Heavy-handed new AMC series has potential

Baruchel soulful in role as frustrated Canuck daredevil

For better and worse, the name of the barely famous Canadian stunt driver Ken Carter (a.k.a. The Mad Canadian) will always be associated with the name of his much more famous American counterpart Evel Knievel.

Both men made their livings cheating death, jumping vehicles over a series of ever-more-daunting barriers, breaking records and bones in equal measure.

Carter’s career was, well, just more Canadian, which is to say obscure. After Knievel unsuccessfully tried to fly a motorcycle over Snake River Canyon in Idaho, Carter got the notion of flying a Lincoln Continental a whole mile over a stretch of the St. Lawrence River as the ultimate challenge of his career.

What followed was not so much a test of courage but endurance, as Carter kept cancelling the jump over a period of years, determined to do it without killing himself in the process.

Concrete doc befits brutalist Winnipeg

Moviegoers across North America are pounding the pavement and lining up around the block to see The History of Concrete, small-screen documentarian John Wilson’s feature-length debut.

Heavy-handed new AMC series has potential

Halt and Catch Fire has a lot going for it.

The series has a teasingly intriguing premise (the early days of the computer revolution in the '80s) and it's set in a place most in the viewing audience might not expect (Texas). It also features some smart performances and a sense that the story could go in surprising places.

Yet, judging from the pilot (which is all AMC made available for review), it's also afflicted with a bad case of heavy hands. The first time we see former IBM exec Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace), a swaggering Don Draper-meets-Steve Jobs New Yorker who believes computers are the key to unlocking the future, he's speeding around a shockingly traffic-free Austin in a Porsche, callously running over a slow-moving armadillo in the process.

Later, while playing with a baseball bat, viewers see that it's inscribed with the words "swing for the fences, son."

Potential Jets backup options include two possible netminder reunions

Kevin Cheveldayoff couldn’t help but make light of the situation.

Near the end of the press conference to discuss where things stand with training camp holdout Connor Hellebuyck, the general manager of the Jets was asked if he felt comfortable with the five goalies who were in training camp.

“You know I can’t have five on the roster,” Cheveldayoff quipped.

Only Cheveldayoff knows for sure how he feels about the organizational depth at the position and whether he’s planning to open the campaign with either Dom DiVincentiis or Thomas Milic in the backup role behind Stuart Skinner.

Well-known Brandon-born rock drummer Sutherland dies at age 58

Chris (Suds) Sutherland, a Brandon-born drummer who was the driving force behind many top artists in the Canadian music industry, has died at 58.

Sutherland is widely praised throughout North America as a talented percussionist with an extensive discography.

He performed with such Canadian music legends as Kim Mitchell, Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Streetheart and others.

Sutherland brought presence and “plow” when he played, Tina Faye said about her husband.