Nip/Tuck- Christian Troy II

TV

S7E7

The seventh episode proved to be an odd one. Maybe even a misstep? After last weeks psyche beat down things seemed awfully copacetic between the two doctors. The shift went from their relationship to the changing trends in their profession. We fell down the rabbit hole into Christians messed up head as he went under the knife for the good of the practice (which he really did because he wanted a face lift and I’ve never liked the hardcore LOOK AT THESE METAPHORS! moments of the show. Plus, you don’t dream when you get knocked out). It did work seeing Kimber though, man did he fuck that up.

It was a weak episode. They decided to give Liz another shot of love that of course ends in a soul crushing manner, Sean gets duped by a woman as he’s afraid of growing old too. Now Christians YouTube promo plan has backfired as he now clearly sees not everyone thinks plastic surgery is the greatest.

2 episodes remaining.

Nip/Tuck- Dr. Griffin

TV

S7E6

A real dive into the psyche’s of McNamara/Troy! One of the best episodes in recent memory, the material and acting was top notch. The whole show took place almost entirely in one location and was fascinating from a long time fans perspective. This group therapy session really let the guys rip on each other, each one bringing up points that would sway you to think that they’re right.

Sean is good at playing the victim, but for good reason. Christian does pay people off thinking that amends everything and in a way it does. Christian tells Sean about the forgery and Sean clocks him for it, but he pays him back the money (with interest as Christian was clear to point out). Then when Sean tells Christian about sleeping with Kimber, Christian is quick to mention you really can’t pay that one off.

With grievances flying Liz comes in and tells it how it is. Sean doesn’t know who he is without Christian, everything he does he compares to him. They are joined at the hip no matter how much Sean doesn’t like it. Always in the middle, Liz pretty much tells them to grow up so they can all move on. Getting pregnant from Sean’s donation sure as hell doesn’t make anything easier though. Sean signs off on having no legal right to the child, but now he feels like he made a mistake. Figures.

Enter Matt who makes it clear that he’s separating himself with his new fiance. True to form, Christian goes in for the attack while Sean goes into bewildered self defense and concern. With Matt’s past, those are both understanding reactions. Can Matt really leave forever? I guess if his fiance is really a sugar mama, he could stick with it.

We have yet to get Julia’s take on this and I’ve read that Ava (!!!) is going to make an appearance soon. The best may be yet to come.

3 episodes remaining.

Nip/Tuck- Virginia Hayes

TV

S7E5

The theme continues. Christian and Sean are completely bonded, despite anyones feelings toward the matter. Years of being together has pretty much fused their personalities together, everyone sees them as one unit. Their actions are seen as a complete partnership. Especially from Christian’s standpoint.

An epic throwback to the first season, Escobar’s (arguably the best character in the shows history) world comes crashing back into McNamara/Troy. His daughter, now 15 comes to the office looking for answers about her father, which brings back a whole mess of “buried” issues. Looking for some sort of redemption and a clean conscious, Sean ends up giving her some information on her pedo uncle and how her father and McNamara/Troy handled the situation. On cue, the Feds come-a-knocking as the young lady felt compelled to snitch. Terrific news for the boys.

Enter the new drama patient, Virginia Hayes. At least that’s the name she gives them. Well, Virginia is a con artist/ID thief who gets caught by Christian. In the end, she too is looking for forgiveness and a clean slate, but the real Virginia is not exactly forgiving. With a dead body in the recovery suite, Christian thinks she died because of the surgery he did on her and can’t go to the cops because he lied about what procedure he did to her (to be fair, those implants really weren’t hers!).

“Fix this!” Another brilliant flash to the start of the show by Liz. Given a sure fire way to separate from Christian, Sean falls for the same routine again and help Christian dispose of the body. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it!

There is no possible way this is going to end well. Sean is and always will be Christian’s bitch until one of them dead (cue Escobar’s poetic metaphor). Now the feds are sniffing around them and Sean still doesn’t know about the forged loan that Christian set up a few weeks ago.

Great episode, great music choices.

4 episodes left.

Moon the Review

Movies

Moon starring Sam Rockwell is one of the best sci-fi movies I’ve seen in years. Most recently, the Star Trek reboot was great (more sci-fi action genre than Moon) and Sunshine was awesome until the very odd character twist at the end.

Moon is about Sam Bell who works alone on the moon for a company that gathers resources from the surface that are used on Earth for energy. The contract for the company is 3 years, where you work in a small lunar base monitoring systems while 3 giant unmanned rovers cruise the surface collecting the minerals. Every so often, Sam sends the resources out in a pod back to Earth with reports. Sam has limited contact with Earth, to the company and his wife (with his young daughter) none of it is a live feed, just video messages.

With two weeks left in his contract, Sam pops into a lunar rover to check on one of the gathering rovers where he gets into an accident. He wakes up back in the lunar base in the infirmary and ends up meeting…himself.

I love the concept, I wish I came up with it. There’s 5 people in the movie, Sam Rockwell is 99% of it, the other 4 people are in 1% of the movie. Kevin Spacey voices the robot system in the lunar base, so Sam basically carries the entire movie playing 2 versions of himself and he is simply fantastic. I liked everything about the movie, it’s really inspiring filmmaking. Run time was prefect, acting is top notch, it looks fantastic and I loved how it ended. Duncan Jones (director and co-writer) and the whole crew of course, made a hell of a movie. Watch the special features on the DVD to see all the work it took to get the movie to look and work right. There’s a surprising amount of CG in the movie and a good portion of it is transparent.

Highly recommended.

Thought on the Apple iPad

Tech

There’s a surprising amount of “That’s it?’ sentiments going around online about Apple’s announcement of the iPad. Usually it’s like the second coming whenever Steve Jobs holds a press conference.

The easiest way to describe it is that it is a giant iPod Touch. Power users aren’t impressed. But I’m thinking this could go the Wii route. It’s going to sell to the casual PC user. At $500 for the base unit, that could be the sweet spot for a person looking for a quick email/web/music experience in their home (another $130 for 3G + subscription service is pretty insulting if you ask me).

The “hardcore” gamer market balked at the introduction of the Wii. Said it’ll never take off and even if it does, it’ll be a fad for a few months and hit the dirt. The casual gamer/soccer moms have made the Wii a juggernaut for more than 3 years. Sure it’s got a mountain of shit games that is shocking to comprehend, but the Wii is kicking the 360 and PS3’s face in and it’s making Nintendo a fortune. That’s what I think could happen with the iPad. People who don’t care or know about the fastest processors or multitasking will snap this up when they see how it works and how attractive it is. This isn’t the Apple Air, the price point could really sell this. I’ve been thinking it could be good for my mom, she’s wanted a laptop for awhile.

The Hurt Locker the Review

Movies

Up for Oscar contention, The Hurt Locker follows three US Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) men who are in the same unit for the last month and a half of their tour in Iraq. The main character, Sfc. William James replaces one of the original men in the unit who gets killed in duty at the start of the movie.

The Hurt Locker is a look at what these men do for us everyday they are out there. Death can happen everyday at any moment. The pressure and stress is just unbelievable, the suspense and intensity best captured by director Kathryn Bigelow (who directed one of my favorite action movies, Point Blank).

The movie never really diverges from taking a close look at the three core men in this EOD unit. James is basically a lunatic, he feeds off of the adrenaline of diffusing bombs, much to the chagrin of Sargent Sanborn and Spc. Owen Eldridge. The two “sane” men in the unit pretty much pray that James won’t get them all killed. It’s an interesting dynamic in extreme conditions. They bond like brothers, they are forced to trust each other, but James is really the wildcard that Sanborn and Eldridge fear.

The movie plays out like a slice of time which I think is it’s greatest fault. The movie just kind of ends, it feels like you entered a room in the middle of a conversation that you pick up, but after two hours the people walk out of the room leaving you behind to continue the story. That said, there is some expert filmmaking at work here and all of the actors do extremely well to sell every scene; whether they are taking enemy fire, holding their breath to disarm a bomb that could wipe out an apartment building or blowing off steam at the base. There are some of the most suspenseful scenes in a movie that I can recall in a really long time. At it’s best times The Hurt Locker is a visceral experience, at the worst of times it can be a dragging experience. The highs and lows of the movie change from scene to scene in such a dramatic way that it can feel a bit drawn out, I think 10 minutes or so could have been trimmed out (the wrestling scene comes to mind). But that kind of fits with the nature of the film, in the Army most of the time you aren’t doing anything. The term “Hurry up and wait” certainly applies.

I give it a hearty recommendation.

Nip/Tuck- Sheila Carlton

TV

S7E4

My reaction to the last episode brought up a lot of questions, mostly “where is everyone and where are they going?” Due to a few hanging plot lines and some sloppy writing, I’ve been fearing a half hearted run to the end but this episode has alleviated most of my concerns.

First, I really liked how they handled Kimber’s appearance. I was afraid it was going to be shlocky and over done, but they used her really well. A brief and concise dialog that left Christian with a punch to the guts. He ruined her and he knows it. He can try to bury it, but it’s always going to be with him no matter what. He can’t be forgiven by anyone, even her mother. Great casting on Kimber’s mother too, Melanie Griffith was terrific. Seeing her demeanor and her husband was just perfect.

Now for Sean, the guy is seemingly stuck forever. I was disappointed to see him throw away his goal of leaving for Africa with Curtis last episode, but it was a great turn to see him just postpone the trip, give time for Christian and then contine with his plans. Enter the femme fatale! Sarah, Curtis’ wife is a hell of women. Sean is in a pretty similar position as Christian. He can’t be forgiven for sleeping with Kimber by anyone. He holds that secret in with her death. When Sarah makes her move, he tells her no! He’s turned a corner! He tells her he’s done that to a friend before and he can never do that again, the guilt is too much. For some psycho reason Sarah tells Curtis that they did sleep together and he believes it. Just being associated with Christian is like the scarlet letter. Curtis doesn’t believe a word of what Sean and tells him to GTFO. What’s a guy to do? Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Sean is trapped and I really don’t know what he’s going to do. Just head for the hills suddenly?

Finally, we get to see Jenna with Matt! Wilbur is still MIA, but at least Jenna is with Matt and he’s been making some moves of his own. Expected to hang out with him, Christian is shocked to hear that Matt is taking off with Jenna. The last link to Kimber isn’t going to be around him much. It’s really hard to tell how much time is passing in the show at once, but Matt has a job and has landed him a sugar momma! This is just amazing. Sean may not know how to break from Christian, but it looks like Matt has. They live together and his girl really likes Jenna. A new, “stable” family? The killer line is when Christian asks Matt when he’s going to meet his new girl friend and Matt just looks at him and doesn’t respond. If Matt has it his way, he’ll never meet her! Christians life of fucking everyone is mounting into a title wave at this point. Tired of the shit Matt has actually drawn a serious line in the sand with his dad in probably the only way he can.

The patient this episode was great too, good story parallels with some amazing acting by the two women. I’m really happy from this episode, it’s really cool to see new characters that are related to new ones, it’s been filling out the N/T universe really well.

5 episodes left.

9 the Review

Movies

9is the animated feature that was released 9/9/2009. Pretty sweet marketing timing on that one. It is Shane Acker’s first full length movie that he got to make thanks to his brilliant short film (which can be seen on the DVD).

9 expands his short film about these 9 small rag dolls that seem to be the only living things on earth. Something has wiped out most life and the dolls come together to survive and figure out what to do. Each one has their own personality and 9 is the last one to become self aware (as the case may be). It’s a darker film than most animated pictures these days, which I really appreciated. It’s not that grown up, but it’s definitely not a Disney picture, it is rated PG-13 for it’s more intense action scenes where the dolls fight off robotic creatures, bent on their destruction.

I really love how this movie looks and animates. The creature design of the enemies are really cool, each of the 9 dolls looks distinct and full of life even though they don’t have eyes (more like camera lenses). Each doll was made by a man who got better and better at it as he went on and it shows. Even better is the environments that resemble a 1920’s post-war Europe. The lighting is very carefully crafted as is the direction.

It’s a simple adventure with a good moral story that’s very enjoyable to watch. Different and beautiful I give it a hearty recommendation.

Nip/Tuck- Joel Seabrook

TV

S7 E3

They cranked up the sexyness in this episode! The animosity showing from Sean just gets greater and great. He sees Christian as a road block and looking back, he always has been. What benefit does Christian have to Sean? I really can’t see any at this point and it’s clear Sean doesn’t either. In fact, with sleeping with Kimber, he’s been passive aggressively “getting back” at Christian.

This was a really great episode because it focused solely on the old trilogy of Kimber, Christian and Sean. They’ve all screwed each other since the start and nothing has changed, until the tragic end of this episode. Kimber has been one of my favorite characters in the show and seeing her kill herself was a sad ending to her story. She truly loves Christian, but he’s such a piece of shit he can never love her back (like he said). Even going back to Sean to tell him their affair was over, Sean put her in her place…what they were doing was never about loving each other, it was about saying “fuck you” to Christian. This horrible, dysfunctional tripod finally fell over when Kimber falls back to her plan C: Dr. Mike who basically casts her aside, just like she did to him. All hope lost with no love left, she ends it.

While the show is razor sharp in it’s focus on these characters, it feels like the writing suffers because of it. There’s a lot of glossing over and ignoring consequences and even other characters in the show. With Christian ramping up the kink factor (thanks to the man in the title of this episode) he thinks he’s found that missing piece in his puzzle. Sean finds out and tries the same to Kimber and it freaks her out (as she is trying to break up their affair). That scenes was so awkward and bizarre because Sean pretty much attacks her at the start of the scene. She finally gets him to stop and he says some lame “Christian told me you liked this, I just wanted to really see” and they both just move on like nothing happened. Also, no one comes to the house after a panicked 911 call from Kimber after Christian’s little bathroom session? I agree in the end it’s not that important to see every single detail, but it’s one of those things that takes me out of the show (like when Christian accidentally kills Wilbur’s mom a few seasons ago and there is no investigation despite there being a shit load of evidence all over the place). There hasn’t been a single mention of her daughter, he doesn’t even look like she’s been living with her and Christian. Matt doesn’t have her, he’s still a mess and we haven’t seen him in 3 episodes. Characters are all about forgotten until they are written into the background of a scene as if to say “See! They’re not dead and forgotten!” It’s just leaves the show feeling amature in nature because the writers make these elaborate and dramatic events but expect to the viewer to tighten down their blinders to ignore all the stuff that doesn’t make sense. It’s really sloppy (the most glaring being Sean’s last wife being killed off in the most random, yet convenient way possible last season).

That said, these events are a big speed bump for Sean. He’s been beyond thinking about moving on, he’s hooked up with his old colleague to do more with his life. He’s been sleeping with Kimber. It’s all about dividing himself from Christian in every way possible. With Kimber dead, his secret affair disappears with her, but the guilt of her being gone makes him (seemingly) abandon his plans for working in Africa. That’s disappointing to me, but he still doesn’t know about Christian forging his name so that could still be an excellent catalyst for Sean to leave. Now, with Kimber gone I’d like to see her really gone, but judging from the preview of next week, she comes back as Christians conscience. I’m not a fan of that. We’ll see how they handle it.

6 episodes left.

The home stretch for Nip/Tuck begins

TV

Last night started the last 9 episodes of Nip/Tuck. They’re calling it season 7, but that’s stupid since it’s still season 6.

My prediction is that Matt will be killed and Sean will permanitly end his personal and professional relationship with Christian. Sure that’s basic and seems obvious but that’s the minimum of what I expect. If anyone didn’t notice over the past 6 years, Sean has always been a doormat for Christian and last nights show piledrived that point home. We got flashbacks to their time back in medical school when they were in their mid twenties. Even then Christian was Christian (the actors they found don’t look anything like them, but they did get their mannerisms pretty close).

It is time for the show to end, I just hope one of my favorite TV shows of all time gets a proper ending.