Top Ten Things: Mastodon Albums, RANKED

Welcome to a special edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  And by "special" I mean "not quite ten things!"

Given the recent release of their ninth studio album Marrow Deep, I thought I'd finally get around to ranking the discography of sludge/prog/stoner/alt-metal mavericks Mastodon!

I first discovered these guys in 2007 while looking for some new music to peruse.  A friend recommended them to me and I looked them up on Wikipedia to find that their two most recent albums at that time - Leviathan and Blood Mountain - were universally acclaimed, the former winning lots of metal magazine awards.  During my lunch hour I ran out to Newbury Comics and picked up both albums, and upon popping in the latter I discovered.....that I wasn't quite ready for them yet.  

I think I was expecting something more akin to nu metal, and despite the gritty distorted guitars and barbaric vocals, Mastodon was definitely not that.  The insanely busy arrangements, jazzy fill-heavy drums and metalcore screaming were tough for me to latch onto at first, and while I enjoyed a handful of songs and occasionally gave those a spin, it wasn't until five years later after the releases of Crack the Skye and The Hunter that I was fully able to absorb this unique twist on my favorite music genre.  I quickly became hooked on those two records and ultimately came to love the previous two as well.  From thence Mastodon has been one of my two favorite bands of their generation, sharing regular rotation space with Avenged Sevenfold, and every new Mastodon album release has been a big event on my musical calendar.  

I'm honestly loath to pick a favorite between the two.  Where Avenged Sevenfold leans separately into their myriad influences to great and profound effect, Mastodon's style is such an eclectic amalgam it's difficult to even categorize; they aren't quite sludge or stoner or prog or nu, they're a wholly original metal subgenre unto themselves.  Combining Brann Dailor's wild drumming, Brent Hinds and Bill Kelleher's mind-bending guitar riffs, Troy Sanders' sludgy bass lines, and the three vocalists' (Dailor, Hinds and Sanders) distinct vocal styles, Mastodon's sound is truly unlike any other.

But enough exposition, let's get to it....

9. Remission

Starting at the bottom of the list for me, though it's certainly an impressive debut, is Remission.  Released in 2002, this record introduced everyone to Mastodon's unique blend of sludge and prog metal, combining muddy detuned guitar riffs, throaty hardcore vocals and jazz-influenced drums.  While not a concept album, Remission does begin the band's four-album "elemental" theme with "fire," as well as serving as a catharsis for Brann in dealing with his sister's suicide at age 14.  Like many debut albums from great bands, Remission for me is just an entry point into a catalog that showed remarkable creative growth as time went on.  Mastodon came out of the gate with an adventurous, original combination of sounds and styles, and once that was done they were able to build on it in spades.  It's a fine debut record but they were just warming up.

Key Tracks: "March of the Fire Ants," "Ol'e Nessie," "Elephant Man"

Top Ten Things: Stephen King Film Adaptations

Welcome to another Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  I was told recently that I seem to do a lot of top ten lists of things I hate.  I'm pretty sure I've posted way more lists about things I like, but here's another one.  So suck on it, Larry.

Stephen King.  Perhaps no two proper nouns better exemplify the horror genre.  The very name sounds somehow sinister, like you can't say it without the gritty "movie trailer" voice.  Go ahead, try it.  When I was first introduced to King's work as a child there was something intimidating about that name with the imposing logo his publisher used at the time.

This one.  Looks so badass and they never should've changed it.

Thirty-some years later and Stephen King has produced more timeless horror stories and iconography than any other author.  He is the Edgar Allen Poe of his generation, and continues to churn out novels at a superhuman pace.  To borrow a line from Hamilton, he writes like he's running out of time.

King found success as a muse for Hollywood films very early in his career, selling his first novel Carrie for film adaptation only about a year after it was published.  From then on, King's work became an inspirational gold mine for filmmakers, to the point that in 1977 he began granting film rights to aspiring auteurs and students for only one dollar, provided the films would never be shown commercially without explicit permission.  As for Hollywood, the films inspired by King's writings over the years have grossed over $2.3 billion domestically when adjusted for inflation.  Not exactly a lightweight.

Stephen King's stories and novels have always lent themselves well to cinematic interpretation, and while the results are sometimes mixed, his works have indeed inspired some bona fide film classics.  Below are eleven such examples....

HM: Christine

One master of horror adapting another, John Carpenter's 1983 film version of King's novel is one of the great "killer car" stories.  Nerdy high school kid Arnie Cunningham falls in love with and buys a dilapidated (and unbeknownst to him, possessed) 1958 Plymouth, restoring it to pristine condition and gradually becoming its servant, at the expense of his actual friendships.  "Christine" then begins attacking Arnie's enemies and even displays the ability to repair itself after being damaged (In a scene that totally blew my mind as a kid).  John Carpenter spectacularly brings to life the evil car, imbuing it with the villainous idiosyncrasies of a human character and giving us one of the screen's most frightening vehicles.

HM: The Running Man (1987)

This one a) hardly even qualifies as a Stephen King movie and b) is the guiltiest of pleasures.  King's novel The Running Man (published under his Richard Bachman pseudonym) is rife with sociopolitical commentary in addition to being a taut-as-fuck suspense/action thriller.  The protagonist volunteers for a sadistic game/reality show where he'll be hunted down by the authorities for a full month.  If he wins he gets one billion dollars.  If he gets caught he dies.  This novel is harrowing and smartly written, with a sensational climax.  The film on the other hand is a dumb, goofy Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle with pro wrestling-style villains and cartoonish set pieces.  But goddamn is it a lotta fun.  In the film, The Running Man is simply an American Gladiators-esque game show where convicted criminals face off against suped-up military types, and if they survive they get a full pardon.  Arnold's character (wrongly convicted of mass murder) not only has to escape over-the-top villains like Buzzsaw and Dynamo, but is also tasked with finding his friends' hidden resistance base, in the hopes of hijacking the TV signal and clearing his name.  As I said, this has VERY little in common with its source material but it's still an exceedingly enjoyable cheesy action film from a bygone era.  That said, for years I was dying for someone to do a faithful adaptation...  (Check out my in-depth analysis HERE)

HM: The Running Man (2025)

I was beyond excited when I heard that Edgar Wright was re-adapting The Running Man for real this time.  Starring Glen Powell (not quite as everyman-ish as King's Ben Richards but a lot closer than Arnold for sure), this version follows the book beat for beat, updating the technology to fit 21st century aesthetic (Fittingly the original novel takes place in 2025).  As in the book, Ben Richards is an underemployed blue collar husband and father who can't afford medication for his sick daughter, and his wife has resorted to prostitution to help make ends meet.  Out of desperation Ben tries out for the country's most popular game show, wherein contestants have to go on the lam for thirty days without being killed by the show's crack pursuit squad of hunters.  We follow Ben throughout the northeast as he stays barely one step ahead and sometimes less.  Powell turns in a solid performance as Richards, with Josh Brolin as the show's slimy executive producer Dan Killian and Coleman Domingo as its flamboyant host Bobby T.  The action here is taut and intense, quite effectively capturing the feel of the novel.  My only gripe is the change of ending, though I completely understand why they did it.  Overall a much better film than the 1987 version, one that more fully explores the book's themes of authoritarianism and economic desperation (plus present-day issues like AI and deepfake tech), but it's apples and oranges.

10. The Long Walk

Francis Lawrence's 2025 adaptation of this "Richard Bachman" novel, King's second-most famous dystopian tale about a main character selling their body to a morbid competition, is a quite faithful one.  Starring Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, The Long Walk is about an annual road event held in a totalitarian version of late-20th century America, where one teenage boy from each state is selected for a walking marathon.  The catch is, if you drop below three miles per hour you get a warning.  Three warnings and you get shot.  The last boy standing wins a large sum of money and a wish.  As with King's novel, the film uses this brutal concept as the backdrop to explore the characters and how they feel about the hellscape America has become, where the general populace is kept in such fear and desperation people are willing to risk everything for even a remote chance to escape it.  Also like the novel, this film is surprisingly adept at sustaining a one-note concept across a full-length narrative.

9. Carrie

The one that started it all, Brian DePalma's adaptation of King's first novel blended supernatural horror elements with an intimate character study.  Sissy Spacek shines as the socially crippled, telekinetically gifted title character, who is bullied by both her schoolmates and her overbearing, religiously fanatical mother (a crazy-scary Piper Laurie).  The film has an almost dreamlike quality, with washed-out visuals and plenty of DePalma's signature slow-mo technique.  It all builds to the iconic, horrifying climax where Carrie, soaked in pig's blood as the result of a cruel prank, lashes out at the entire school and later has a final showdown with her psychotic mom.  Boasting two excellent lead performances and one of the all-time classic climaxes, Carrie helped launch the careers of both King and DePalma and proved a highly influential example of its genre.

Top Ten Things: Iron Maiden Songs

Welcome to another Enuffa.com Top Ten Things, where I pick my ten favorite somethingorother and bug all of you about it.

Today it's my ten favorite Iron Maiden songs! 

One of the most influential metal bands of all time, Iron Maiden was formed in the mid-70s by bassist Steve Harris.  Over the first few years the band went through various incarnations, hiring and firing band members with a frequency that would make Spinal Tap cringe.  Finally in 1980 they released their self-titled debut album and immediately gained a strong UK following, in competition with the burgeoning punk scene.  Bands like Maiden, Diamondhead, Venom, Motorhead, and several others formed a musical zeitgeist called The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (which influenced literally dozens of bands here in the States).  Maiden was soon forced to sack lead singer Paul D'Anno due to his increasing drug issues, and his replacement was diminutive onstage firecracker Bruce Dickinson, who brought incredible vocal range/power and athletic physicality to the role of frontman.  Their third album The Number of the Beast was a No. 1 smash hit in the UK and propelled Iron Maiden to international stardom.  A slew of successful albums followed, containing scores of classic songs, until Dickinson left the band in 1993 to pursue a solo career.  His successor Blaze Bayley recorded two albums to a rather tepid reaction, and in 1999 Dickinson was coaxed back into the fold.

Over the past 20+ years Maiden has released numerous albums and embarked on several hugely successful world tours, and they remain a chart-topping worldwide phenomenon.  Their music has evolved a bit over the years but they've always maintained their signature galloping energy and  literature-inspired lyrics.  Their onstage enthusiasm continues to defy the band members' advancing age, and they routinely deliver an amazing live concert experience.  A side note: historically just as mythical as the band's music are the album covers and other associated imagery.  For years artist Derek Riggs created some of the greatest cover art in music history, featuring the band's undead mascot Eddie the Head.  A few of my favorite Riggs pieces are the covers of Powerslave, Somewhere in Time, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, and Live After Death.

But enough about that; here are my picks for the Top Ten Iron Maiden songs of all time.

**Note: While I like and appreciate some of their 21st Century work (their latest album Senjutsu is probably their best since Bruce returned), for me the classic Maiden period was 1980-1992, so all ten picks fall into that timeframe.**

10. The Trooper

Probably the most noteworthy song on 1983's Piece of Mind (Dickinson's favorite album), "The Trooper" kicks off with a start and stop feel, over which Bruce barks a defiant battle cry ("You take my life but I'll take yours too/You fire your musket but I'll run you through").  The band then dives into charging pace as the wordless chorus takes over.  What other lasting metal tunes boast a refrain consisting of nothing more than "Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!"

9. The Prophecy

Yeah I know this is from "The Clairvoyant,"
but I couldn't find a "Prophecy"-specific piece of art.

The first of two entries from Seventh Son, "The Prophecy" opens with a gentle clean guitar arpeggio before exploding into a heavy triplet groove.  Dickinson regretfully howls out a warning message to an unnamed group of villagers of their impending doom, which then goes unheeded.  "The Prophecy" is simple but tremendously hooky, jumping from a minor key verse into a major key chorus.  I also love the baroque acoustic guitar outro.

8. Iron Maiden

The one non-Dickinson song on this list is the self-titled final track of the self-titled debut album.  An uncomplicated, nihilistic metal anthem, the lyrics of "Iron Maiden" dare the listener to partake in the graphic violence of the band's music, despite the music's oddly cheery tone.  This song is akin to Metallica's "Whiplash;" simply an ode to the brutality of metal.

Awesomely Shitty Movies: Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

Welcome to another edition of Awesomely Shitty Movies, here at Enuffa.com, where I examine the pros and cons of an entertaining-but-stupid movie.  Oft-times it'll be an old film I liked at the time but later discover to be pretty shabby.

Such is the case with today's entry, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey!

In 1988 the world was introduced to two lovable dunderheads with a taste for hard-rockin' music, Bill S. Preston, esquire, and Ted "Theodore" Logan, who as it turns out were destined to change the world with their special brand of heavy metal, if only they could pass their History exam.  With the help of a futuristic mentor and a time traveling phone booth, these two dummies saved the day and secured their future.

Fast-forward three years and our (second) favorite pair of dopey cinematic metal dudes were back, this time fighting for their very lives against evil robot clones created by Chuck De Nomolos, a futuristic heavy with designs on retroactively altering the timeline.  Hmm, evil robots sent back in time to kill the protagonist?  That premise sounds oddly familiar.

So what worked about this silly sequel and what didn't?  Let's zoom in for a closer look...



The Awesome

Cool Premise/Lofty Concepts

Where Excellent Adventure had a very lighthearted, pretty small-scope time travel premise (Bill and Ted need to travel through time and recruit various historical figures for their high school history project to avoid flunking out and derailing their rise to global fame), the second film ups the ante by having the aforementioned evil robots actually kill our heroes, allowing the filmmakers to show us what heaven and hell look like.  Conceptually this is a really fun story with lots of room for imaginative visuals and afterlife-related gags.  Bill and Ted spend over half the movie as wayward spirits and we get to explore various mythical and surrealistic locations with them.



George Carlin

My all-time favorite standup comedian returns as Bill & Ted's futuristic mentor Rufus, and while his comedic talents are sadly wasted in this franchise, he's always a welcome onscreen addition.

George was the best

Awesomely Shitty Movies: Tremors

Welcome to another Awesomely Shitty Movies, here at Enuffa.com!

Today's movie is the 1990 horror-comedy Tremors, directed by Ron Underwood (of City Slickers) and starring Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward.  Tremors takes place in a tiny Nevada settlement called Perfection (population 14) that gets attacked from below the ground by four gigantic sandworm-like monsters that reach through the turf and pull down anything that seems appetizing.  After the only road in or out of town gets blocked by a rock avalanche, the survivors must find a way to the mountains to avoid getting eaten.

I'll level with ya - the word "shitty" doesn't really apply to Tremors.  There's very little about this film I don't like, but I'm including it because it's just a really fun, silly B-movie, one I would describe as a "great piece of crap."  So no offense meant, Tremors fans.  I'm really just here to talk about the film's merits as an old-school piece of drive-in fare.



The Awesome

Val & Earl

Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward have tremendous chemistry as our dual protagonists.  Earl is the grizzled pragmatist, while Val is still holding out hope for a better situation and a new love interest who fits exactly his description of an ideal woman.  Together they're the brains and muscle of the town of Perfection, keeping everyone's stuff in order and doing whatever odd jobs they're needed for.  They're also the audience's guides through this adventure.

Every town should have a Val & Earl

Michael Gross

I've been a huge Michael Gross fan since his Family Ties run, where he played the optimistic, sentimental dad.  For most fans of the show Michael J. Fox was the star, but I always found Stephen Keaton funnier.  Here Michael is a very different character - an over-the-top gun enthusiast/survivalist who never met a firearm he didn't like (or purchase, judging by his vast arsenal).  While Stephen Keaton and Burt Gummer could not be more diametric opposites, Gross delivers excellent performances in both cases.

Stephen Keaton rocks the shit in this movie

Movies of Disbelief: Signs (2002)

Welcome to another Movies of Disbelief, where I examine one particular issue with an otherwise good film and why it irritates me so.  Today's subject, the 2002 alien invasion film Signs.

M. Night Shyamalan.  Has there ever been a more divisive film director?  Or more accurately, has there ever been a film director whose output has ranged from "universally lauded" to "fiery garbage on a stick?"  M. Night burst on the scene seemingly out of nowhere with his third film The Sixth Sense (I legit had no idea he'd made two other movies until I looked it up for this article), which proved a smash-hit and popularized the mindfuck ending like no other film had.  He followed it up with the mostly acclaimed but less successful Unbreakable, an intimate twist on the superhero genre (which of course spawned a trilogy nearly twenty years later), and then it was time for Signs.

Starring Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix, Signs was another "up close and personal" take on a genre film, this time The Alien Invasion picture.  Gibson is a widowed ex-minister-turned-farmer who finds a crop circle in his field, seemingly left by an alien presence, and soon other signs of an invasion spring up, including strange noises, animals exhibiting abnormal behavior, and lights in the sky.  Eventually news reports surface of alien sightings, leading to one of the great monster reveals, an amateur video taken at a kids' birthday party (This moment is chillingly effective).  The film expertly builds suspense throughout its entire running time, leading to a final showdown between Gibson's family (brother and two kids) and one of the creatures......and then it falls apart totally and completely in the last fifteen minutes, when it turns out the aliens are allergic to water.  Yeah that's right, simple, old fashioned water.

Dude, scary as fuck.

But that's not even what has my goat about this movie.  Don't get me wrong, it's annoying as all hell that an advanced species capable of interstellar travel - one that would've necessarily taken atmospheric readings before landing on any planet, to ensure the air is breathable - couldn't figure out that not only is our planet 70% covered with liquid that will disintegrate them, but its atmosphere is LOADED with it.  Like, how did they walk around a humid climate such as Brazil without inhaling moisture that would've corroded them from the inside?  How did it not happen to rain in any of the locales they invaded?  But okay, let's say for argument's sake, they couldn't figure out Terra Firma has water coming out its ass.  We'll shelve that gripe, as I have bigger goddamn fish to fry with this movie.

Hmmm, what d'ya suppose I could do with ol' Wonder Bat here?

No, what really pisses me off about this film is the other climactic "reveal," where Mel and his family are under siege by one of these lizard men, and only after flashing back to his wife's cryptic dying words "Tell Merrill to swing away" does it occur to Mel, "Say, perhaps I should urge my brother to grab that baseball bat on the wall and Al Capone E.T.'s fucking brains out."  Yeah that's right.  Instead of instinctively going for the first blunt instrument he can get his hands on, he ponders for a moment the last thing Mrs. Gibson said to him after a drunk driver pinned her to a tree, and it just so happened to suggest these Martian motherfuckers could be felled by a Louisville Slugger to their big green faces.  I know when I'm being attacked I try to think of a deceased loved one's final earthly guidance, no matter how irrelevant it might seem.  This one time I got mugged, I reflected on my grandmother's dying advice, "Boy, you show 'em you're good as gold," and I proceeded to take a golden piss all over that mugger, who ran screaming into the night.  What a fucking stupid ending to this movie.  Someone invades your home, you find a weapon and attack them with it.  It's literally one of the first two impulses you'd have, the other being to run/hide.  Why in the FUCK would this scene need an enigmatic flashback that neatly ties into the domestic crisis our heroes find themselves in?

This movie should be called Signs...That Your Director is a Pretentious Dingleberry.


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Top Ten Things: Doors Songs

Welcome to another Top Ten Things here at Enuffa.com!  Today we're talkin' about one of the most legendary rock bands of all time, the psychadelic quartet from southern California who emerged in the late 60s with a unique sound, poetically contemplative lyrics, and one of the best, most charismatic front men to ever hold a microphone.  It's the ten best songs by The Doors!

I first got into The Doors mostly thanks to the 1991 Oliver Stone biopic; I had been familiar with a couple of their well-known songs but never really took the time to sit down for a thorough listen until after seeing Val Kilmer's force-of-nature performance as the troubled rock crooner.  After seeing the film I went out and bought the double Best Of album, maybe the best compilation of any band's greatest hits.  Instead of simply being assembled in chronological order the song sequence has a flow to it.  Anyway I listened to that album ad nauseum for years and only within the past decade did I familiarize myself with the rest of the Doors' catalog.  This was a thinking man's rock band with a diverse set of influences that, despite its fairly short run, left an indelible mark on the music industry, inspiring generations of artists and musicans.

Here are, in my estimation, the ten greatest Doors songs....

10. People Are Strange

I first heard this song in cover form in the movie The Lost Boys, courtesy of Echo & The Bunnymen.  I was drawn in right away by the bouncy feel, the honkytonk piano, and the soulful vocals.  It wasn't until a few years later that I heard the original, but "People Are Strange" remains one of my favorite Doors tunes for the reasons above.  Its theme of being an outsider, a stranger in a strange land, sum up Jim Morrison's personality pretty well I think.  He marched to the beat of his own drum and music was his outlet in dealing with loneliness.  The gang vocals in the final chorus seem to illustrate the idea of other outsiders finding solace in each other, unifying to take on the world.

9. Tell All the People

The Soft Parade might be my second-favorite Doors album, after the self-titled one.  It's just such a weird left turn, with the addition of strings and horns on nearly every song and major stylistic departures from the band's trademark sound.  Case in point the opener, "Tell All the People," a symphonic rock anthem with dense horn kicks and vocal harmonies (a rarity for a Doors tune).  This song sets the tone perfectly for an album that goes into very unexpected places and shows a band experimenting like crazy.

8. The Unknown Soldier

Jim Morrison's sound poem about the Vietnam War and its round-the-clock news coverage, "The Unknown Soldier" features drastic dynamic changes and unusual sound effects to create a grim atmosphere.  The song goes from sullen eulogy to midtempo rocker to military march to double-time climax.  This is one of the band's most redolent and atypical tunes. 

7. The Soft Parade

But the title track off the fourth album has to be their strangest song of all.  "The Soft Parade" is an 8-minute, multi-section suite that's all over the place musically (Is that a harpsichord??) and features Morrison's most bizarre lyrics.  Like John Lennon did with "I Am the Walrus," Morrison seems to simply be playing with words that conjure weird imagery, the songwriting equivalent of Salvador Dali ("Catacombs/Nursery bones/Winter women growing stones").  This epic track is the perfect summation for The Doors' most adventurous album.

Top Ten Things: AEW PPV Main Events

Welcome to a very topical edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  Or should I say Top(ical) Ten Things?  No....?

I say topical because we were just treated to one of the greatest main events-- nay, MATCHES, in AEW history and thus I figured I'd take a look back at the best headlining bouts in AEW PPV lore.  This list is likely going to have to be altered frequently, as this company just keeps churning out classic PPVs and classic main event matches.  Hell, it'll probably grow to a top 20 before too long.

Say what you want about All Elite Wrestling's overall product, I've heard it all before.  Some of the criticisms are valid, a lot of it is not.  People have gripes with the booking, the follow-through after big storyline peaks (my biggest complaint), the clarity of the storytelling - I've had my issues with all of those things from time to time - but unless you're a diehard anti-AEW weirdo you can't argue in good faith that the in-ring product doesn't deliver huge when it counts.  The top talent in this company just knows how to put on a thrilling spectacle of a wrestling match and further this ever-evolving art form we all love.  

Over the last seven-plus years of AEW PPVs we've seen all manner of marquee matches at the top of the card.  Some technical, some brutal, some downright amusing.  And that's part of what I love about AEW; there's something for everyone, and all styles of pro wrestling are represented.  If you can't get behind that, I dunno what to tell you.

Anyway let's look at what are in my estimation the ten greatest AEW PPV main events of all time....

10. Stadium Stampede - Double or Nothing 2020

In the midst of the once-in-a-century pandemic known as COVID, AEW turned a deeply unfortunate situation into one of the most original and entertaining spectacles in recent memory, the Stadium Stampede match.  Chris Jericho led his Inner Circle faction of Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara and Proud & Powerful against Kenny Omega, Hangman Adam Page, Matt Hardy and The Young Bucks, in a hybrid of violence and comedy that ranged all over Jacksonville's Everbank Stadium.  This match had everything - crazy high spots (Kenny finished Sammy with a One-Winged Angel off an entranceway through a false stage), wild brawling (Hangman and Hager had an old-fashioned bar fight in one of the skyboxes), hilarious moments of levity (Chris Jericho challenged an Aubrey Edwards' two-count and demanded to see the instant replay), and some fun camera tricks (Matt Hardy changed wrestling personas while being held underwater).  What was originally schedule to be a Blood and Guts match (AEW's version of WarGames) instead became a wholly AEW-branded concept that is still used today, both in its original form and in the Anarchy in the Arena variant.  The inaugural Stadium Stampede is still one of my favorite AEW PPV main events.

AEW All In 2026 Review: Omega and Ospreay Deliver an All-Timer

AEW All In 2026 is in the books, and as expected it was a helluva wrestling show with all the trappings of a great WrestleMania (back when WWE used to do those).  We were treated to a slew of good-to-great matches, lots of memorable moments, a huge debut, and some of the best video packages they've ever done.  A few of the bouts underachieved for me, but the key matches got the job done and then some.  Oh, and the main event was one of the best start-to-finish pro wrestling segments you'll ever see in this life.

Regardless of all the shortcomings in the Kenny Omega-Will Ospreay build, AEW presented the entrances, match and aftermath to perfection.  And I'm not a guy who generally cares that much about entrances or video packages.  But when it's done right, man does it add flavor.  

After a career highlight reel narrated by Ospreay's mum, we saw Ospreay himself make his way through the backstage area, walking past notable colleagues and rivals from his past (Ricochet, Zack Sabre Jr. Michael Oku, Swerve Strickland, Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis), as his United Empire friends joined him.  Finally just at the entrance curtain he ran into Jon Moxley, who handed him a Union Jack.  Kenny's video package was done New Japan-style, with a famous Japanese anime voicover actor providing the narration. 

AEW All In 2026 Preview & Predictions

It's the end of August, which means it's time once again for AEW to bring All In to Wembley Stadium!  Jesus this year's been flying by....

This will be the company's third go-round in London's most famous venue, and as expected much ado has been made online about the attendance being down from the previous two visits.  Yeah, obviously the 81k figure wasn't going to be duplicated in the same stadium, that's how that goes (just ask WWE).  I was hoping they'd be able to equal the 2024 turnout, but they did also have a UK PPV in 2025.  Regardless, anyone who's convinced themselves any wrestling company (let alone a secondary one) drawing 45,000 people for any show (let alone the third visit in the same venue) isn't a massive accomplishment is devoid of critical thinking skills.  This will be their biggest crowd in two years and their third-biggest in company history.  It's also more paid fans than WCW ever drew.  Sorry, Fed-brains, this is still a huge win.

Now, I wish I could say everything about this show is a positive, but I must confess the build has been less than stellar for most of the bouts.  While the weekly shows have been quite entertaining and sometimes excellent, the storytelling over the last several weeks has felt disjointed and unfocused, as though there have been too many cooks in the kitchen.  

Bob Dylan's "Blonde On Blonde" Revisited

by Michael Drinan
@thesurfacenoise

I was twenty years old when I first listened to the album. Bob Dylan was a name I had heard before but never paid much attention to or gave him a listen. When you grow up in the 90s you don’t feel you need an artist like Dylan in your life because you already have so much to listen to as it is. So, when the 90s faded, along with the great music that came with it, I figured it was time to dive into the music of the 60s to see what the fuss was all about, and The Beatles and Dylan were the first artists to check out.

As a guide, I used VH1’s list of “100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll” to point me in the right direction. Before you roll your eyes I will tell you that it was and still is the best list on the subject I’ve seen. All these years later and I still find myself agreeing with the albums listed, even though we can always quibble on placement. Of course, The Beatles and Dylan were littered all over it and so it seemed to be the most logical place to start. The Beatles were easy to listen to since my dad had many of their albums. Dylan, I had to go to the music store and buy his albums to hear them.

So, I bought Blonde On Blonde along with Blood On The Tracks, two works that many deem to be his best. I went to my car, popped in Blonde On Blonde and went driving around the back roads of Hampton Roads in Virginia and listened, preparing to be blown away.

I didn’t prepare myself enough. How could anyone?

The first track, “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35” I dismissed as being a playful little jam session where it seemed as if no one knew how to play their instruments. I still sung it out loud because I had heard it before off the Forrest Gump soundtrack. I began settling into the album on the second track “Pledging My Time”, a muddy, bluesy stomper with a soaring harmonica intro. My foot kept tapping, my head bobbing back and forth and my fingers drumming along. I was into it.

The clincher came when “Visions Of Johanna” came on and opened with one of the greatest opening lyrics I’ve ever heard, “Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re trying to be so quiet.” Mother. Fucker. What a line! I was instantly sold, not just on the album but with Dylan himself. I heard he was a great lyricist, the “poet of rock ‘n’ roll”, but you’re never prepared for when you realize it or when you believe it. That lyric was the one that sold me on that notion. He was the greatest lyricist in rock history.

Classic Album Review: Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks (1975)

Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks is an album I was very late to discovering.  I didn't get into Dylan at all until 2008, and initially I busied myself with his 1960s output, particularly his landmark trilogy of Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde.  I developed an appreciation for those albums (and some of his early all-acoustic stuff), but none of them quite landed for me as "essential" records at the time.  It wasn't until a year later when I finally gave Blood a listen, and had finally found my true favorite Dylan album.  Here was an emotionally raw, melancholy, atmospheric album that conveyed a sense of grounded maturity Dylan's "rock star" releases of the 60s lacked.

Blood on the Tracks was written and recorded while Dylan was going through a separation from his wife Sara, and while he's denied it repeatedly, the lyrics feel like a cathartic purging of his personal woes.  Nearly every song deals with themes of love, loss, regret, and emotional pain.  If Dylan wasn't directly writing about his disintegrating marriage, it certainly feels like that situation at least shaped his creative process (How could it not?).  The title seems a metaphor for how much of himself he poured into these recordings.  Blood on the Tracks indeed.

Originally nearly every song was recorded in New York as a stripped-down acoustic performance, until Dylan's brother David convinced him to re-record half of them with a full band in Minneapolis, in order to give the album's sound more variety.  The new song versions were hastily recorded only three weeks before the album's release.

The album's tone is set by the bouncy but lyrically forlorn opener "Tangled Up in Blue," where the narrator reconnects with an old flame after many years and realizes he could've made things work with her.  "We always did feel the same/We just saw it from a different point of view..."

The first of the subdued, pensive New York recordings is "Simple Twist of Fate," a somber lament about a failed relationship that begins promisingly but ends with the woman abruptly leaving and the narrator wandering around hoping to find her again.  "Hunts her down by the waterfront docks where the sailors all come in/Maybe she'll pick him out again/How long must he wait..."

Movies of Disbelief: Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Welcome to another edition of Movies of Disbelief, here at Enuffa.com, where I examine a film that is generally either good, even great, or at least competently assembled, and point out one absurd flaw that had me throwing my hands skyward.

Today's subject is the Walt Disney classic Sleeping Beauty.  Released in 1959, Sleeping Beauty retells the timeless fairy tale about a lovely princess, cursed by an evil sorceress to fall into a sleeping death before the end of her sixteenth birthday (by pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, of all things).  In the Disney version there are three good fairies who vow to protect Princess Aurora from this fate, by keeping her hidden from the wicked Maleficent until the time window of said curse has closed.

**Side note: each fairy bestows a magical gift, the first being Flora's decree that Aurora will grow up to be beautiful, begging the question, does Flora not have any faith in this girl's gene pool?  I'd be insulted if I were her parents.  "Excuse me, I think we're both fairly handsome people, she'll turn out just fine on her own!"  Seems like a waste of a gift if there's even a chance that she'll be a looker anyway.  Come to think of it, so is Fauna's gift of song; how does she know this girl won't naturally have musical ability?  Or at least enough to get by with some practice?  Superficial jerks...**

I'm sorry, these women are morons...

But back on the clock; the fairies quickly whisk her away to a remote cottage in the forest and raise her as a common peasant girl until such time as it's safe for her to return and reclaim her royal heritage.  Solid plan right?  Especially since the fairies have also vowed not to use magic during the girl's upbringing, so as not to rouse the suspicions of passers-by.  Princess Aurora, or Briar Rose as she is now known, has no awareness of her regal bloodline or the fact that she is betrothed to Prince Phillip of a neighboring kingdom.  On her sixteenth birthday, the fateful day in question, she meets a stranger in the woods and falls instantly in love, but the fairies spill all the beans, revealing to her that not only is she a princess, she is already spoken for and must never see this strange man again (of course none of the four is aware said stranger IS Prince Phillip).  Rose is crushed at the news and runs to her room sobbing.

Top Ten Things: KoRn Albums, RANKED

Welcome to another Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  This edition has bonus entries because today we're ranking the albums of nu metal innovators KoRn!

We're currently in the longest-ever drought between KoRn albums, approaching the four-and-a-half-year mark since their 14th album Requiem.  The band has apparently been working on their intended 15th record for a couple of years now, amassing upwards of 40 song candidates.  Perhaps this next one will be a double.  Either way, after a wait this long, this sumbitch better be good.  

My journey to get to KoRn was an unusual one; I hated their music with a palpable passion for years before finally coming around, and then they suddenly and immediately became one of my favorite bands.  Their unconventional focus on groove and grit over flash and precision was a very acquired taste, but once acquired I was insatiable.  For a long time their style was a major influence on my own music, oftentimes to a fault, and as a listener I was always looking for new stuff in that same vein.  Their "music as therapy" approach to songwriting was unique and quite relatable as a lonely 20-something, and it's been a treat to see my son discovering their music as a teenager. 

But let's cut to the chase and count down the studio albums of KoRn!


For our Top Ten KoRn Songs list, click HERE...

14. See You On the Other Side

KoRn's seventh album for me is their weakest.  For a long time I considered Take a Look in the Mirror, their unnecessary "return to our roots" album, as the band's nadir, but the years have been pretty kind to that album, less so for this one.  While See You On the Other Side was a pretty logical next step from Untouchables, the band experimenting with gothic, industrial and electronica elements, the songs just didn't come together, and this album in hindsight feels like a dry run for Untitled.  Guitarist Brian "Head" Welch had left the band and the remaining four members decided to reinvent themselves on this album, with very mixed results.  I appreciated SYOTOS more than its predecessor at the time for the risks being taken, but they hadn't quite found the new formula yet.  

Key Tracks: Throw Me Away, Coming Undone, Souvenir

Movie Review: The End of Oak Street (2026)

David Robert Mitchell's new sci-fi action movie The End of Oak Street is a curious little number.  It's a throwback to early 80s popcorn fare (and even takes place during that time), about a suburban family whose neighborhood suddenly gets transported to the prehistoric era and becomes overrun with dinosaurs.  Starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as Denise and Greg Platt, a couple going through a crisis of marriage - she's secretly an aspiring novelist and he's working as a pizza delivery man after secretly being laid off from his full-time gig - the film gives us a brief exposition dump of all the principle characters via a block party sequence, before diving into the dino action.

Once the giant bird-lizards start showing up it's mostly about the survival set pieces, but the film does jump back into a bit of the family drama from time to time.  Unfortunately the script doesn't give us much to latch on to in terms of really caring about the characters.  The opening passages feel perfunctory, injecting superficial pathos into the family members without really committing to it.  Thus when they find themselves in mortal danger everything feels kept at arm's length instead of immersing us in the action.

Top Ten Things: Martin Scorsese Films

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  These are ten of my favorite things.  That's how the song goes, right?

Martin Scorsese.  In my estimation there is no greater director in film history than the diminutive, sickly kid from Little Italy in New York who grew up with a passion for telling stories through the medium of film.  Scorsese spent his childhood looking out the window and observing people and events in his neighborhood, and this predilection for people-watching translated into some of the most incredible filmmaking of all time.  His films are often unforgiving looks at profoundly troubled characters, yet Scorsese finds a way for us to empathize with them, at least enough to want to spend a couple hours in their company.  Many Scorsese films deal with hardened street criminals, hearkening back to the seedy lot he observed in his neighborhood.  But while crime dramas are his bread and butter, Scorsese's filmography also includes religious epics, suspense thrillers, biopics, lush period dramas, and even lighthearted children's fare.  Even after forty-plus years Scorsese remains at the top of his game; in fact his post-2000 output ranks among some of his best work.  To this day any new film of his is event viewing, almost guaranteed to be one of my favorites of that year.

The following are my ten favorite Martin Scorsese films....

10. Cape Fear

One of Scorsese's rare remakes is this 1991 suspense thriller based on the 1962 Gregory Peck/Robert Mitchum film of the same name.  Peck's role of besieged attorney Sam Bowden went to Nick Nolte, Mitchum's degenerate character Max Cady was played with gleeful menace by Robert Deniro.  The first thing Scorsese did with his version was to change Bowden from a virtuous family man to a morally ambiguous one who withheld evidence in order to get his client Cady convicted, and whose marriage is coming apart due to an extramarital affair and a strained relationship with his teenage daughter.  This change makes the Nolte character and his family even more vulnerable and fits in with the film noir trope of the flawed protagonist.  Deniro's performance of course steals the show; he is musclebound, ruthless, violent, and endlessly persistent.  This Hitchock-influenced genre exercise may not stack up with Scorsese's greatest work, but it did illustrate his ability to take an existing story and place on it his own distinctive stamp.

9. Casino

Casino plays almost like a sequel to Goodfellas, or at least a spiritual cousin.  Another epic, frenetically-paced gangster film based loosely on a true story, Casino chronicles the rise and fall of a Vegas gambling empire, once again pairing Robert Deniro with Joe Pesci.  Deniro plays Sam Rothstein, a mob associate brought in to run a mafia-controlled casino, while Pesci plays Rothstein's longtime friend, loose cannon enforcer Nicky Santoro.  Told from multiple narrative viewpoints, Casino shows in violent, gruesome detail the inner workings of 1970s mob-controlled Las Vegas.  Aside from Deniro and Pesci's legendary onscreen chemistry, Casino also boasts an Oscar-nominated turn from Sharon Stone, as Rothstein's materialistic, alcoholic wife Ginger.  Casino didn't quite equal the masterpiece that was Goodfellas, but it was a very worthy, provocative return to Scorsese's favorite genre.

8. Hugo

In 2011 Martin Scorsese's filmography took an unexpected 90-degree turn with this family-friendly, light-hearted tribute to the early days of cinema.  Based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Scorsese's film follows the exploits of a young boy who lives in a Paris railway station.  Hugo's deceased father, an inventor, taught him how to repair clocks and instilled in him a love for film.  He befriends a young girl, Isabelle, whose stern uncle is revealed to be early film pioneer Georges Melies, director of the first science-fiction film, A Trip to the Moon.  After his career declined sharply in the 1920s, Melies became a disillusioned, bitter man who distanced himself from his prior calling.  Hugo and Isabelle work tirelessly to uncover the story of the forgotten auteur so the world can once again embrace his artistic contribution to the medium of cinema.  Scorsese's film is a delightful and colorful romp, made all the more whimsical by the use of 3-D cinematography, used here in a way that enhances the story and intensifies the experience.  Hugo is a rare film that can be enjoyed by any age group; it doesn't talk down to young audiences and it contains complex character arcs that older viewers will be drawn to.

Top Ten Things: Harrison Ford Characters

Welcome to a special edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  It's been a while since I created a new one of these, but the occasion definitely warranted a return to the list-making ring.....

Growing up in the early 80s, Mr. Ford was my first celebrity hero, thanks of course to his not one but TWO transcendent popcorn movie characters, the swashbuckling scoundrel Han Solo and the intrepid, world-traveling archaeologist Indiana Jones.  Starring in that era's two most successful action-adventure movie franchises made him the most recognizable movie star in the world at the time, and for many years Ford's films outgrossed those of any other actor.  Not bad for a guy who'd all but given up on acting in the mid-70s due to a dearth of quality roles.  It's pretty staggering to think the film industry had written him off during his salad days, deeming him "not believable as a movie star," his looks too rugged and his acting style too understated to be a leading man.  

Indeed, Ford was never even supposed to be cast in the two legendary roles that made him world-famous.  George Lucas, having already used him in American Graffiti, only brought him in to read for other actors when casting Star Wars because he happened to be working as a carpenter across the hall.  But he nailed the character of Han Solo so completely Lucas had no choice but to give him the part.  Four years later when Steven Spielberg suggested Ford for Indiana Jones, Lucas again balked, not wanting Ford to become the Robert Deniro to his Martin Scorsese.  Only after Lucas's first choice Tom Selleck became unavailable thanks to his Magnum P.I. commitments did Lucas assent to offering Raiders of the Lost Ark to Ford.  His unexpected rise to superstardom is one of the great Cinderella stories of Hollywood lore.

From then Ford could pick and choose his projects, and throughout the late 80s and 90s he mostly focused on roles that would challenge him as an actor, rather than simply taking comfortable action star gigs.  Films like Witness, Frantic, Working Girl, and Presumed Innocent revealed new facets to his acting game and proved he could bring credibility and gravitas to any kind of film, be it a heavy drama, a suspense thriller, or a light comedy.  He'd continue taking on action vehicles as well - films like Patriot Games, The Fugitive, and Air Force One scored big at the box office, in no small part thanks to Ford's cache as a relatable everyman action star.  By the late 90s he'd established himself as a versatile leading man with a subtle economy to his acting style.  Rather than relying on flashy speech-making in his films, Ford leaned toward conveying emotion and tension through facial expression and body language.  Sadly at awards season he'd be perennially overlooked (except once), but his choices set did him apart from his fellow leading men.

In recent years Ford's filmography has mostly included a lot of B-movies, his only really notable projects being reprisals of his most famous characters, but regardless of film quality, anytime Harrison Ford is in a film, I'm interested in seeing what he'll do.  He is one of the all-time great movie stars, and by all accounts a pretty damn cool dude in real life.

Here are some of his career highlights....

HM: Quinn Harris (Six Days, Seven Nights)

Heads-up, some of the entries on this list won't so much be reflective of the quality of the film in question, but on Ford's contributions to it.  Six Days, Seven Nights is a highly entertaining piece of crap, an Ivan Reitman-helmed adventure comedy where Ford's character is a grizzled pilot hired to transport Anne Heche's magazine editor to Tahiti for a photo shoot.  They hate each other at first but of course end up falling in love after some wacky Pacific island hijinks.  But Ford's performance is a pretty great comedic spin on his usual rugged action hero persona, and helps elevate the film above its station.

HM: Dr. Norman Spencer (What Lies Beneath)

Likewise in Robert Zemeckis's pretty terrible attempt at Hitchcock-style suspense, Harrison Ford is the film's brightest spot, providing a rare and welcome performance as a villain.  I'd love to see Ford try this in a smarter film (Incidentally he'd been offered the Nick Nolte role in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear but turned it down, hoping to land Deniro's spot instead), his performance here is so much against type it makes an otherwise drivelous piece of supernatural melodrama worth a look.

Top Ten Things: The Rocky/Creed Films, RANKED

Welcome to a special installment of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  

Today I'm here to talk about the Rocky/Creed film series!  The brainchild of struggling actor/screenwriter Sylvester Stallone, Rocky came about as a fit of inspiration in 1975, after Stallone watched no-name fighter Chuck Wepner shock the world by going the distance with the legendary Muhammed Ali.  He found the story of a million-to-one underdog a compelling mirror of his own journey in the film business, and pitched the idea to producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler at an audition.  They were intrigued and asked him to write a script, which he hammered out on lined paper in the span of three days.  Stallone's inspiring tale of a club fighter getting a once-in-a-lifetime shot at the Heavyweight Championship instantly captured their imagination, and the film was greenlit.  Limited to a tiny $950,000 budget, the production was a whirlwind affair, shot over four weeks, and no one was prepared for the cultural milestone the finished film would become.  $225 million and a Best Picture Oscar later, Rocky the film was as incredible an underdog story as its protagonist, and it quickly spawned a series.  The franchise is now nine films deep including the Creed spinoffs, with no signs of slowing down, and more amazingly, possessing of some of the sturdiest legs of any film saga.  After 47 years and counting, you simply can't knock this franchise off its feet.

But which installments are the best?  Which are the worst?  How does one rank these stirring, inspirational films spanning over four decades?  Let's hit the heavy bag and see if we're ready to go the distance.  Too many boxing metaphors?

10. Rocky V

The much-maligned fifth chapter earned most of its derision.  One of only two Rocky films I consider bad movies, Rocky V unfortunately didn't even reach "so bad it's good" territory.  I respected the filmmakers' endeavor at something different after taking the "Rocky as superhero" thing as far as it could go in Rocky IV.  They tried to return the series to its gritty roots, having Rocky lose his fortune (through one of the most convoluted financial plot devices in film history) and move back to his old Philly neighborhood.  Suffering brain damage after his grueling Drago fight, Rocky is forced to retire from boxing but instead becomes a trainer to up-and-coming fighter Tommy Gunn, who then ditches Rocky for a hotshot promoter and wins the championship.  Rather than build to an in-ring climax between Rocky and Tommy, the film instead has them fighting in an alley behind the neighborhood bar.  The attempt to eschew the Rocky formula while not really eschewing it just made for a muddy, uninteresting, drab film, and worse, at the time it seemed the Rocky franchise would go out with a rather embarrassing whimper (Originally Rocky was going to be killed during the street fight; thank god that didn't happen....).

Oscar Film Journal: The Pianist (2002)

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

I'm finishing out the year 2002 with Roman Polanski's Holocaust drama The Pianist, starring Adrien Brody in the role that won him his first Oscar.  Been meaning to watch this one for 24 years now....

Based on true events, The Pianist is a story of survival in the face of unspeakable inhumanity.  Professional musician Wladyslaw Szpilman was a flourishing piano player in 1930s Poland when the Germans invaded and forced the half million or so Polish Jews out of their homes and into a tiny ghetto area of Warsaw, before sending most of them off to be enslaved and murdered in concentration camps.  Szpilman was separated from his family by an acquaintance who was now a Jewish police officer, smuggled out of the ghetto, and set up in a safe house by non-Jewish Polish friends.  He spent over a year in hiding, battling starvation and isolation, before his apartment building was destroyed by tank fire, and from there hid among the Warsaw ruins, barely surviving on scraps, until the end of the war.  We later learn that he lived out the rest of his life (until the year 2000) in Warsaw, resuming his career as a pianist.

Movie Review: Spider-Man - Brand New Day (2026)

The MCU seems to have found its mojo again, for now at least.  Brand New Day, the fourth standalone Spider-Man film in this universe, feels like a fresh, personal jolt of life the bloated MCU desperately needed after five years of mostly forgettable fare.  Destin Daniel Cretton, who also helmed the superb Short Term 12 and the well-received Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, takes over the director's chair after three Jon Watts-led productions, and boy is his presence a welcome one.  Where Homecoming, Far From Home and No Way Home, delightfully entertaining though they were, often felt too clean and polished, Brand New Day strives for a bit of gritty realism and a darker maturity, upping the physical and emotional stakes in a major way.  

Gone for example is the Tony Stark-invented hi-tech spider suit, and in its place is a 3D printed fabric costume made by Peter Parker himself, inspired partly by the two other Spider-Men he met in No Way Home.  Also cinematographer Brett Pawlak steps into the MCU for the first time, lending this film an earthier, more moody look than its predecessors.  A greater reliance on practical lighting and physical sets has replaced the sometimes soulless green screen-enhanced look of the previous films, and thus Brand New Day is a much more immersive experience.