Freakier Friday and UFC 319

My wife and I watched Freakier Friday, and it was an enjoyable movie. We went to an arthouse theater about a year ago and watched the original Disney Freaky Friday, so we still remembered the story beats, characters and whatnot. Freakier Friday pretty played the same story beats as the original, except with a changed dynamic involving four characters switching bodies instead of two. Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis can pretty much play these roles in their sleep at this point. The actresses playing the daughters of the main couple were good enough. There was enough nostalgia in the movie for fans of the original while having its own story for new fans. There was even some Filipino representation in the movie as well, and it had next to no social-political messaging.

I also watched UFC 319: du Plessis vs. Chimaev with friends over the weekend. On the main card, there were two spinning back elbow finishes, which is surprising considering how rare those finishes are. In the main event, challenger Khamzat Chimaev totally dominated Driscus du Plessis, who was the UFC Middleweight Champion at the time of their fight. It was a wrestling-heavy fight with Chimaev just being a wet blanket and du Plessis really having no answer for it. As someone who has been practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for probably over a decade now, it was surprising to me to see du Plessis making some really amateurish mistakes on the ground. Du Plessis went for guillotines and just did not detach his body from Chimaev during takedown exchanges. On the ground, du Plessis was holding onto Chimaev when he should have been trying to create space between them. With fighters like Reiner de Ridder, Nassourdine Imavov, Caio Borralho and Anthony Hernandez waiting in the wings at the UFC Middleweight division, there are no shortage of challengers. However, I do find it difficult in seeing any of them having the abilities to really fend off Chimaev’s wrestling and grappling.

There was a lot of good entertainment in movies and combat sports. Some entertainment is lighter and family-friendly, while other forms of entertainment are filled with violence.