearted storyline about a society of 600 Ba'ku hogging the life-extending resources of an entire planet at the expense of their dying brethren the Son'a, not to mention the billions of others who could be helped by this age-defying radiation.  And for some reason the Enterprise helps the Ba'ku stay there.  Huh??  Don't the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?  It's hard to get invested in a movie when the good guys are on the wrong side of the issue.  F. Murray Abraham did what he could with the weak villain he was given to play, and of the NextGen films this one comes closest to resembling the TV show, but the story doesn't work and this feels like a B-movie.

12. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Next up is Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, a nigh-unwatchable mess of a film that clearly suffered from a Hollywood writer's strike, leaving director William Shatner without a coherent script.  After things wrapped up neatly at the conclusion of The Voyage Home, we now catch up with our gallant crew and their newly built Enterprise (which for some reason is nearly crippled by technical issues), as they're tapped to settle a hostage situation perpetrated by a mysterious Vulcan, who needs a starship to travel beyond the Great Barrier to find God.  The filmmakers tried to cram the action of Star Trek II and the humor of Star Trek IV into this one, and failed on basically every level to capture the spirit of either film.  Star Trek V cost $33 million, more than any previous Star Trek movie, yet the effects are Original Series bad.  Basically everything went wrong here, and Shatner would not be asked to direct another one.

11. Star Trek: Generations

Our final entry to fall short of the top ten is Star Trek: Generations, the one that kicked off the NextGen films.  Man, what a colossal disappointment this was.  The first NextGen film that also features Captain Kirk??  How could this be bad??  Well, the filmmakers found numerous and profound ways to screw this up.  Generations has some fun moments but its convoluted plot involving an energy ribbon that somehow absorbs people and lets them live out their wildest fantasies (and travel time and space at will should they choose to leave) simply doesn't hold up to scrutiny, nor does the shoehorned involvement of Captain Kirk.  This film united the two iconic Enterprise Captains just to....have an awkwardly staged action movie fight sequence to stop a villain from firing a rocket?  Is this real life?  And did we really need to see the Klingons and their Bird of Prey AGAIN??  Generations marked the fifth consecutive Star Trek movie to feature this stupid model, and boy was I tired of seeing it by this point.  If this movie set the tone for what the NextGen film series would look like, it's no surprise all four of them fell so drastically short of what the TV series was.

10. Star Trek Beyond

Here's a movie I had high hopes for.  I'd read that this was the closest the new series has gotten to capturing the philosophical, character-driven bent of the original show.  And while Beyond has a little of that - Kirk for example laments early on that the ongoing voyage is taking its toll on him and his crew - sadly the film plunges almost immediately into an extended action sequence that leaves the Enterprise in pieces in a matter of minutes.  They don't treat poor Enterprise well in these films, do they?  Anyway, the crew gets separated during the space battle and we learn a little about the villain Krall.  Mostly that his name is Krall.  Seriously, this film uses a fine actor like Idris Elba pretty shabbily.  He's given nothing to do in the first two acts except bark angrily, and it's not until the final half hour we're told his motivation and his true identity; by then it's hard to care.  What I liked about this film: Kirk had some solid character moments, McCoy and Scotty had more to do, the new character Jaylah was very cool and likable, Krall and Kirk had one poignant scene toward the end, and the Spock-Uhura romance was barely present.  What I didn't like: Krall is motivated by revenge just like the last three Star Trek villains, Krall is barely a character beyond that, there's once again too much emphasis on Star Wars-y action, and Spock's wig looks terrible.  Distractingly so.  Star Trek Beyond is the weakest of the most recent series.  And what exactly does "Beyond" refer to?

9. Star Trek: Nemesis

Nemesis is a guilty pleasure.  It's a pretty terrible, unnecessarily dour affair featuring a young clone of Captain Picard trying to destroy the Enterprise, Romulus and Earth, and contains far too many Wrath of Khan callbacks and a go-nowhere subplot involving an earlier model of Data, but damn if it isn't entertaining drivel.  A young, far less jacked Tom Hardy plays Shinzon, Picard's clone who spent his childhood enslaved on Romulus's sister planet Remus, building up a severe hatred for both his Romulan oppressors and his "father" Picard.  He fashions a giant evil starship to exact his revenge, and all hell breaks loose.  This template of a revenge-obsessed villain with a gigantic ship would oddly be used in some form for all three reboot films, despite Nemesis tanking at the box office.  Still this film includes some of the best space battle sequences in the NextGen series, plus Tom Hardy!  But it's not good...

8. Star Trek (2009)

The 2009 reboot essentially took the original series characters, boiled them down to their most easily identifiable cursory traits, and turned them into action heroes.  This film is an all-thrusters-ahead popcorn movie that vaguely resembles the series we all know and love.  Casting was key here, and fortunately Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, and Simon Pegg do an admirable job of reimagining their characters while staying more or less true to their predecessors.  This film is all about setting up the new version of Star Trek and thus the main plot is fairly forgettable.  A revenge-hungry Romulan named Nero has been chasing a future incarnation of Mr. Spock through time in retaliation for Spock's failing to save Romulus from a supernova, and a space battle ensues between the brand new Enterprise and Nero's monstrous vessel.  Star Trek 2009 is full of slick visuals, engaging action and light humor but fails to explore profound human themes the way the original series did.  Still it's a fun popcorn movie with characters we can all relate to, so not a total miss.

Top Ten Things: Chris Cornell Albums

**Originally published 5/21/17, updated in 2022**

Welcome to a special Top Ten Things here at Enuffa.com.

Chris Cornell's suicide last week has left a ragged, gaping hole in the music world many of us are still struggling to come to terms with.  As my colleague Dan Moore talked about HERE, Cornell was a golden-throated force of nature, whose mindbending vocal range and soulful power were unmatched in rock music.  He rose to prominence as one of the pioneers of grunge but later explored genres as wide-ranging as singer/songwriter rock, adult contemporary, folk, and even dance pop.  Few artists have created such a wildly divergent body of work, and for me no other singer ever wielded his instrument with such effortless agility and emotive grace.  My coping mechanism has been to learn and record as many of his songs as I can and hope I do them even a modicum of justice (You be the judge).

But today I'll be talking about his amazing discography as I count down my ten favorite Cornell albums.  Here we go.....

HM. Chris Cornell - Scream

Cornell's most divisive album was 2009's Scream, an electronic pop collaboration with hotshot producer Timbaland that combined Chris's rock songwriting sensibility with a hooky R&B sound.  The results were understandably mixed, but the album yielded some excellently written songs, like the bleakly syncopated "Time," the anthemic, strikingly mature love song "Never Far Away," and the title track, a gloomy ode to relationship strife.  While far from Cornell's best work, Scream showed an artist cheerfully exploring new territory and reinventing himself.

HM. Soundgarden - Louder Than Love

Soundgarden's sophomore effort showed an improvement over its predecessor both in production and in songwriting, with songs like the anthemic lament of environmental destruction "Hands All Over," the dark and violent "Gun," the tongue-in-cheek "Full On Kevin's Mom" (about a friend of Chris's who actually hooked up with their friend Kevin's mom) and "Big Dumb Sex" (a parody of 80s cock-rock tunes), and the de facto title track "Loud Love."  Soundgarden were emerging as the leaders of this new, strange rock n' roll movement coming out of Seattle, and Chris's soaring vocals were beginning to garner mainstream attention in a big way.  But the band's third album would show exponential creative growth....

10. Chris Cornell - No One Sings Like You Anymore, Vol. 1

The first of what will hopefully be numerous posthumous releases, NOSLYA is an album of cover songs, recorded in 2016 and put out in 2020 by Cornell's estate.  The eclectic material all lends itself well to Chris's unique interpretation, and he put his own beautiful stamp on all ten songs.  From well-known favorites like Guns N' Roses' "Patience" and Prince/Sinead O'Connor's mega-hit "Nothing Compares 2U," to John Lennon's semi-deep cut "Watching the Wheels" and songs I was unfamiliar with like "Sad Sad City" by Ghostland Observatory, this album is a bittersweet reminder of Chris's transcendent gifts, and a wonderful little addition to his already incredible discography.  I can't wait for Volume 2.

9. Soundgarden - King Animal

Cornell's grunge quartet had split in 1997 but reunited 13 years later for a tour, and began writing new music for their sixth studio album.  The result was King Animal, a safe but fairly triumphant return for the grunge pioneers, that fit right in with their previous output.  Album highlights included the Sabbathy "Blood on the Valley Floor," the eccentric, off-balance "Bones of Birds," the folky "Halfway There" which would've been at home on a Cornell solo record, and the classic Soundgarden feel of "Eyelid's Mouth."  It was a long time coming, but King Animal would be a worthy Soundgarden record and ultimately the band's final completed work.

8. Audioslave - Out of Exile

After his first solo album's disappointing commercial performance, Cornell was able to reinvigorate his career by forming a supergroup with three members of then-defunct Rage Against the Machine, creating an unusual groove-rock hybrid.  Their second album is our #8 entry on this list.  Released in 2005, Out of Exile may not have been the hard rock powderkeg of the band's debut, but it was a perfectly sturdy followup, providing trademark Tom Morello guitar riffs in songs like "Your Time Has Come" and the title track, and some gentler, more thoughtful tunes like "Be Yourself" and "Doesn't Remind Me."  Out of Exile built on the successful formula of the first record and in retrospect serves as a fine companion piece.

Top Ten Things: Star Wars Films

Welcome to a Special Edition (See what I did there?) of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  It's time for a ranking of the live-action Star Wars films, making this technically a Top Eleven Things....

I literally can't remember a time before Star Wars came into my life.  I was 18 months old when it came out, and I'm not sure when exactly I saw the original film.  I think it was probably during the 1979 re-release but I can't be sure.  I am however certain that I saw Empire multiple times in the theater between 1980 and 1982, and rushed out to see Return of the Jedi in '83.  The original unaltered trilogy is still my favorite series of films (I can't watch the Special Editions anymore, I just can't), and it's still the yardstick by which I measure every other movie trilogy.

When the prequels were released from 1999-2005 I was hooked on those right away too.  Only later as I actually thought about them did I realize how far short they fell, and for the better part of a decade I'd resigned myself to being an OT purist.  But then Disney bought the property and took the series back to all the things I'd originally loved about it - enduring characters, profound themes, thrilling battles, and visually stunning worlds and creatures.  The Star Wars series was ready to expand, for realsies this time.

But how do the films stack up against each other?  Well if you read my intro the lowest-ranked entries should be no surprise.  So let's get to it - here are my rankings for the Star Wars live-action films.....

11. Attack of the Clones

Sigh... yeah, I gotta get through the three bad ones before I get to the good ones.  Look, when the prequels first came out I was so blinded by my love of Star Wars that I couldn't see the glaring, logic-defying, nonsensical plot contrivances that made the story being told incomprehensible.  And I was so dazzled by "oooh, lightsabers!" that I forgave the embarrassing performances from nearly every cast member (Seriously, Natalie Portman is an Oscar-winning actress and George Lucas failed to get even one passable performance out of her in these films).  The specific problems with the prequels have been explored ad nauseum, so I won't go into too much detail, but suffice it to say, there really isn't one redeeming thing about Attack of the Clones.  The storyline of Obi-Wan discovering an illegally created clone army that the Republic then actually uses(??) makes no sense and is pointless as the main plot of a film.  Why wasn't the middle chapter of this trilogy dedicated to the actual Clone Wars?  Isn't that what everyone was looking forward to, aside from seeing the creation of Darth Vader?  Instead we get the very beginning of the Clone Wars here and it turns out to be a fake war orchestrated by Palpatine just so he can remain in power, while not one of our protagonists can see through this shovel-to-the-face obvious ploy.  Plus we get the worst love story ever put to film.  Plus we get PlayStation One-esque CGI in every frame.  Plus the aforementioned terrible acting.  Plus the "I don't like sand" speech.  This stuff is Ed Wood-bad.  Attack of the Clones is the worst live-action theatrical Star Wars film.

10. The Phantom Menace

Only slightly less terrible is Episode I, in which the dialogue is every bit as cringeworthy, the story every bit as preposterous, and the acting equally wooden.  Plus fucking Jar Jar.  Damn, this is a tough call....  But what The Phantom Menace has over Clones is twofold - the pod racing sequence is fun, despite being a totally convoluted way just to get Anakin off Tatooine, and Darth Maul is a badass villain, despite only having ten minutes of screen time and no real character to speak of.  From a technical standpoint the lightsaber duel in this film is the best of the series (Sure, there's exactly zero going on between the participants, but the choreography is cool at least).  So those two aspects are enjoyable, even if the rest of the film isn't.  But yeah, The Phantom Menace is drivel.

Top Ten Things: Stanley Kubrick Films, RANKED

Welcome to another Top Ten Things here at Enuffa.com!  A couple weeks ago I made a list of Quentin Tarantino's ten best, and thought it might be appropriate to give Stanley Kubrick similar treatment.  

Kubrick was one of the all-time great film auteurs, creating a unique visual style characterized by fluid camera movement, unnervingly symmetrical deep focus photography, and often a cold emotional detachment.  His films often contained deep subtext and were generally much more about the human condition as a whole, than about the fate of the individual characters.  He would build his stories around lofty philosophical concepts and themes, which he hammered home with every sequence.  Kubrick was notorious for being a perfectionist, often asking his onscreen talent for dozens upon dozens of takes before he saw one he liked, and demanding strict continuity on the set.  Considering he was active for over 45 years his filmography was quite sparse, and in later years his filmmaking process was so painstaking it became infamous.  His last film Eyes Wide Shut for example was in production for a staggering 17 months, and he just barely lived long enough to see its completion.

Stanley Kubrick was one of the most controversial, divisive, and thought-provoking filmmakers of all time, and he left behind a stunning body of work containing some of the most amazing visuals ever put to film.  Lending themselves to varied analyses, his films demand repeated viewings and tend to reflect humanity's virtues and (more often) deep-seated flaws.  What a tremendous talent this man was.

Here now are the films of Stanley Kubrick, RANKED....

13. Fear and Desire

Kubrick's first film about soldiers in a fictitious war descending into madness was made on the thinnest of shoestring budgets, and Stanley himself was so unsatisfied with it he pulled it from distribution.  But despite Fear and Desire obviously being very much a DIY project from an inexperienced director, it did demonstrate Stanley's prodigious eye for editing and shot composition.  The scene where the soldiers attack an enemy cabin is uniquely filmed and blocked, and it was clear even from this early effort that Kubrick was something special.

12. Killer's Kiss

Kubrick's sophomore feature, and the first that he didn't disown, was this film noir about a boxer, a girl and her gangster boyfriend.  The story hit pretty basic, familiar beats, but once again it was Kubrick's eye for light, shadow and framing that elevated Killer's Kiss above some of its 1955 brethren.  From the dream sequence negative imagery of the New York City streets to the rooftop chase to the fight in a mannequin factory, Killer's Kiss is quite a visual delight, even if Stanley hadn't yet mastered the art of telling a story.

Check out a full piece I wrote about Killer's Kiss, which has grown on me quite a lot over the years.

11. Spartacus

The one film Kubrick didn't properly own or plan to make was this 1960 sword and sandals epic, produced by and starring Kirk Douglas.  Douglas has originally hired Anthony Mann but clashed with him right off the bat, and fired him only days into shooting.  Enter Kubrick, with whom Douglas had developed a contentious but respectful relationship on Paths of Glory.  That relationship didn't change with this film but Kubrick kept his head down, knowing that a major box office hit here would open all kinds of doors for him as a Hollywood mainstay.  Spartacus doesn't really feel like a Kubrick film but between its epic set pieces, its massive visual and narrative scope, and its all-star cast, it's a monumental accomplishment from a still-very young director who had now punched his ticket.

10. Lolita

This 1962 adaptation of Nabakov's provocative novel was met with vehement scorn from religious groups upon its release, to the point that Kubrick had trouble even getting it distributed.  The story concerns a middle-aged man's love affair with a 12-year-old girl and his subsequent fall from grace.  Kubrick enlisted Nabakov himself to adapt the novel into a screenplay but changed several elements and played up the dark comedic aspects, such as the supporting character of Clare Quilty (Peter Sellers).  Beholden to the MPAA, Kubrick also had to keep much of the lurid material implied rather than explicit.  The result was a pretty outrageous "dramedy" with strong performances from its lead actors, in particular Sellers and the 16-year-old Sue Lyon, whose turn as the title character is well beyond her years.  I consider Lolita one of Kubrick's lesser efforts, but it's certainly never dull.

9. The Killing

Kubrick's third feature (though only his second "official" release as he pulled his first film Fear & Desire from theaters) is an early example of the heist-gone-wrong story.  Based on the novel Clean Break, The Killing is about an intricate plot to rob a racetrack of $2 million, and the aftermath of the crime which leaves most of the conspirators dead.  The theme of "even the best laid plans..." is prevalent in this film, and the carefully orchestrated robbery ultimately fails due to multiple unforeseen events.  The standout performance belongs to Sterling Hayden, who brings a cynical, grizzled quality to criminal mastermind Johnny Clay.  In assembling the film, Kubrick played around with the timeline, presenting certain events from multiple points of view.  I have to think The Killing had a big influence on Quentin Tarantino when making Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown.  The Killing is an early example of Kubrick's considerable intellect as he moves his characters around like chess pieces.

8. Full Metal Jacket

The late 80s saw a bevy of Vietnam-related films, and Kubrick's adaptation of The Short-Timers was one of the most noteworthy.  Though later to the game than he'd hoped, Kubrick nonetheless presented a fascinating take on the evils of war and their effect on the human psyche.  The film is split into two parts, the first (and best) of which depicts Parris Island Marine Corps basic training, where Private Joker (Matthew Modine) witnesses the complete mental breakdown of Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) at the hands of a brutal drill instructor (R. Lee Ermey, in a brilliantly vulgar performance).  The second half of the film then picks up with Joker's exploits as a war correspondent in Vietnam.  While still atmospheric and beautifully shot, the second half is unfortunately nowhere near as strong as the first, given that it's missing the two best characters in the film.  Still, Full Metal Jacket remains one of the best films made about Vietnam and about the dehumanization of those who lived through it.