SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of: This is a new documentary seen on Netflix. It shows the backstory of the Canadian iconic comedy show which ran from 1976 until 1984. I remember watching this show back in the day at high school. Born out of the Canadian experiment from Second City in Chicago, American Joe Flaherty came to Toronto with the idea to recruit new talent in Toronto for a new improv show. Improv is comedy made up on the spot with suggestions for topics suggested by the audience, and performed within minutes thereafter. There is only so much that the cast members can know ahead of time. Having watched previous documentaries on Martin Short and John Candy I knew a number of the things brought forth here for this. Still it was good to see the cast members, especially Catherine O’Hara who just passed away a few months ago.

Interviews include Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis, Martin Short, Eugene Levy along with non-SCTV alumni Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul), Conan O’Brien and Bill Hader among others talking about the past and bringing the show to the Canadian viewing audience. We learn that Harold Ramis was a key early days writer, and was someone who the group wanted to impress. The Improv didn’t catch on straight away as there were only the actors themselves, without support of hair and makeup and costumes, and they just worked on material with a very limited budget ($7000 a show to pay for everything including the actors). I find that the title of this documentary is misleading because if you grew up as a teen in the 1980s in Canada, you knew SCTV. You would talk about with your friends at school You certainly would know Bob & Doug McKenzie (Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis). Funnily enough in Canada we had a chuckle with the Spacex spacecraft in 2020 which was piloted by two astronauts named Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. It is sad to see that so many alumnus are gone and young with John Candy (43yo), Harold Ramis (69) Joe Flaherty (82), Tony Rosato (62) and now Catherine O’Hara (71). When you’re in your 60s, the 70s don’t seem very old at all! This was a chance to see some old friends and have them reminisce over younger days. There was some tension when Dave Thomas talked about the McKenzie brothers days, which made him profit more than some of the other troop members. Yet, interestingly Hollywood to various degrees has come calling for these early improv adopters. They created some very memorable characters and paved the way for others like The Kids in the Hall to perform their sketch comedy. It seems that we in Canada, may not have as “well known” comedy TV as Saturday Night Live, but we still create plenty Hollywood movie stars. We are told in this documentary that Lorne Michaels famously told John Candy when he auditioned for Saturday Night Live that he “shouldn’t quit his day job”. Well John Candy had the last laugh on that interaction. This was well worth watching, especially for those like me who grew up on this show.

Godzilla Minus Zero: This is a sequel to the well received Godzilla Minus One from back in 2023. Back then, we saw the more emotional than expected monster movie show the initial story from the Japanese producers for this “God of Monsters”. I went to see this in IMAX in a two-thirds full theatre on Friday night. It is in Japanese with English subtitles. I will say that when I was a young elementary student in the 70s, on the local Buffalo TV station (Channel 29) they would have a Creature Feature Week with 60s era movies replayed. Godzilla was front and centre, with movies with various monsters like Mothra, Ghidorah or even King Kong. Godzilla was typically the monster the audience would be cheering for, and the Japanese characters would as well too. In truth it was really a couple of actors in monster suits jumping around and wrestling on a railway set with trees, trains and tanks. It was more comical when the actual fighting began, but it filled the time after school.

With the advent of continuing and improving Computer Graphics, long gone are the days of an actor in a dragon suit. The visuals associated with the monsters and how they interact and destroy Japanese cities is very real. In this sequel set in the aftermath of WWII, and the nuclear bombs dropped in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we have once again a more emotional movie with a compelling anti-war, anti-nuclear message. The film reunites Ryunosuke Kamiki as Koichi Shikishima, and his romantic interest Minami Hamabe as Noriko Oishi as young adults who are raising an orphan in war torn Japan. Shikishima was a kamikaze pilot who lost his nerve deciding against going through with his mission at the end of what he felt was a lost war. He met Godzilla for the first time and froze once more in trying to free and fight for his compatriots. He was viewed as a failure and a coward. By the end of this first movie he had redeemed himself. War and monsters don’t rest for the perceived heroes.

I jokingly refer to this movie as Godzilla Gets Gonorrheaed! Now that is a play on words because in reality the newly introduced monster character in this is Ghidorah, a dragon like flying monster. This dragon. as well as Godzilla are both formidable monsters. There is a (short) epic battle with humans participating more than you may think that they could effectively do. I do like the fact that the movie doesn’t shy away from the emotional aspects of war with its destruction and death. This holds truth for monster attacks as well. There are characters suffering from PTSD, memories of the war as well as the further destruction from Godzilla when he last attacked and was repelled back into the ocean. There are Godzilla orphans that are seen, as well as veterans who have their own resentments to deal with. The one city, Ginza a district of Tokyo, was virtually leveled in the first movie as Godzilla utilized his devastating attacks in addition to his mammoth size. People are justifiably terrified of another Godzilla attack. I give nothing away by saying that Godzilla returns in this sequel that was heavily hinted at the end of the first. For me, I found the human story with Shikishima less compelling but there were other stories that picked up the slack. There are real risks with consequences for anyone who looks to take on any monster, whether it is Godzilla or Ghidorah, and acting parents justifiably are concerned about a young daughter. Further there is a Pressure movie weather angle that was unexpected but useful. Pressure of course was the Andrew Scott movie that I recently reviewed about the D-Day landings in June 1944 where the weather and its forecast played a crucial role in the success on the day, and turning the tide on the war. In addition there is an arch where the dreaded Americans have inserted themselves into the plot while previously wanting to allow the Japanese to deal with their own “Monster Problem”. There are 2026 implications and messages delivered in a story that is set back in the 1950s.

So for me, this didn’t have the emotional impact as the predecessor. It took a long time to have Godzilla appear, which is understandable, but when the expected royal rumble is finally set, it was not as I had expected. Overall, it is technical wonder at getting these images on screen. There are incredible scenes with massive monsters battling in a city that has been previously destroyed in large measure. This is an IMAX picture, but unlike The Odyssey where you know Christopher Nolan had his actors working with these massive cameras, I didn’t see the difference here as much and I don’t feel that it was worth the extra money. In short, if you like the monster genre, this is decent. There is no need to rush out to see in IMAX. There will be more Godzilla movies.