Guest: Rick Forchuk - TV Week Magazine Columnist and CKNW Contributor

In theatres:

- Mickey 17 (2025): This sci-fi film from director/writer Bong Joon Ho (Academy Award winner for "Parasite") was, for me, and exercise in patience, trying to sit through 2 hours and 17 minutes of complete drivel, a film that should never have made it into theatres. I like sci-fi, and I like new ideas, but what I do not like is a movie that takes advantage of its audience as if to say, "hah! You paid your money, you are in your theatre seat and not likely to leave, so we will indulge ourselves with a script that goes nowhere, a story that is about as interesting as watching paint dry or grass grow, and performances which just didn't work. The story is set in the middle of this century, a future time when two things are in play - one is the ability to 3D print a human being, and the other is a spaceship full of people led by a megalomaniac politician and his wife (Mark Ruffalo and Tony Collette) headed for a new world to colonize. The 3D printing comes into play early on when Mickey (Robert Pattinson from "Twilight") accidentally signs up for the program - he is killed each and every day in a different way, and overnight the scientists studying how he reacted to death, 3D print a new body for him, complete with his memories and personality which are on a hard drive that is used each day.

- Night of the Zoopocalypse (2024): With many kids out of school for March Break it's good to see theatres stocking up with kid-friendly movies to keep the little yard rats and ankle-biters out of their parents' hair and enjoying films made just for them. This one, a zombie-thriller, has a theme that is right out of the adult-themed films such as the Walking Dead movies and others of that ilk, but the horror aspect is ratcheted down a whole lot. The setting is a regular zoo filled with such friendly creatures as a timber wolf, an ostrich, a mountain lion, a hippo, a bunny, and a lowland gorilla. The voices are done by such actors as David Harbour from "Stranger Things," Canadian Scott Thompson from "The Kids in the Hall," and other Canadian voices including "Kim's Convenience" actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, which speaks to the fact that the film was made in Toronto. The story takes a dramatic left turn when a meteor crashes into the zoo, which happens to be carrying a virus which turns many of the zoo animals into undead zombies which run rampant on an innocent population. It's up to the mountain lion and the wolf to work together and find a way to protect families, and to get the zombie animals back to normal. There is enough here to keep mom and dad fully engaged, and plenty to have youngsters on the edges of their seats as the threat to regular people becomes more intense ... but not so intense as to adversely frighten young viewers.

On Netflix:

- Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval (2024): It has been almost three years since Ellen's top-rated daytime talk show left the airwaves after 19 very successful seasons, and the story-behind-the-story has been slowly leaking out over the subsequent months and years like air out of an air mattress. It was during her final season that issues began to surface, suggesting that the environment on the show among the many employees was viewed as "toxic," that Ellen was a mean-spirited boss, and that a change was needed. From that came her decision to walk away from what was a huge money-maker for the studio, Warner Bros, and for the sponsors. In this one-hour-plus standup comedy set in front of a large audience, Ellen mixes some of her signature humour along with a surprisingly candid number of comments about her departure from the show that bore her name. She is quite specific in that her departure was not voluntary - she didn't jump, she was pushed - and that being a gay person had a lot to do with that, although it was wrapped up in the story of the toxic work environment rather than being out there as the real reason.

Guest: Paul Finch - President, B.C. General Employees' Union (BCGEU)

Guest: Charles-Étienne Beaudry - Professor of political studies at the University of Ottawa and author of the book Radio Trump: How he won the first time

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Guest: Laura Dawson - Executive Director, Future Borders Coalition