Nip/Tuck: The Complete First Season (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)Wow did I love this series! I missed it during the original broadcast, but based on what people have told me, I gambled on this box set. I feel like I hit the jackpot.
It's definitely not for everyone though. No sirree.
First of all, if you're squeamish, the brilliantly reproduced surgeries can be a bit nauseating. (I'm a surgeon, and I loved 'em. My wife, an ex-nurse, had to close her eyes...)
Second, if you are at all uncomfortable with the topic of sex, stay away. This series will plant you into situations you have not even imagined. Bouncing between hilarity and discomfort, sex is definitely a theme throughout the 13 shows.
Third, if you appreciate good acting, it does not get any better than this. Seriously. This is "Sopranos" good; "NYPD Blue" good. The two lead performances are pitch-perfect, both deeply flawed and often morally reprehensible individuals who at the end of the day, you can't help but root for. The "supporting" players are a heck lot more than that, and provide tons of drama, amusement and eye candy.
There is beauty and ugliness everywhere, from an absolutely gorgeous female figure to a purely evil drug dealing psychopath. That's just in one episode.
Fourth, the screenwriting is bling-bling eye-popping, smart as all hell and consistently surprising. The thirteen episodes link nicely together, the first ones dovetailing back into the last ones. I was constantly taken aback at the twists, the lines, the situations they came up with. Let's just say that I learned in the very first episode that crocodiles prefer ham to human flesh. And that fact is actually important to the story...
I haven't even had a chance to go through what appears to be fairly extensive supplements and deleted scenes. I HAD to write in...I will recommend this to ANYONE, anyone over 18 I should say, who likes good television and may like to be pleasantly shocked from time to time.
With great restraint I have withheld many (if not all) plot points, because the exhilarating thrill of discovering them on your own is something you'll only feel once. Without spoiling too much, the show centers on the Miami plastic surgery practice of McNamara/Troy.
Sean McNamara is a questionably happily married man, with one teenage son, and one grade schooler daughter.
Julia, the wife, is plagued by doubts surrounding her love for her husband, the urge to go back to medical school and sexual attractions/distractions galore.
One of whom might be Christian Troy, Sean's best friend and partner, and one of the most gleefully decadent characters in TV history. I mean "decadent" in a good way. Sort of.
His travails include, but in no way are limited to, a continuing parade of sexual partners, a number of hysterical surgical propositions, problems involving his boat, his cars, his apartment and the plastic surgery competition across town.
Other important characters include the melting hot staff psychologist and the defiant, embittered, proudly lesbian anesthesiologist. The cast has such chemistry that they not only react to one another, they generate this bubbly heat together...it's fun to watch them prod each other to new heights.
The one thing that struck me the most about these shows is the amount of genuine heart that stands at the center of each episode. There is a large amount of provocative, politically incorrect but unassailable truth here...nothing you'd like to admit, but stuff you instantly recognize. As you get to know these characters, establshing empathy for them is easy. It's darn near irresistible. I was hooked from the first five minutes.
I could write more, but I need to go check out the extras, AND the four NEW episodes I have on tape. I have just GOT to get my Tivo hooked up...

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Beauty, the saying goes, is only skin deep. The beauty of Nip/Tuck is that it goes deeper, laying bear the complexities and fragile natures often found in patients seeking cosmetic surgery. Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon portray hotshot Miami South Beach plastic surgeons who are themselves in full-blown midlife crises as they confront career, family and romance problems. The series' cutting-edge stories range from funny to suspenseful to uncommonly powerful. The surgeries are graphically bold. The sexuality is rampant. Presented here in 13 first-season episodes on 5 discs and featuring compelling extras, the highly praised Nip/Tuck is a prescription for entertainment unlike anything you've ever seen.DVD Features:Deleted ScenesFeaturetteGag ReelMusic VideoTheatrical Trailer

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By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) Review

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(More customer reviews)In the annual Quigley Poll of the top ten box-office attractions in America conducted at the end of 1952, Doris Day was determined to be the top money-making female star in films. "By the Light of the Silvery Moon", released in 1953, was her first film release after achieving that honor. "Moon" was a deserved success and certainly worthy of Day's position within the industry at that time.
"By the Light of the Silvery Moon" is the tuneful follow-up to the very popular 1951 hit for Warner Brothers, "On Moonlight Bay". Like its predecessor, it recalls another time and place in America, directly after World War I, bathing it in a nostalgic warmth and glow in stunning technicolor and reassembling most of the cast from the earlier film.
The characters and story are very loosely based on the "Penrod" series of stories written by Booth Tarkington.
Marjorie and Bill, the sweethearts of the piece, are played by Doris Day and Gordon MacRae, in their 5th and final on-screen pairing. They harmonize beautifully and play their scenes with genuine and totally unaffected warmth and believability. Watching Day, it's easy to see why see held the lofty position within the industry that she held for so long. Her natural likeability and never cloying manner are soothing and when she sings, as she does frequently, one is transported to a safe and comfortable haven.
The songs include the title tune, "If You Were the Only Girl in the World" and "Ain't We Got Fun" to name but a few.
The remaining members of Marjorie's family are back from the earlier effort and seem to be more a family than ever before. Leon Ames is part bluster/part patriarch, while Rosemary DeCamp, as usual, is better than much of the material Hollywood generally gave her to work with. Billy Gray is appropriately rowdy but skillfully avoiding the obnoxious elements as Wesley and Mary Wickes, as she is prone to do, shines in every scene she plays, a natural treasure as one of the most unique character actresses in film history.
If you look quickly in the beautifully staged skating sequence near the film's conclusion, you'll spot Merv Griffin talking through a megaphone and urging everyone to skate with their sweetheart. Doris Day was responsible for getting Griffin a contract at Warners, which launched his career. In 1970, she made her first ever talk show appearance on his program.
"By the Light of the Silvery Moon" is as substantial as a Hallmark Card brought to life but thanks to a fine cast headed by Day, who smoothly mixes the various facets of her character, some great tunes, a lightweight plot that never gets in the way of the music and some fine Warner Brothers production values, it works.
By the final credits you care so much about these characters that you almost wish Warner Brothers had done one more chapter to the story. The light in this moon certainly becomes everyone involved.

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"On Moonlight Bay" stars Doris Day and Gordon MacRae are back together in top tune-crooning form for the further adventures of a small-town family turning the corner from World War I into the Roaring '20s. Year: 1953 Director: David Butler Starring: Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Billy Gray

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Forrest Gump (Sapphire Series) (1994) Review

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(More customer reviews)Forrest Gump is a rare movie that succeeded on all levels. It was a box office smash ranking among the top five highest grossing movies of all time. But it was also a critical darling, garnering across the board praise and a truckload of awards. The movie became a cultural phenomenon, spawning cook books, quote books, a top ten soundtrack album and lines like "stupid is as stupid does" and "life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get" have permeated our dialect. The movie has a nostalgic, feel good vibe thanks to the dimwitted Forrest's trek through 60's and 70's touchstone events. Underneath all those warm feelings lies a darkness. Bad things happen to just about everyone Forrest comes in contact with. His best friend Bubba is killed in Vietnam, his other friend Lt. Dan loses both his legs, his mother dies of cancer and his beloved Jenny dies of AIDS. Even the famous people Forrest comes across meet with disaster, President Kennedy & John Lennon are assassinated, George Wallace is shot and Elvis Presley dies young. There are superb performances all around. Sally Field is feisty as Forrest's mama, Mykelti Williamson is funny as Bubba, Gary Sinese as Lt. Dan is a perfect rough edged foil to Forrest and Robin Wright as Jenny portrays the confusion that young people of the times felt perfectly. While all those performances are of high quality, Forrest Gump is Tom Hanks' tour de force. He is utterly brilliant as Forrest. He is in virtually every scene of the movie and never once does he fail to astound. He becomes Forrest and makes you care what happens to him. Mr. Hanks deservedly won his second consecutive Best Actor Oscar for the role and cemented himself as the best actor of his generation and one of the best of all time.

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"Stupid is as stupid does," says Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks in an Oscar-winning performance) as he discusses his relative level of intelligence with a stranger while waiting for a bus. Despite his sub-normal IQ, Gump leads a truly charmed life, with a ringside seat for many of the most memorable events of the second half of the 20th century. Entirely without trying, Forrest teaches Elvis Presley to dance, becomes a football star, meets John F. Kennedy, serves with honor in Vietnam, meets Lyndon Johnson, speaks at an anti-war rally at the Washington Monument, hangs out with the Yippies, defeats the Chinese national team in table tennis, meets Richard Nixon, discovers the break-in at the Watergate, opens a profitable shrimping business, becomes an original investor in Apple Computers, and decides to run back and forth across the country for several years. Meanwhile, as the remarkable parade of his life goes by, Forrest never forgets Jenny (Robin Wright Penn), the girl he loved as a boy, who makes her own journey through the turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s that is far more troubled than the path Forrest happens upon. Featured alongside Tom Hanks are Sally Field as Forrest's mother; Gary Sinise as his commanding officer in Vietnam; Mykelti Williamson as his ill-fated Army buddy who is familiar with every recipe that involves shrimp; and the special effects artists whose digital magic place Forrest amidst a remarkable array of historical events and people.

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Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains the Same Review

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(More customer reviews)This 1976 concert film is one Led Zeppelin item that really did deserve to be improved and expanded. In the November 2007 glut of new Zep products related to the film, this 2-DVD set is clearly the optimal purchase. (Note that this review was written after actually purchasing and consuming the item in question, which appears to be a real rarity so far.) The "Collector's Edition" DVD set adds merchandise that will only be of value to super-diehards, and the new edition of the soundtrack album is apparently built around the new remaster of the movie itself and displays some odd editing choices. I have always felt that the purely audio soundtrack of the movie suffers from the lack of visuals - for example, all 27 minutes of "Dazed and Confused" makes more sense visually because you can watch the theatricality of Jimmy Page's stage performance, while merely listening to the accompanying soundtrack can be tedious. To a lesser extent, the same goes for the extra lengthy "Moby Dick" because while soloing, John Bonham could be even more enjoyable to watch than to listen to. So the film itself is the apotheosis of the entire "The Song Remains the Same" project, and this 2-DVD set presents much needed improvements in audio and video quality, with some bonus items that add value for the enthusiastic fan without becoming obsessive.
Though I'm a lifelong Zep fan, I actually hadn't seen this movie in around 20 years. And I had forgotten how cheesy the non-concert footage truly is, with the fantasy sequences serving as little more than period vanity pieces that rarely rise above the amateurish. But who cares, because the concert sequences are stupendous, and in this DVD set they have been presented for maximum aural and visual impact (yes these two shows weren't the band's best, but they were still light years beyond most other rock acts). As for the DVD extras, the interviews and news segments have some curiosity value, but the true goodies are the extra concert sequences. We finally have official video for the blistering performance of "Celebration Day," which was always my favorite from the old original soundtrack album. Other bonuses include "Misty Mountain Hop," though the uncoordinated performance of this song deserved to be left out of the original film; plus a surprisingly heavy take on "Over the Hills and Far Away."
For many years the original movie and soundtrack were the only (official) live Zep documents available. For the real live goods, we now have the 2003 CD package "How the West Was Won" and the 2003 self-titled DVD set, which are considerably more hard-hitting and far-reaching than "The Song Remains the Same." But even though it's no longer the definitive live document, fans have long deserved an improved version of the film. For all but the most obsessive collectors, the 2-DVD set is the way to go. [~doomsdayer520~]

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The line forms here for the world’s greatest and possibly most influential band – Led Zeppelin! With Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Whole Lotta Love and more signature performances, this mesmerizing movie built around Zep’s famed ’73 NYC concerts is convincing proof why. Band members supervised the Re-mastering and Dolby 5.1 Re-mixing of the film’s image and sound. In addition to their performances, fantasy sequences and at-home glimpses of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and the late John Bonham, this 2-disc Special Edition has over 40 minutes of newly-added extra features including: Two (2) never-before-released songs in rare performance footage: Celebration and Over the Hills and Far Away; Vintage TV Footage: Drake Hotel Robbery during the New York Concert Stand; Robert Plant BBC Interview and Tampa Concert Band Arrival. Also available in Hi-Def and Blu Ray!

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The Hurt Locker (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)The movie opens with the quote - "the rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug" (a modern paraphrase of Churchill's older and more famous maxim - "there is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result")
This is a thriller of a movie about a U.S. Army bomb disposal unit in Iraq and their daily grind in dealing with the IEDs and insurgents there.
This movie does have several stars - but Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pierce, and Evangeline Lilly all have fairly small roles. Blink, and you'll miss them. Their presence in this movie is more a testament to director/producer Kathryn Bigelow's status in the entertainment industry than anything else.
Jeremy Renner is Sergeant James, a bomb tech. Unlike his affable predecessor, he is a wild man. He seems not only indifferent to the dangers of his job, he absolutely revels in the dangers. It is the ultimate in thrill seeking behavior, getting that dopamine surge in his brain. Near the end of the movie, Sgt. James gets accused of being an adrenaline junkie, but we know now that the neurochemical at work here is dopamine.Bomb disposal is not just a job for him, but his passion, his addiction, his reason for being in the Army.
Renner's character ends up like a cross between Elmer Fudd, with his perpetually placid and slightly befuddled gaze, and Bugs Bunny, with his wile and lust for excitement and danger.
His two partners in the unit, Sgt. Sanborn and Specialist Eldridge, who have to cover him and just want to survive their tour of duty, don't know quite how to deal with his determination to confront danger. One wonders at why Sgt. James puts himself in danger, why he takes the extra risks to defuse a bomb when detonating it would do.The scene that explains it all is when Sgt. James returns home to America one day and we see him doing the mundane chores of life as a civilian, cleaning out the rain gutters, cleaning up the kitchen, shopping with his wife and baby at the grocery store. As he stares at an entire wall full of colorful cereal boxes stacked along a grocery store aisle, a look of utter blankness, boredom, and despair fills his face.....nope, not for him, this dull life as a civilian....
The movie's storyline is a series of daily missions, almost like a documentary or a TV series, each episode standing alone and yet building upon previous episodes, each one presenting a new danger, a new challenge, another piece of the puzzle that is the war in Iraq.
What makes this movie work is the recreation of Iraq in this movie - it was filmed in Jordan with local Iraqi expatriates. We feel the oppressive tension of the whole country, of not knowing who the bad guys are and where the next bomb or bullet is going to come from.We feel the fear and uncertainty of the American soldiers, caught between their desire to be the good guys and wanting to make nice with the local Iraqis, while constantly needing to remain vigilant and suspicious, never knowing who is a good Iraqi, and who deserves to get shot. We feel the bewilderment and resentment of the local Iraqis, who get pushed around at every turn by the American soldiers.
Unlike so many other recent Iraq war movies, this movie makes no political statements, there is no right or wrong here. These are just men at work, doing a dangerous and dirty job, and these guys are darn good at what they do for their country, whatever the reasons are that they are doing it.


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War is a drug. Nobody knows that better than Staff Sergeant James, head of an elite squad of soldiers tasked with disarming bombs in the heat of combat. To do this nerve-shredding job, it\'s not enough to be the best: you have to thrive in a zone where the margin of error is zero, think as diabolically as a bomb-maker, and somehow survive with your body and soul intact. Powerfully realistic, action-packed, unrelenting and intense, The Hurt Locker has been hailed by critics as "an adrenaline-soaked tour de force" (A.O. Scott, The New York Times) and "one of the great war movies." (Richard Corliss, Time)

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2 Xbox 360 Games: Lego Indiana Jones + Kung Fu Panda Review

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(More customer reviews)I got these two games as a package deal with my 360 Elite. I didn't expect much out of them. I was really surprised that Kung Fu Panda was as good as it is. It has a wonderful art style, everything is colorful and vibrant. You would expect this, for it to look like the movie (which I didn't see). What I did not expect was how fun the game was to pick up and play. I didn't play it much since I gave it to my nephew but anyone around 10 years old and up should enjoy this game. I think most people have played a Lego game by now so I won't include a review of that.

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Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Experience all the wit, excitement and daring of the Indiana Jones films combined with the hilarity of LEGOs. Plot your own escape from the pit of snakes and more as you relive your favorite moments from the blockbuster films. Kung Fu Panda Learn and master Po, Shifu and the Furious Five's specialized Kung Fu fighting styles, abilities and upgrades. Unique brand of humor, quick-witted dialogue and hilarious situations.

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