In the first season of the CBC drama Arctic Air, TV audiences were introduced to the struggling airline located in Yellowknife (the capital and largest city of the Northwest Territories in Canada) and the team of people risking everything, even, in some cases, their lives, in order to keep the business from going under. Among the high-flyers is Blake Laviolette,...
Blu-ray Review: Jack & Diane
Following a troubled preproduction history that saw the recasting of its two leads, Jack & Diane landed in all of two cinemas in November, 2012. It deserves to find a much wider audience now that it’s available on home video. It gained a misleading reputation as a “lesbian werewolf” film; a kind of romance-horror hybrid. I understand that many people...
On the Hunt: Interview with The Following’s Shawn Ashmore
As the good guy mutant Bobby Drake/Iceman in the hit X-Men feature film franchise, Shawn Ashmore battled a bevy of superhuman baddies. In his current role of FBI Special Agent Mike Weston in the new Fox TV crime thriller The Following (premiering Monday, January 21 at 9:00 p.m. EST/PST), the handsome and talented actor is pitted against an equally dangerous...
Blu-ray Review: The Jackson 5ive – The Complete Animated Series
Classic Media has revived a true gem for fans of The Jackson Five. Now available on Blu-ray is The Jackson 5ive, an animated series produced by Rankin/Bass (best known for their stop-motion holiday specials) that ran for two seasons in 1971-72. All 23 episodes (17 from season one, the remaining six from season two) are included on two discs. The...
Lucky Lady: Gabrielle Bell on The Voyeurs
As the title of her award-winning series, Lucky, suggests, Gabrielle Bell has lived what some might call a charmed life…and with good reason. Her work as both a cartoonist and diarist has been widely praised by critics, fans and her fellow professionals alike. One of her tales was adapted for a film by director Michel Gondry. And her announced intention...
Homeworld Bound: Mark Wheatley on Webcomic The Return of the Human
As might have become obvious by now, I’m a huge fan of Mark Wheatley’s comics. His latest project—The Return of the Human, which is now running online as part of the first slate of titles from a major new webcomics consortium—is a perfect example of why I’m so intrigued with his work. It’s a graphic novel that incorporates the best...
Loving Hating Breitbart
Those of us who knew Andrew Breitbart fairly well are still in a state of shock that he’s gone. I first learned about his passing the way I’ve learned of many things over the years, by logging onto The Drudge Report early one morning. At first it was just a shocking headline saying “Dead at 43” but then came the...
Blu-ray Review: Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines
Nearly ten years after the original Wrong Turn scared up modest box office returns, the franchise lurches forward with the fifth entry, Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines. This one, like its immediate predecessor, is a prequel—not that it really matters whether or not you’ve seen any of the others. All you need to know is that One Eye (Radoslav Parvanov), Saw...
Johnny Lewis and Scientology’s Criminal Behavior
As I write this article, actor Johnny Lewis is ranked #1 on the STARmeter on the Internet Movie Database Pro version. At #2 is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, currently appearing in the #1 movie Looper with Bruce Willis (who is ranked #19 on the STARmeter). Unfortunately, the ranking won’t help his career, because Johnny Lewis is dead, at age 28. Lewis died...
Clapton’s Slowhand to Receive 35th Anniversary Edition Releases
Eric Clapton has a body of work that spans many of the decades that rock and roll has been around. With his developing work with The Yardbirds supergroup, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, and Derek & The Dominoes, and his naturally occurring solo efforts that began with the Delaney Bramlett-produced Eric Clapton eponymous release, Clapton has left fans with...