Genre Character of the Week: John Russell

As a Canadian and a Genre fan, I'm always happy to talk about books and movies that show my fellow countrymen (and women) can tell great stories in the Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction genres.  Today I'm actually going to look at the film that won the first Genie Award (the Canadian Oscars - actually, to be fair, this didn't win the first one, but it did win the first one after the award changed it's name from the Canadian Film Award), Peter Medak's The Changeling, which stared George C. Scott as this week's genre character, John Russell.

In the aftermath of a personal tragedy, John moves into an old mansion in Seattle and attempts to put his life back together.  Unfortunately for John, the house isn't exactly empty.

What I really like about John is the fact that he didn't simply run away screaming as soon as things went strange in the house, instead he worked to understand the how and the why of the situation.

The movie is pretty great, also for those of you who have seen The Conjuring earlier this year, it's pretty obvious that at least two key scenes are heavily influenced by the earlier film.

It's definitely worth a watch.

Things I've Noticed: My Canadian Content is way up!

For those of you who are not from Canada, we actually have laws here which state that any TV or radio station should play a certain amount of Canadian Content each day. Growing up in Canada this mostly meant that my radio played a lot of Corey Heart and Brian Adams, and virtually every kid I ever met could sing along with this animated short which played every Saturday morning before the real (American) cartoons came on the air.

It’s kind of funny, but as I was making up my yearly list of TV show finales, I realized that I currently watch a lot of Canadian content. Each week I’m enjoying Hiccups, Dan for Mayor, and especially The Bridge (a cop drama featuring Aaron Douglas from Battlestar Galactica - pictured right). In addition to that I’m a pretty big fan of Being Erica, 18 to Life, and Little Mosque on the Prairie too.

Just like I’ve seen every Oscar winner for Best Picture, I’ve worked my way through a majority of the Genie Awards (the Canadian Oscars), and have made a point of seeing Canadian films whenever they play in my local theatre. As I was writing this I wonder – how many of your own local productions do you go out and see (even if you are American, how many productions from your own State do you see) as opposed to more mainstream fair?

I definitely think that you shouldn’t limit yourself to only your local stuff, but at the same time, if you are from the place where something is made – shouldn’t you check it out? Just some food for thought – Bookmonkey.