Richard fills in for Barb DiGiulio on NewsTalk 1010’s The Nightside. In this segment he talks to science expert Dan Riskin on why cats are our friends and how champagne corks can move faster than the speed of sound.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Richard fills in for Barb DiGiulio on NewsTalk 1010’s The Nightside. In this segment Richard talks about how wearing jeans at work on casual Fridays has expanded to every day of the week. Then to the nitty-gritty about how most people only wash their jeans every eighteen days!
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Richard fills in for Barb DiGiulio on NewsTalk 1010’s The Nightside. In this segment he asks finance expert Barry Choi, “What’s the difference between being frugal and being cheap?”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Richard fills in for Barb DiGiulio on NewsTalk 1010’s The Nightside. In this segment he talks about entrepreneur Elie Robinson who is revolutionizing the fashion business by introducing clothing options for shorter men.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Richard has a look at the new movies coming to theatres, including Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland in the biopic “Judy,” and the animated Yeti movie “Abominable” and the music doc “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice” with CFRA morning show host Bill Carroll.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
A weekly feature from ctvnews.ca! The Crouse Review is a quick, hot take on the weekend’s biggest and most interesting movies! This week Richard looks at Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland in the biopic “Judy,” and the animated Yeti movie “Abominable” and the music doc “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard sits in on the CJAD Montreal morning show with host Andrew Carter to talk the new movies coming to theatres including Renée Zellweger’s soon-to-be-Oscar-nominated portrayal of Judy Garland in the biopic “Judy,” and the animated homesick Yeti movie “Abominable.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
We’re back! Pop Life returns on Saturday September 28 at 8:30 pm on CTV NewsChannel and midnight on CTV, coast to coast to coast. We’ve been working away over the summer putting together shows and I’m excited to share them with you. This week we start with an in-depth interview with Robbie Robertson. The legendary solo artist and leader of The Band talks about finding a love of music from his relatives on the 6th Nations reservation where his mother was raised, playing at a nightclub called The Skyline because the roof was missing and more! Set your PVR or stay up late with a glass of wine or non-alcoholic beer (whatever floats your boat) and hang out with us.
Later in our fifth season we have great chats with Shania Twain about stage fright, legendary photographer Bob Gruen on his friendship with John Lennon, YouTube sensation Gigi Gorgeous on being true to yourself, Tegan and Sara on high school life and how they knew music was a perfect fit and much, much more.
I’m really happy with Pop Life. In the beginning we set out to make a show that put talk and storytelling at the forefront, that engaged with hot button topics and was fun but not frivolous. I think we’ve done it. That’s a credit to everyone who works on the show from our guiding light Lis Travers, to producer Krystle Hewitt, directors Lesley Hunter and Allan Myers, editor Angelo Altomare, stage manager Steve Trebelco, our wine sponsor Domaine Queylus and the crew who make sure the show looks great every week. A special shout out to Randy Lennox and Wendy Freeman who make it possible for us to do this every week. It’s a pleasure to work with them all and I hope to see their faces at work for a very long time.
While I’m thanking people I want to take a moment to thank everyone who watches. It’s a cliché, I know, but without you tuning in I’d just be screaming into the void, making faces at a camera. I know you have a lot of choice in how you spend your time and I appreciate you spending some of that time with us.
See you all (I hope) on Saturday night!
Mythical creatures pining for home is quickly becoming a sub-genre in animated kid’s films. Earlier this year “Missing Link” gave us a homesick 8-foot-tall Sasquatch who longed for his homeland, the Himalayan mountains. “Abominable,” a new film starring the voice of Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” star Chloe Bennet, sees a Yeti and some newfound friends on a journey to Mount Everest, the highest place on Earth.
Bennet voices Shanghai teenager Yi, a student on summer holiday. Much to the consternation of her single mother and grandmother Yi is never home. What they don’t know is that she’s out doing odd jobs, dog walking, babysitting, working in the garbage pit of a restaurant, to make money to take the trip across China planned by her late father.
Meanwhile, a Yeti (Joseph Izzo) escapes from a research facility into the city. Finding a safe haven on the roof of Yi’s apartment building, he sees a tourism billboard for Mount Everest and becomes wistful for home. Yi, seeking solace on the roof, soon discovers him. Her initial fear is replaced by concern when she finds he’s not nearly as fierce as he looks. “I don’t know where you came from,” she says as a team of Yeti hunters search the city for him, “but you sure don’t belong here.” The two, along with Yi’s cousins, the selfie-obsessed Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor) and playful Peng (Albert Tsai), begin a journey to the Yeti’s homeland while staying one step ahead of megalomaniac exotic animal collector Burnish (Eddie Izzard) and his zoologist Dr. Zara (Sarah Paulson), who wants to chop the creature up in little pieces for experiments.
“Abominable” is not plot heavy. It’s an action-adventure for kids that sees a plucky group of kids bond together to help someone (or something) in need. Simple messages on grief, loss and perseverance (“When things get tough you just keep going,” Yi says helpfully.) provide an emotional subtext but it’s the film’s light touch and visuals that pack the biggest punch.
Director Jill Culton splashes the screen with colour, staging action scenes with giant blueberries and a wave of vivid yellow canola flowers. Even if it starts to feel drawn out as the Yeti uses his magical powers to escape a series of close scrapes with the villains, it’s use of eye-catching animation—check out the koi fish clouds—is very entertaining. Culton learned her craft at Pixar and it shows. She is a clever and compelling visual stylist.
The Yeti, who they nickname Everest, doesn’t speak, unless you count his king-sized burps, but manages to be endearing. He’s an overgrown puppy with the kind of goofy face that is all but guaranteed to see boatloads of stuffed animals. The story may ride the line between cliché and the overly familiar but the well-defined characters, including the lovable creature and the sharp-tongued grandmother Nai Nai (Tsai Chin)—”You need to eat,” she says. “You don’t want to be so short like your mother.”—provide enough of an emotional spine to make up for the story’s shortcomings.
