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. 

Top Ten Things: Avenged Sevenfold Albums, RANKED

Welcome to a brand new Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  It's been a while since I did one of these lists, and this one isn't quite ten items, but hey, some editions of TTT have *more* than ten, so screw you!  Just kidding, please keep reading....

Today's topic is the discography of one of my favorite metal bands, Avenged Sevenfold!  Formed in Huntington Beach, CA in 1999, A7X is known for complex, theatrical songwriting and fearless genre-bending, incorporating a diverse set of influences into their distinct melting pot of audacious, bombastic sounds.  Initially the band went for a hybrid of metalcore and punk sprinkled with melodic hooks, but they pretty quickly began experimenting with other genres, veering all the way into Broadway musical numbers and country-rock ballads by 2007.  On their most recent full-length album they went full avant-garde, defying all logical expectations and forging their own unique artistic path.  This is a band never content to rest on their laurels; they don't just push the envelope, they shred it.  

Like a lot of their fans I discovered A7X on the heels of their breakthrough third album City of Evil, but it was their self-titled fourth record and its follow-up Nightmare that really hooked me in 2010.  Since then I've found myself often revisiting their catalog in the form of intense deep-dives, where I'll get stuck on album or two and play them on a loop before moving on to the next, always hungry for new material from them.  

As with all great musical artists, Avenged Sevenfold crafts songs and albums that reward numerous listens, blending intricate musicianship, balls-out aggression, and deeply heartfelt, relatable human themes.  I'm not sure there's another metal band with so many songs that make me well up.  In a genre known for macho chest-thumping, A7X isn't afraid to explore big feelings and make profound statements about the human condition.  Their music has a genuine vulnerability to it, even amid pounding drums and machine gunning guitar riffs.  That reason perhaps more than any other is why their music resonates so heavily for me, but I also love the fact that they aren't beholden to any genre expectations so many other metal bands adhere to.  They unapologetically make the music they want to make, and that's so much more exciting to me than when a band goes in predictable directions out of obligation.

But enough pontificating, let's get to the countdown!    

HM: Diamonds in the Rough

I've kept this collection of B-sides and covers out of the ranking for obvious reasons, but I felt it warranted a few words.  M. Shadows is on record saying he wished the band hadn't released this CD, as the songs were left off their self-titled album for a reason, but I'm gonna go on record myself as saying there are a few real gems here.  Aside from two covers (Iron Maiden's "Flash of the Blade" and Pantera's "Walk") and alternate versions of "Almost Easy" and "Afterlife," Diamonds in the Rough contains seven previously unreleased songs, of which three were absolutely good enough for the fourth album in my opinion.  I'd have cut "Critical Acclaim" and "Scream" and added the three tunes mentioned below.  Don't sleep on this collection.

Key Tracks: "Demons," "Until the End," "Dancing Dead"

WWE SummerSlam 2026 Review: Night 1 Was Okay, Night 2 Was Not

Alright, this review is a few days late because I've been traveling all week.  Sue me.

SummerSlam 2026 was yet another skimpy WWE broadcast resembling a couple of McDonald's Happy Meals.  If you like mostly short, forgettable undercards and overlong main events where not that much really happens, this is the pair of shows for you.  

The first night was a passable affair, with a couple of decent early bouts that could've been much better with more time and less WWE "production," followed by two main event-type matches, one of which was fine but too long, the other of which took place inside a cage that wasn't ever used.

The second night was easily the worst PPV show I've seen in 2026, with a mostly bad undercard, a pair of matches that didn't get enough time to reach their potential, and a main event that could've been pretty great had ten minutes of nonsense been cut from it (and with a story that didn't feel like AI slop).

Night 1 started with the best or second-best match of either show, Liv Morgan vs. IYO Sky for the Women's World Title.  Once again IYO proved herself the best wrestler on the entire roster, and it pisses me off that the company doesn't see her as being on the same level as Rhea and Liv.  These two got thirteen-plus minutes and it was one of the few undercard matches that didn't quite feel like it got shortchanged.  Still, it should've gone a few minutes longer.  IYO fired up after an Oblivion, but Liv hit a Codebreaker and a second Oblivion to retain the title.  Weird finish to have a fire-up followed by an immediate loss.  But this was the best match of the first night.  ***3/4

Top Ten Things: Weird Al Yankovic Albums, RANKED

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

Today I'll be talking about a musical legend.  And a comedy legend.  And a certified genius (Seriously, he skipped second grade and was senior year valedictorian at sixteen).

Weird Al Yankovic burst into the American lexicon in 1984 with an off-beat parody of a Michael Jackson hit, and has somehow managed to build a hugely successful forty-plus-year career lampooning our most cherished pop music stars.  As an eight-year-old Michael Jackson fanatic I was initially offended that anyone would parody one of his songs, but Al won me over when I first saw the video for "Eat It."  Here was a dorky, bespectacled nerd mimicking all of Jackson's dance moves (badly I might add) and conjuring comedy from already-tired rock video imagery.  By age twelve I'd bought all of Al's records, and I've been a huge fan ever since.  In 2000 I got to see Al from the front row, and he even yelled at me for not singing along to "Dare to Be Stupid."  It was indeed a privilege.  Twenty-two years later I took my son to see his Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, a proud inter-generational moment. 

Despite originating as a zany novelty act on comedy radio, Weird Al's career has endured a staggering four decades.  For many artists, being parodied by Al is a badge of honor, a sign that they've truly "made it."  Al is like a pop culture mirror, making light of our society's latest fads and popular music heroes.  While he seems to be all done putting out full albums, he still pops up every so often with a new video to remind us he's still out there, ready to either lampoon or pay homage to whatever's grabbing headlines.

Here now Weird Al Yankovic's albums, ranked....

14. Polka Party!

It should come as no surprise that the album which nearly derailed Al's career ranks last.  Without the benefit of a strong single to help move sales ("Livin' With a Hernia" is a fun James Brown parody but didn't exactly light up the charts the way "Eat It" or "Like a Surgeon" did), Polka Party! would need to overachieve as a cohesive album.  Sadly it did not; the album's parodies tackled mostly less-than-memorable material, while its originals were largely pretty pedestrian.  The Talking Heads-inspired "Dog Eat Dog" and the Phil Spector-style "Christmas at Ground Zero" serve as a pair of standouts, but beyond those, Polka Party! lacks a strong catalogue of original tunes to make up for the rather uninspired slate of parodies.  Thankfully Al's career would resurge in a big way two years later with the release of Even Worse.

Key Tracks: Livin' With a Hernia, Dog Eat Dog, Christmas at Ground Zero

13. Alapalooza

Cashing in on both the mammoth success of Jurassic Park and the alternative music tour Lollapalooza, Al's 8th album dropped in 1993 and didn't quite make the splash its predecessor Off the Deep End did.  It probably didn't help that the lead single was a parody of an old 1960s tune rather than a hot 1993 alternative chart-topper (though Al's "Jurassic Park" song is pretty great).  Al did send up the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Give It Away" and "Under the Bridge," with mixed results (RHCP bassist Flea expressed disappointment in Al's choice of The Flintstones as the song's inspiration), and Aerosmith's "Livin' on the Edge," returning to the subject of food, in this case the kind that's been in the fridge too long.  The original songs on this album were a letdown for me, aside from the excellent REM-esque "Frank's 2000" TV."  To my mind "Traffic Jam," "Waffle King" and "She Never Told Me She Was a Mine" sounded like outtakes from previous albums.  But Alapalooza does finish strong with "Bohemian Polka," a sped-up, accordion-driven version of Queen's megahit "Bohemian Rhapsody."  Overall though, Alapalooza is one of his weakest efforts, and the worst of his 1990s output.

Key Tracks: Jurassic Park, Frank's 2000" TV, Bohemian Polka

12. Straight Outta Lynwood

Notable for boasting Al's highest-charting single "White & Nerdy" (a parody of "Ridin" by Chamillionaire), Al's 12th album was from a commercial standpoint another career highlight.  Other parodies include "Canadian Idiot," based of course on Green Day's "American Idiot," "Confessions Part III," a sendup of Usher's "Confessions Part II," and the epic "Trapped in the Drive Thru" based on R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet."  The originals on this album are quite varied, with "Pancreas" parodying the style of The Beach Boys, "I'll Sue Ya" capturing the sound of Rage Against the Machine, and probably the strongest original "Don't Download This Song" going after 1980s all-star charity tunes like "We Are the World."  Overall SOL is ambitious and sonically diverse, but not all of it landed for me.  Still it was satisfying to see Al achieve such mainstream success once again.

Key Tracks: White & Nerdy, Pancreas, Don't Download This Song

11. Bad Hair Day

Falling just shy of the top ten is Al's 1996 return to prominence after the critical and commercial disappointment of Alapalooza.  The ninth album in Al's catalog surged to double-platinum status largely on the back of "Amish Paradise," a parody of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise."  Coolio infamously disapproved of Al using his song as comedy fodder and publicly objected, though Al did get written permission from Coolio's management to use the song.  This was ironic considering the Coolio tune is itself a reworking of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise."  Aside from the hit single, Bad Hair Day boasts an excellent parody of Presidents of the USA's "Lump," about Forrest Gump, some standout originals such as "Everything You Know is Wrong" the a cappella "Since You've Been Gone," and "The Night Santa Went Crazy," and maybe his best-ever polka medley, "The Alternative Polka," which makes use of numerous mid-90s grunge and alternative hits.  Bad Hair Day is a bit uneven but contains enough standout tunes to almost make the vaunted top ten.

Key Tracks: Amish Paradise, The Alternative Polka, Gump

10. UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff

The soundtrack to Al's 1989 summer flop sadly didn't fare much better than its film counterpart, but it did contain some fun parodies and solid originals, plus a few snippets of the film itself.  Al's spoof of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing," which is essentially the Beverly Hillbillies theme set to different music, was accompanied by an excellent sendup of the Straits video.  Other highlights were "Spam," based on REM's "Stand," and two hilarious originals, "Generic Blues," which literally just recycles all the woe-is-me blues lyrical tropes, and folk-rock epic "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota," which recounts in great detail a trip to go see the World's Largest Twine Ball (Yes, such a thing actually exists).  Released at a time when a) the summer movie season was quite cluttered (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, Star Trek V, and Lethal Weapon 2), and b) Weird Al's record sales were somewhat contingent on including a Michael Jackson parody, this album and film kinda got lost in the shuffle (though UHF has since become a cult classic).  But it's not too shabby at all and shows evidence of Al's growth as a musician.

Key Tracks: Generic Blues, Spam, The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota

9. Dare to Be Stupid

Al's third album, and the first musical comedy album to see a CD release, showed that Al was growing beyond his reputation as "that funny guy who does the Michael Jackson parody."  With songs like "Like a Surgeon," "I Want a New Duck," and the superb "Yoda" (based on The Kinks' "Lola"), Al was attempting to last beyond the fifteen-minute lifespan most gave him.  But it's in the original songs where this album really achieves.  Style parodies like the hilariously descriptive doo-wop ballad "One More Minute" and the Devo-inspired title track demonstrated Al's gift for recreating different genres (Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh once said that "Dare to Be Stupid" captured the exact sound he himself had been trying to create).

Key Tracks: Dare to Be Stupid, One More Minute, Yoda

The History of WWE SummerSlam (2025)

SummerSlam 2025, the first two-night edition, was another mixed bag of an extravaganza.  The first night was a bad overall show, the second night was pretty good up until the appallingly tone deaf ending.  WWE has no line it will not cross, no scandal it will not gladly sweep under the rug if it gets in the way of their bottom line. 

Night 1 as I said was a pretty bad show, with a whole bunch of mostly nothing matches and a dull as fuck main event that for some reason WWE's faithful convinced themselves was some kind of Bret Hart-esque masterpiece.  I don't seem to recall Bret ever needing to stall after every move to let his gassed opponent recover for a while.  Certainly not in his good matches anyhow.

The first match began, 22 minutes in (that's TWENTY-TWO) with a solid tag match as Roman Reigns and Jey Uso took on Seth Rollins' buddies Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed.  Things started out not so promisingly as after a few moments of action Jey called for his entrance music again just to get a stupid Yeet chant going.  This company is a parody of pro wrestling.  From there they had a pretty good match and Breakker looked really good as usual.  They of course had to squeeze in yet another Roman spear through the barricade (which wasn't even attached at one side so this spot looked even dumber than usual).  The Brons did a Steiner doomsday bulldog spot which was cool.  At the end of the match Roman shoved Jey out of the way of a Breakker spear, and Jey hit his big splash on Reed to win the match.  This show would never get this good again. 

WWE SummerSlam 2026 Preview & Predictions

This weekend is the 39th WWE SummerSlam, and the second two-nighter.  Like WrestleMania there are a few promising matches on the docket, and some not-so-promising ones.  I assume also that like WrestleMania, these shows will be full of abbreviated matches to make room for ads and overlong entrances.  WWE is still relying on 40-plussers to sell tickets, and still seeing diminishing returns - this year's attendance is down a whopping 40% from last year.  Yes we have Oba Femi featured in one of the three top matches (via a nonsensical storyline development), but the company's top four stars are still Roman, Punk, Cody and Seth.  No Bron Breakker on the show at all, which is insane; wasn't he the next chosen one a few years ago?  And whose gas tank did Carmelo Hayes piss in?

Anyway let's take a look....

Night 1

The Bella Twins & Paige vs. Fatal Influence

No idea what this feud is about but man does this company love riding 2010-2015 nostalgia right now (probably only because everyone from before that period is retired).  The Bella Twins and Paige, all three of whom date back to before the "women's revolution."  We're kinda going backwards aren't we?  I know nothing about the Fatal Influence trio but I assume they're losing here.

Pick: Nikki, Brie & Paige

Oscar Film Journal: JFK (1991)

Welcome to an unusual entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Today's subject is honestly a difficult one to review, as I have wildly disparate opinions of it simultaneously.  It is a film to be judged on two separate fronts - as a piece of filmmaking craft, and as a docudrama that had a major impact on the national dialogue surrounding its subject.  I would be fully justified in giving this film the Awesomely Shitty Movies treatment as well (and I just may at some point).

The film is 1991's JFK, directed by Oliver Stone, based on two (purportedly) non-fiction books about the Kennedy assassination.  Stone's film chronicles the infamous investigation into and subsequent trial of New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw, accused by the city's District Attorney Jim Garrison of conspiring to murder President Kennedy.  Starring Kevin Costner as Garrison and featuring a veritable who's-who of notable Hollywood stars, JFK spends over three hours taking us through Garrison's chaotic investigation, his interviews with various "witnesses" and informants, and finally the trial itself, which ended in abject embarrassment for the unscrupulous DA.  

I first watched this film in high school, going into it with very little prior knowledge of the JFK assassination.  I was transfixed by it on the first viewing, and in my college years it became one of my very favorite films.  I took Stone and his collaborators at their word as far as the facts of the case went, and it wasn't until my mid-twenties that I actually dug into the specifics of what happened on that fateful November day in 1963 and the aftermath.

But before we discuss the film's historical accuracy (or complete lack thereof), first let's talk about JFK as an exercise in cinema.  

There is no doubt whatsoever that Oliver Stone is an eminently talented filmmaker and storyteller.  Even without JFK on his resumé, he'd have proven himself one of Hollywood's most exciting directors of the 80s and 90s with titles like Platoon, Natural Born Killers, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors (another very entertaining but highly inaccurate biopic), Talk Radio and Wall Street.

The History of WWE SummerSlam (2024)

WWE may have smashed a whole bunch more records at the 2024 SummerSlam (not that tough to do when you keep jacking up ticket prices and the city pays you to hold your event there) but as I suspected going in, the card itself was steeped in mediocrity, concerned more with bad drama than good wrestling.  At numerous times watching this show I found myself thinking "Christ, VINCE booked numerous recent SummerSlams better than this one."

After yet another Triple H "Don't forget who's in charge now" moment to kick off the show, followed by a Jelly Roll performance, the opening match was Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley for the Women's Title.  They started out playing cat and mouse, with Ripley chasing Liv in and out of the ring until finally outmaneuvering her and going on offense.  After a few minutes of Ripley dominating, Liv sent her shoulder-first into the turnbuckles, which popped Ripley's injured shoulder out of socket.  Liv took over and worked the dislocation until Ripley finally got some space and slammed it into the announce table, Lethal Weapon 2 style.  Ripley made a comeback but Liv brought a chair into the ring and tried to use it.  Ripley flattened her with a boot, picked up the chair herself, and was about to swing it when Dominik on the outside grabbed the chair and reminded her she couldn't win the title this way.  Ripley let go of the chair but Liv knocked her into Dom and hit Oblivion for a close nearfall.  Dom then threw the chair into the ring for Liv to hit a second Oblivion to win the match.  The announcers sold this like Dom's plan backfired, but then Dom helped Liv up from the floor and kissed her, betraying Rhea.  Solid opener.  

The History of WWE SummerSlam (2023)

At SummerSlam 2023, WWE did it again.  And by "it" I mean snatched a pretty good show from the jaws of instant classic territory.

SummerSlam 2023 was yet another example of a show that should've been in contention for PPV of the Year (or at least WWE PPV of the Year), and was instead just a good solid PPV.  Between a live crowd that was oddly pretty subdued all night and some messy moments and their usual questionable booking decisions, this show overall fell short of my expectations.

Things started out very promisingly as Logan Paul and Ricochet had a very entertaining spotfest-type match that suffered a bit from WWE not being all that good at spotfest-type matches.  For a bout that was intended to "go viral" as an aerial spectacle this wasn't nearly as noteworthy as numerous other examples that year.  But it was very well-worked aside from a couple messy bits, and this was Ricochet's first main roster match with this high a profile (sadly he'd never get another).  After plenty of back-and-forth action and nearfalls, one of Paul's friends (who went unnamed) handed him brass knux, which Paul used to knock out Ric and steal a win.  Michael Cole's line "This was a great match but the ending sucked" was both amusing and a bit of unintentional commentary from WWE regarding their penchant for unsatisfying finishes.  

Overall the strongest match of the night, most unexpectedly, was the Cody Rhodes-Brock Lesnar rubber match, which from where I sit marked Brock's best work since the 2019 SummerSlam.  This still suffered from Lesnar Repetition Syndrome, with Cody limiting his own moveset to match Brock's, and a long stretch where Brock was inexplicably trying to get a countout win over and over.  But ultimately the match worked in the same way as Brock vs. AJ in 2017 and Brock vs. Bryan in 2018 did.  Cody overcame all the punishment and hit three CrossRhodes in a row to put a decisive end to this feud.  Brock then took off his MMA gloves, shook Cody's hand, and hugged him, in an apparently unplanned show of respect.  Good stuff overall.  

AEW Redemption Review: The Stage Is Set for Wembley

AEW Redemption was a fine show, not on the level of most of their PPV offerings, but a very good show with a slew of excellent matches and some not so good.  It did suffer from the length issue in a way that most don't for me.  Despite kicking off an hour earlier than usual it still ran until midnight and didn't need to.  The shortest match on the card exceeded sixteen minutes, and there were four or five bouts that could've been trimmed by five minutes each (at least one could've been omitted altogether).  After the first three matches all more or less tore the house down the crowd took a long time to get back into the show, and multiple bouts suffered because of that.  I'd have changed the match order around to spread the best stuff throughout the show instead of front-loading it.  But it was a very good night of wrestling overall.

Things kicked off as expected with the ladder match, which was an excellent car wreck.  All six men involved got plenty of time to be showcased, we had loads of high spots from everyone, and the local favorite walked away with the win to get the live crowd engaged.  There were of course a few moments that seemed to defy logic, like when two guys did moonsaults off the ladder set up on the stage, or when Jack Perry had the chance to climb up and grab the contract but did a Destroyer on Nick Wayne instead.  Mike Bailey finished things with a shooting star knee onto Mortos, followed by a match-winning climb.  Really fun opener.  ****1/2