Jim publishes TechnoFile Magazine. Jim is an affiliate with the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada and his careers have included journalist, technology retailer, video store pioneer, and syndicated columnist; he does a biweekly column on CBC Radio One's The Business Network.
Can a minivan be sporty?
Well, I guess it depends on your definition of "sporty," but the current Toyota Sienna comes as close to being a "sports van" as any I've driven over the years. Oh, Porschefiles and aficionados of stuff like "Zoom-Zoom" may not find it truly sporty, and in the grand scheme of things it probably isn't, but I find it quite amazing just how driveable this minivan is.
Even with a damn CVT transmission!
The Subaru Forester was arguably the company's first SUV, though it may have seemed more like a tall wagon than a Sport Ute. Since then, the company has expanded its SUV offerings, but the Forester is still around and there are still a lot of things to like about it.
It's still my favourite Subaru, in fact, one which I would have put one on my short list back in the day had I been in the market. And the stuff that made that Forester so compelling then are still there: symmetrical all-wheel drive, good ground clearance, plenty of storage/hauling space and good driving dynamics.
"Go fourth and multiply" may be Warner Brothers' catchphrase upon the unleashing of the latest entry in its very profitable Matrix series of movies. And for fans, it's probably well worth the time.
It's also a darn fine presentation if you're looking for an excellent 4K picture to show off your video equipment and make your friends jealous.
I saw all three of the original Matrix movies, the second and third reluctantly since I had to review them – otherwise I wouldn't have sought them out at all. Oh, I enjoyed the first two films, but the third seemed to me quite incoherent and suffered more than a tad from "sequelitis", a disease from Hollywood where the marketing potential seems to push the story telling potential to the sidelines.
Looking for a sound bar with audiophile credentials? If so, you might want to take a look at a brand new sound bar from British high end audio company Bowers & Wilkins, a bar the company claims "delivers the ultimate one-box immersive audio experience."
That's quite a boast, but is it true?
Well, alas, I have no idea because this sound bar is so new I haven't actually heard it, let alone played with it. But the company has a long and honoured history of making quality speaker products, from the tiny but exquisite P15 wireless ear buds I reviewed last year to the gigantic and lusted after Nautilus floor standing speakers that look and sound spectacular – and retail for a whopping $70,000 Canadian dollars (for the pair, fortunately!).
One of the original SUV's in the marketplace – and showing its age – still offers a lot of Toyota goodness for folks looking for robust off-road performance.
It's the 4Runner, of course, the bulletproof SUV based off the Tacoma pickup truck. Toyota sent the TRD Sport edition, which isn't really a lot sportier than the "pedestrian" versions, though it does up the off-road ante a tad for those who might want to exploit the 4Runner's legendary prowess away from the asphalt.
That package adds $3210 CAD to the 4Runner's base prise of $50,270, which is starting to be serious money, especially for a vehicle that feels as if it's 10 years old. I daresay many people don't care about either the price or the "seasoned" feel of the vehicle, because the 4Runner continues to show up in good numbers on the roads around here. And there are reasons for that – ruggedness, reliability, all the stuff like that for which Toyota is known.
John Carpenter has made a lot of great – or at least very good – movies over his career, and most of them have never had sequels, or at least sequels he was actually involved in (I can't blame him for the abundance of Halloween movies that came after his, for example).
An exception is his sequel to "Escape from New York," in which war hero gone bad Snake Plissken (the always great, and often Carpenter-collaborator Kurt Russell) was forced to enter Manhattan – now a maximum-security prison – to rescue the kidnapped President of the United States. It was a ripping yarn, despite the overall silliness of turning Manhattan into a prison.
The Toyota Corolla is a great car, one that has helped propel its maker to the heights of automotive success over its many decades of production and sales around the world. And now Toyota is upping its ante – by which I mean it's jacking it up higher than a traditional sedan would be and turning it into a little SUV/Crossover thingy, undoubtedly as a way to convince folks currently eschewing sedans that they can have their Corolla cake and eat it, too.
It's getting to be hard finding a manual transmission these days, and that's a real shame. But Honda is riding to the rescue with a stick version of their new Civic – in some versions, anyway – and it's a wonderful thing to use even if it isn't the best stick Honda has made.
Part of the reason I love a manual is that it not only gives you better control over the vehicle, it also helps make you part of the process of driving, making you pay attention to what you're doing (theoretically, anyway). If you love driving, this can be a big deal. If a vehicle is just transportation to you, you may not care – and you may even prefer not having to shift it yourself.
That's fine; to each, his/her/its own.
Fans of classic science fiction literature are sure to be familiar with Frank Herbert's Dune, an epic if there ever were an epic. And now, finally, there's a film version that comes close to bringing Herbert's vision to the screen.
Alas, it's only half way to being an epic – at most – because it only deals with the first half – at most – of the book, so we have to wait for more Dune goodness to come out. But based on this first film, it should be worth the wait.
Volkswagen has a solution for any consumers who may think the Tiguan has gotten too big for its britches. It's the Taos, a new and smaller "SUVW" that's poised to go head-to-head with such competitors as the Honda HR-V, Toyota CH-R, etc.
It's really nice, too, though that doesn't surprise me because I happen to love Volkswagen products for the most part. This is the first VW I've had a chance to review since the current Jetta was new, about three and a half years ago, and I'd heard rumours that the company may have done some really dumb things in the meantime, like removing the tuning knob from the centre stack's audio system controls – following the lead of Honda, who did that stupid deed several years ago.
Legendary actor and director Clint Eastwood's latest film is a leisurely but ultimately enjoyable and mostly entertaining story that, as it turns out, took about 50 years to make.
Not that Eastwood is a particularly slow director, but as you'll see in the supplements that come on the Cry Macho Blu-ray (a 4K disc wasn't offered for review yet, and that's a shame because the film looks terrific), Eastwood first came in contact with the story way back then, but for various reasons (including that he thought himself too young to play the lead) it took until now to come out.
It's comfortable, offers all of the electronic features we've come to know and perhaps to love (or not), and it's big enough to cut a major swath through traffic as you pilot it around town. But is the Lincoln Navigator any good?
I suppose that depends on the eye of the beholder. After spending a week or so with the 2021 Lincoln Navigator, I came away impressed with its capabilities but also grateful that I have bus driving experience in my past so I was much more comfortable behind the wheel than I might have been otherwise.
Subaru's Outback is branching out for 2022, offering a new, limited edition "Wilderness" trim level that ups the off-road ante in a vehicle already known for its non-asphalt manners.
Like most Subarus, the Outback – which arguably came to fame when Australian actor Paul Hogan pitched them back in the 1990's as the world's first sport utility wagon – has a loyal following, and the vehicles are very popular in areas where outdoorsy folk congregate.
Roku, the maker of some really great streaming devices, is raising its ante with a new version of its streaming stick, an affordable and efficient way to bring an entire world of free and/or paid programming to your home (or wherever).
It's also adding lots of new stuff to watch on it, thanks to additions to its free Roku Channel, a "broadcasting outlet" that not only offers a wide variety of old and new programming but also some "live" TV channels on which you can watch – for example – 24/7 streams of old Johnny Carson and Carol Burnett shows. It's quite the thing.
The Suicide Squad is the latest in the DC comics universe to come our way and, unfortunately, it suffers from the same fate as most DC Comics movies – it just isn't very good.
I could live with that, but it's worse than merely not being very good. It's very bad and it's also a lousy home theatre experience on 4K disc if you don't have the ambient room light controlled tightly.
Now, I managed to avoid the first Suicide Squad movie; Warner Home Video never sent me a screening sample and from what I'd seen and read about the film I didn't mind. This time, however, they did send a screener and, since it's the kind of movie I would like, normally, I felt obliged to sit through its interminable 132-minute running time.
It looks pretty new inside and out and it sports a lot of things to love. And it'll probably become a top selling sedan in a marketplace increasing eschewing such sedans as folks seek out SUV's instead.
It's the 2022 Honda Civic, a really nice new entry in the long line of Civics. And I liked it a lot, Honda-isms that I've whined about in recent years notwithstanding. Even with my Honda-ism angst, I think this new generation Civic is terrific, and I can't wait to see what Honda does with the hot versions that are sure to follow.
Electric cars are all the rage these days, or probably would be if more people would buy them without coercion or other people's money. We're promised – well, beaten over the head with – an inevitable electric future, even though it appears few have given thought as to from where the electricity to charge these vehicles will actually come.
The Honda Ridgeline is an interesting beast, a mid-sized SUV crossed with a pickup truck's DNA to offer what Honda thinks is the best of both worlds – the utility of a truck with the comfort and capabilities of a two row SUV.
In short, a true crossover, if you permit me the use of that term for what isn't really an SUV. And as such, it has occupied a unique niche in the vehicular market since it was introduced back around 2006. It must be working, because Hyundai and Ford are throwing their corporate hats into the niche with their upcoming Santa Cruz and Maverick which, like the Ridgeline, are unibody trucks rather than full body on frame ones as you'll find with pretty well all of the competition.
What's in a name? In the case of Nissan's Rogue, it's a carryover from a previous generation, but rogue (defined, among other things, as "a dishonest, knavish person; scoundrel") is not something the Nissan SUV is.
Who'd want it to be, anyway? I mean, do you want a vehicle that's dishonest, knavish or a scoundrel?