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

In theatres:

- Last Breath (2025): This based-on-actual-events undersea thriller has some good names attached to it, but it is not an actor's showcase, but rather a gripping slice of reality when commercial divers working on an undersea natural gas pipeline have things go terribly wrong. Woody Harrelson ("Cheers") and Simi Liu ("Kim's Convenience") are Duncan Alcock and Dave Yuasa respectively, working on a North Sea project that requires days of both compression and decompression, to allow them to work at depths that are just scary. When Chris Lemons, their co-worker (Finn Cole) gets caught up in a serious incident at a depth of more than 100 meters, this film, based on the 2017 documentary of the same name, takes a very grave and frightening turn. Dave and Chris are on the seafloor, unaware that above them, the ship that does all the work with their undersea diving bell, keeping them focused on task, is in trouble in exceedingly rough seas, with the computers that manage the ballast offline, causing the entire operation to falter as the ship is pulled off course leaving the two divers deep below the surface

On Netflix:

- Zero Day (Mini-Series) (2025): This political and cyberattack thriller has an exceptional cast, it has excellent talent in its writing and direction, and it is the most Baskin-Robbins-like series of its nature that I have ever seen. The Baskin-Robbins reference is my standard approach to movies and television where audiences are dramatically divided. The reason Baskin-Robbins has 31 flavours is because everyone likes something different. For every fan of Rocky Road, there is a purist who prefers plain vanilla. That's the case here, as Robert De Niro leads a strong cast dealing with what we learn very quickly is a series of cyber-attacks on the United States that are crippling everything from the banking system to airline traffic. De Niro is George Mullin, a much-loved former American President who is recruited by the current administration to investigate the attacks on infrastructure that are devastating at every turn. Also in the cast are Connie Britten ("Friday Night Lights," "Nashville"), Angela Bassett who plays the current U.S. President, Jesse Plemons ("Killers of the Flower Moon") and Joan Allen ("The Bourne Legacy") as former President Mullen's wife

- 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: Al Almeida - Deputy Chief, York Regional Police

Guest: Ranj Pillai - Yukon Premier

Do Canadians view Americans as the enemy? (0:41)

Guest: Ann Fitz-Gerald - Director, Balsillie School of International Affairs; Professor, Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University

How do you feel about Universal Basic Income (7:21)

Guest: Evelyn Forget - Distinguished professor, Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba

Rotating strikes at LifeLabs across B.C. (14:52)

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

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

Guest: Ann Fitz-Gerald - Director, Balsillie School of International Affairs; Professor, Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University

Guest: Claire Newell - President/Founder Travel Best Bets

Guest: Evelyn Forget - Distinguished professor, Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba

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

In theatres:

- The Monkey (2025): Based on a short story by Stephen King, the billing on this blood-soaked thriller is that of "horror," but "horror-comedy" might be more appropriate, being as there are many laughs along the way despite the gore and the terrible deaths at every turn. Set in the State of Maine, typical of many Stephen King stories, this one was actually shot in and around Maple Ridge, and in the Vancouver area. It's the story of two boys, twins, played by Christiane Convery ("Cocaine Bear") as early teens, and later by Theo James as adults. The boys, Hal and Bill respectively, live in an odd home environment, their father being a pilot and missing, their mother a homemaker who seems only capable of serving them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for supper. One boy, Hal, is quiet and picked-upon at school, while the other, Bill, born 15 minutes earlier, is a diabolical kid sworn to torment his brother for all time

- The Unbreakable Boy (2025): This is a faith-based movie from Jon Gunn, the same director responsible for "The Jesus Revolution" last year that starred Kelsey Grammer ("Frasier") as the real-life preacher Chuck Smith who opened to doors of his church to the Hippies in California in the last '60s and early '70s, thereby changing the look and the feel of what it meant to be a person of faith. This time Gunn directs and co-writes the script for another story based-on-actual-events with a much smaller focus. Based on the memoir by Scott Lerette, Gunn introduces us to Scott, a young man with a vision and a five-year-plan for his future that comes undone when he meets Teresa (Megan Fahy). Scott, played by Zachary Levi ("Shazam") falls for Teresa after meeting her in a retail store, soon they are an item, and almost as soon, she tells him that she is pregnant. That presents issues that the couple have to face as Teresa suffers from a genetic condition called "brittle bone disease" which makes her very prone to having her bones break from activities that would be safe for people without the affliction

On Netflix:

- Surviving Blackhawk Down (Mini-Series) (2025): This is not your father's "Blackhawk Down," the based-on-actual-events movie from 2001 that told the story of 160 elite American soldiers on a mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October of 1993. Instead, this three-part miniseries takes a clinical look at what actually happened, combining archive footage and interviews with those who survived the event. Ridley Scott directed the original, which starred Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, and Tom Sizemore to name just a few, and his company plays a strong hand in the documentary which tells a story in graphic terms, and does not hesitate to do a lot of finger-pointing. I liked the way that those being interviewed in the present, were shown in the past, younger, fitter, and largely ready to go to war feeling indestructible and invulnerable

Guest: Jason Tetro - Microbiologist with specialty in studying emerging pathogens; host of Super Awesome Science Show