
Real Steel
What happens when you care more about a junkyard robot than half the humans onscreen? Ocean and Jim break down the strange, unexpected heart of Real Steel—where underdogs come in all shapes, sizes, and alloys.
Ocean Murff is a Business Intelligence Data Architect at Oregon Health & Sciences University by day. By night, he can be found pulling apart movies in his hidden home theater and podcasting about his personal movie theories. He’s been a regular host of The Film Board, co-host of The Saturday Matinée, and host of the upcoming show, The Adrian Moment: A Podcast about Movies about Sports on TruStory FM coming Spring 2024.
🎙️ Subscribe to The Adrian Moment
🎙️ Subscribe to The Film Board
🎙️ Subscribe to The Saturday Matinée
What happens when you care more about a junkyard robot than half the humans onscreen? Ocean and Jim break down the strange, unexpected heart of Real Steel—where underdogs come in all shapes, sizes, and alloys.
This week, Ocean Murff and Jim Pullen review For Love of the Game, the 1999 Kevin Costner film that is as much about loss as it is about baseball. It is a film where the act of throwing a baseball is about memory, regret, and the search for meaning in the final moments of a career.
Ocean Murff and Jim Pullen set out on an odyssey of their own, peeling back the layers of myth and spectacle surrounding Hidalgo, the 2004 film that dares to ask whether a man and his horse can outrun not just their rivals, but their own pasts.
What if a boxing match could change the trajectory of global politics? What if a single speech, delivered in the heat of a fictional Soviet arena, could thaw decades of ideological frost? In this episode of The Adrian Moment, Ocean Murff and Jim Pullen step into the ring—not to throw punches, but to wrestle with the idea that Sylvester Stallone’s 1985 classic Rocky IV might have done more than entertain; it might have shifted the tectonic plates of geopolitics.
Ocean and Jim tackle the ’90s sports comedy Necessary Roughness, debating its merits as both a heartwarming underdog story and a “sick movie” best enjoyed with your brain turned off. Join them as they uncover the hidden depths of this surprisingly complex comedy, exploring its relevance to the modern world of college sports and celebrating the comedic genius of Sinbad.
From high school fields to Hollywood’s portrayal of college football, Ocean Murff and Jim Pullen explore the pervasive influence of the game on and off the screen. Join them as they dissect the 1993 film “The Program,” exploring themes of ambition, ethics, and the pressures faced by athletes, sparked by the complex character of Steve Latimer.
Did Ron Shelton steal our catchphrases? Ocean and Jim uncover a bizarre connection to “White Men Can’t Jump,” unearthing a shared history with the film’s most iconic lines and exploring the movie’s surprisingly relevant themes in a conversation that’s part nostalgic trip, part existential crisis.
Can a rugby team heal a nation divided? On this episode of The Adrian Moment, we delve into Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus” and explore Nelson Mandela’s gamble to unite South Africa through the power of sport.
Join Ocean and Jim as they unravel the mysteries of tennis scoring and dive into the epic rivalry of “Borg vs McEnroe.” Discover how these legendary players’ contrasting paths to greatness make for a captivating story on and off the court.
This week, Ocean Murff and Jim Pullen dissect the 2004 film “Miracle,” which tells the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s unlikely victory over the powerhouse Soviet Union squad.