Julian McMahon

CHICAGO – Much like 2011’s silly “Abduction” with Taylor Lautner, the title of “Paranoia” isn’t exactly accurate. Just as that previous film wasn’t really about an abduction, paranoia is only a minor aspect of Robert Luketic’s new thriller.

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 25 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the new thriller “Paranoia” starring Liam Hemsworth and Harrison Ford!

CHICAGO – Having started writing about television and DVD right around the time that “Nip/Tuck” premiered on FX and always having lovely contacts at both the network and Warner Brothers, who released the DVDs for the series, I have possibly written about the adventures of Drs. Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) and Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) more than any other program. And so I greet the “Complete Series” box set, recently released on DVD, with a tinge of sadness as I say goodbye to a program with definite highlights that somehow never quite lived up to its potential.

CHICAGO – They say you can learn as much from a bad movie as you can from a good one. If that’s true, what’s the lesson to be taken from the extremely boring and misguided “Red”?

CHICAGO – The wave of TV on DVD sets that always comes crashing down upon us after the end of a traditional September-to-May season is still a few months off, but a few interesting releases have popped up recently and we thought they each deserved a mini-review for potential fans out there looking for something new now that their DVRs have gotten pretty empty. Take notes, there might be a test at the end.

CHICAGO – Ryan Murphy’s “Nip/Tuck” begins its final cosmetic procedure this evening, starting a nine-episode arc that will end this once-promising series that has been in need of a face lift for a few years now.

CHICAGO – Let’s be honest: “Nip/Tuck” has been in need of a face lift for years. The show arguably jumped the shark when The Carver took over (in season three) and has never quite looked the same since. Even with the sizable flaws of the last two seasons, “Nip/Tuck” was never boring. It even showed flashes of creator Ryan Murphy’s occasional genius in the seasons since.

CHICAGO – After recently lamenting the decline of “Nip/Tuck” in my review of the Season Five, Part One DVD, no one is more shocked than I am at the creative success of the mid-season premiere, airing January 6th, 2009 at 9pm CST on FX.

CHICAGO – “Tell me what you don’t like about yourself.” Doctors, I don’t like what you’ve done to a once-fascinating show. Ryan Murphy and the team behind “Nip/Tuck” missed a great opportunity with the fifth season of their cult hit show, now on DVD, and continued their series’ soapy decline.