Movie Thought Of The Day

The best scene in The Shawshank Redemption.

Especially now.


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Spring 1985: Switchback!

Unfortunately, this 14-second clip is all that survives of the Calgary edition of Switchback, a Sunday-morning teen-themed show that ran on  CBC for about five or six years.

But no matter.

Because my sister Jacquie and I sure remember getting up early Sunday mornings in Edmonton for a year and a half to watch a mix of teen topics music, fun, and two 60s Batman episodes to boot!

And the host for a lot of that time was one Humble Howard, a former standup comic who also was a DJ at Calgary's KIK FM at the time.

With all that experience under his belt, Howard was witty and quick on his feet. He really knew how to keep the show moving.

Jacquie and I thought it would be cool to meet him on the week Dad got us tickets for, as he lived in Calgary at that time..

Unfortunately, that was also the week that Humble Howard got himself fired.

So our host was Johnny Danger.

And it was still cool.

Somebody (unfortunately not us) won a then-state-of-the-art 4 head VCR.

We noticed that the Switchback set was much smaller than it appeared on TV.

And we learned the four rules of live TV, from Len Perry, the friendly and energetic floor director.

1) Never look directly into the camera.
2) Waving or saying "Hi Mom" into said camera is not cool.
3) When Len waved his hand in a circle, we were to clap.
4)When Len did this quickly, we were to clap longer.

Jacquie and I were somewhat experienced at this already, having been to several of Edmonton's ACT Teleramas at that point.

But  it was still very cool!

To provide some idea of what Switchback was like, here's a clip from the Vancouver edition with Stu Jeffries, introducing a very iconic piece of 80s tech:





And a clip from what I believe is the first edition of Switchback in the Maritimes:







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Country Rock Rocks! (Sometimes That is...)

New Tenet Trailer

OK, now we understand a little more.

And yet, there is still enough mystery for this to be mind-blowing.

"No, you're not shooting the bullet. You're catching it".

Wow..

Christopher Nolan's Tenet should be incredible when it hits theatres soon (no one being sure of the July 17 release date for obvious reasons).


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Top Gun: Maverick Super Bowl Trailer

Time to also get excited about the Christmas season release of Top Gun: Maverick. Not only because Tom Cruise seems to have not aged a day since the summer of 1986. But also because, in these days of airborne CGI Transformers and the like, the movie's flying sequences were done practically. All in keeping with Cruise's quest for absolute authenticity and pushing limits, as seen in the above clip:

Can't wait for the film to hit theatres on December 23.

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No Time To Die: Super Bowl Trailer

Time to get the anticipation building for Daniel Craig's last turn as James Bond. Bond returns to action after several years in retirement to find that...things have definitely changed.

Things should be interesting and exciting on November 25.

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An Apple For Tom Hanks: Greyhound Trailer

Today Apple acquired the Tom Hanks WWII movie Greyhound from Sony, which had pulled it off of its July 12 theatrical release due to the pandemic. So Apple TV+ will release it on a yet-to-be-determined date.

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