On the Saturday November 29, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet musician, composer, performer, author, professor, and tech innovator Paul Hoffert.
In 1969, Hoffert co-founded Lighthouse with drummer Skip Prokop, creating Canada’s first 13-piece rock orchestra blending rock, jazz horns, and strings. Hits like “One Fine Morning” (#24 US, #2 Canada) propelled millions of records sold, three Juno Awards, world tours, and openers for Duke Ellington. Hoffert played keys/vibraphone and arranged until 1974; the band reunited in 1992 and continues today.
Today we’ll talk about the release of “One Fine Morning (Anniversary Edition),” which is now available on limited edition three-colour-splatter vinyl, sun/moon vinyl, double CD and digitally. This is the first-ever fully remixed, remastered and expanded edition of the platinum-selling band’s breakthrough 1971 release.
Then, we meet filmmaker Tasha Hubbard. Based on her own documentary Birth of a Family, her movie “Meadowlarks,” in theatres now, stars top Indigenous actors Michael Greyeyes, Carmen Moore, Alex Rice and Michelle Thrush as four Cree siblings, separated since childhood and now in their fifties, who agree to meet for the first time over a holiday weekend in Banff. The siblings were part of the 60s Scoop (1951-1991), seized by the government and placed in non-Indigenous homes.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
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I review the number one film in the world, “Zootopia 2” for CTVNews.ca.
“It makes for a densely packed, candy-coloured confection that lacks the cleverness of the original film, but still delivers a fun, although sometimes repetitive, experience for all ages…” Read the whole thing HERE!
Deb Hutton is off today, so I sit in with Jim Richards on NewsTalk 1010 to go over some of the week’s biggest entertainment stories and let you know what’s happening in theatres. We talk about a new study that suggests fame can take as many years off a musician’s life as occasionally smoking cigarettes, an infomercial pitchman running for Congress, Macaulay Culkin’s new name and a quick review of “Zootopia 2.”
In this week’s episode of Entertainment Is Broken, Richard Crouse and Sarah Hanlon head back to Oz to poke at Hollywood’s favourite security blanket… the sequel. Are follow-ups actually good for storytelling, or just very good for spreadsheets?
Along the way, Richard also shares something a lot more personal than box office numbers: a major health scare that hit in the middle of recording last week’s episode. From there, the show pivots from billion-dollar franchises to the simple fact that none of this matters much if your health falls apart.
Wicked: For Good’s billion-dollar moment
Why Universal is already quietly building the “Wicked Cinematic Universe”… and whether that’s exciting, inevitable, or just exhausting.
Sequels vs storytelling
Are follow-ups expanding worlds or just recycling IP until the wheels fall off?
When sequels work: Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, Zootopia 2, Star Trek’s new shows, the King of the Hill revival.
When they absolutely don’t: from Jaws 3D to remakes like the new Hand That Rocks The Cradle that bring nothing new to the table.
Comfort food culture
Richard makes the case that sequels and remakes are the entertainment equivalent of meatloaf: familiar, comforting… and maybe crowding out anything that asks us to try a new flavour.
If the internet promised we’d all get giant “Martians from Mars Attacks” brains, why do we keep using it to find more of the same thing we already like?
Nostalgia vs originality
Is Hollywood just giving people what they want, or training us to stop wanting anything else?
Sarah defends sequels that evolve with the times, while Richard worries about the space they take up on the cultural shelf.
This week’s headlines
Before they dive fully into sequel madness, Richard and Sarah run through a packed slate of entertainment stories:
Jimmy Cliff remembered
From The Harder They Come to a soundtrack that helped make reggae a global force, Richard looks back at a genuine titan and what it meant that his film ran for over a year in one New York theatre.
Donald Glover’s health scare
A stroke, heart surgery, and a reminder that behind every “tour cancelled” headline is a human being whose body just called time out. Richard connects it with his own Bell’s palsy diagnosis mid-podcast last week… and why health really is the only non-negotiable.
Guns N’ Roses back on the road (again)
Axl, Slash, Duff and co are returning with Canadian dates, some new music, and, apparently, shows that actually start on time now. Miracles happen.
Farewell to Udo Kier
The ultimate “I know that guy” actor, popping up in everything from art-house classics to Armageddon. Richard and Sarah unpack why he made bad movies better and good movies unforgettable.
Joni Mitchell & Nelly Furtado get their flowers
Lifetime honours at the Junos for two Canadian icons, plus Richard’s story about Joni, a cigarette, and a very polite attempt at enforcing no-smoking rules that did not go as planned.
Graham Linehan’s harassment case
A British comedy figure cleared of one charge, found guilty on another… and a frank conversation about harassment, hate, and how hard it is to separate “beloved creator” from the harm they cause.
Richard Branson’s loss
The death of his wife, Joan Templeman, and what it means to be the public face of an empire while someone else is holding your life together offstage.
Michael Cera & Pamela Anderson in small-town Ontario
Cera’s directorial debut, Love Is Not The Answer, is shooting in Carleton Place with Pamela Anderson in a leading role. Richard shares what it was like to host her onstage post-documentary, and why her current reinvention feels a lot like a long-overdue course correction.
Jay Kelly, streaming vs cinema, and James Cameron’s line in the sand
A discussion of the George Clooney/Adam Sandler/Laura Dern dramedy Jay Kelly, why it feels like a throwback to mid-2000s grown-up movies… and whether streaming-first releases should be chasing Oscars in the same way theatrical films do.
So… do we really need another one?
By the time Richard and Sarah circle back to sequels, they’ve landed on a pretty simple tension:
Sequels can absolutely be great.
They can deepen characters, speak to the moment they’re released in, and give artists a second (or seventh) swing at a world they love.
But when they’re treated as a safety net instead of a creative choice…
They become a way to avoid risk, to feed nostalgia on loop, and to crowd out smaller, stranger, more empathetic stories that don’t come pre-branded.
Or as Sarah puts it: the problem isn’t that we get another one… it’s when “another one” is the only thing we’re allowed to get.
Listen to the episode
In this episode of Entertainment Is Broken, you’ll get:
Smart, funny, slightly exasperated sequel chat
Deep-cut film and TV references you can steal for your next argument
A reminder to go see something without a number in the title
And a host doing the show with half his face temporarily offline because… show must go on
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the animated “Zootopia 2,” the existential romance of “Eternity,” the detective story “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” and the touching story of “Meadowlarks.”
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I tell you about a the movie “Hamnet” and some literary cocktails to enjoy with the movie!
Click to HERE to listen to Shane and me talk about about a record price for a Superman comic, what movie Macaulay Culkin watches with his kids and Guinness gravy!
Then, it’s “To shake, or not to shake; that is the question”! To hear the Booze & Reviews look at “Hamnet” and some Shakespearean cocktails to enjoy while watching this flick click HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the animated “Zootopia 2,” the historical drama “Hamnet” and the touching story of “Meadowlarks.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” a new whodunnit now playing in theatres before switching to Netflix on December 12, Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is thrust into a hellish new case involving a fist-fighting priest, his congregation and a murder most foul. “The devil didn’t do this,” Blanc announces, “a parishioner did. The devil’s just jealous he didn’t think of it first.”
CAST: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church. Directed by Rian Johnson.
REVIEW: A tribute to locked-room mysteries, Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and novelist John Dickson Carr, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” mixes spirituality and death in a story that crackles with life.
The action begins when rebellious young priest Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is assigned to a parish called Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude in upstate New York to work with hellfire preacher Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin).
The two butt heads, and when the charismatic Monsignor turns up dead amid mysterious circumstances, the congregation including tightly wound lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), author Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), former concert cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), politician Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), town doctor Dr. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner) and church matriarch Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close) suspect Father Jud to be the doer of the dirty deed. “I came here to save souls,” Father Jud says, “not count stab wounds.”
As the local police, led by chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) investigate, Benoit Blanc, “the world’s greatest detective,” played by Daniel Craig, sorts through the clues to bring his own expertise to the case. “This was dressed as a miracle,” Blanc says, “it’s just a murder. And I solve murders.”
The most fleet-footed, and best, entry in the “Knives Out” franchise, the star-studded “Wake Up Dead Man” benefits from the chemistry between Craig, as Southern detective Blanc and the young priest played by O’Connor. Their scenes pop with energy and mystery, while Josh Brolin, as an unpredictable priest, brings an unexpected sense of menace.
Director Rian Johnson carefully reveals clues, building the on the whodunnit part of the mystery, but it’s the whydunit that gives the movie some unexpected depth. No spoilers here but Johnson, who also wrote the script, infuses the story with different kinds of spirituality. Wicks is all fire and brimstone, Judd preaches mercy, and the film asks, which is more effective, fear or love? Complete with the startling image of a bleeding cross, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” is a look not just at sinners, but their sins as well, wrapped up in an entertaining mystery.
SYNOPSIS: In “Zootopia 2,” the decade-in-the-making-sequel to the 2016 Oscar winner, Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman voice odd couple, undercover police partners on the most important case of their lives.
CAST: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Shakira, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Patrick Warburton, and Quinta Brunson. Directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard.
REVIEW: Picking up immediately after the event of the first film, the 2016 Oscar-winning animated hit “Zootopia,” the action takes place in the titular city, a big bustling metropolis run by the mammal descendants of the city’s founder, Ebeneezer Lynxley.
Fresh off solving a career making conspiracy case, the eager police officer rabbit Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and con-artist-turned-cop Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), are stumbling all over themselves to convince Chief Bogo (Idris Elba), their cape buffalo chief of police, that they aren’t one-trick-ponies, or foxes or rabbits.
“Some are questioning whether you should be partners in the first place,” Bogo tells them.
When Judy finds a piece of snakeskin, a rarity in a place where mammals don’t trust reptiles, she’s thinks it’s the first clue in her next big case.
With a reluctant Nick by her side, Judy tries to discover why pit viper Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan) is back in town, why there’s no snakes in Zootopia and why everyone wants to get their paws on a mysterious old book that predates the town.
A mishmash of puns, old-school movie references and action delivered at supersonic speed, “Zootopia 2” threatens to careen out of control but strays on track to deliver a family friendly crime caper with plenty of laughs and heart.
Directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard, working from a script by Bush, lay it on thick for all members of the family. It’s probably the first kid’s flick about gentrification, which will likely fly over the heads of the younger set, but the vibrant animation and frenetic action should keep kids entertained while adults will catch the endless puns—Gnu Jersey anyone?—and call backs to “Ratatouille,” “The Godfather,” “Silence of the Lambs” and the original movie among others.
It makes for a densely packed, candy coloured confection that lacks the cleverness of the original film but still delivers a fun, although sometimes repetitive, experience for all ages.
On the Saturday November 29, 2025 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet musician, composer, performer, author, professor, and tech innovator Paul Hoffert.
