REVIEW: The Life Of David Gale

Ok.. this is an old one. 2003, I think. I remember seeing it when it first came out and remembered really liking it but when I saw it listed On Demand, I couldn’t really remember what it was about.

OH. MY. FREAKIN’. GOD!

If you haven’t already seen it.. do so.. NOW.

Especially if you have an active brain and like being intellectually stimulated.

In fact, it was SO good, that I even forgot all about Kate Winslet’s abnormally large, dark, certainly non-English aereolae.

Kevin Spacey plays one of those cocky college professors that received both career status and alcoholism early. Laura Linney :: who is really so under-rated as an actress :: plays his dowdy collegue. Both are anti death penalty which yknow.. in TEXAS .. is almost like publically stating that you hate football.. so when Laura Linney’s character turns up raped and murdered, Kevin Spacey is tried.. found guilty.. and is about to be executed.

How’s that for irony.

Anyway.. Kate Winslet plays a reporter who Kevin Spacey grants his first.. and last .. interview.

This is the kind of movie that you have to watch until the very end. And if you think you have it all figured out.. well.. guess what? You don’t.

Have fun with this one kids… both my thumbs are up.

Harper’s Island Recap – Episode 8

Okay.. this is a few days late. Apologies to anyone who looks forward to these… there was just some nastiness that I had to handle.

Anyway…

So looks like things are really starting to move along now.

After capturing JD, the Sheriff takes him to the jail where he’s in the cell next to Shane :: the dude who thought he killed Kelly, The Goth Girl, so he tried to hang him a few episodes ago ::

Shane is talking crap about how JD told him this about the murders and that about the murders. Crap that an a spot-on Sheriff KNOWS is crap.

He takes JD into an interrogation room and and starts questioning him. JD has this ‘fuck you’ but winds up telling him where to find Burned Man.

The Sheriff heads out there and lo and behold.. what does he come across in the woods? Lucy’s little dog GiGi oh yea.. and a trip wire that sends this tree spike right into his thigh.

GiGi may look like a wet, shrivled up rat :: said with love and respect :: but I’m sure the Sheriff got the worse end of the deal here.

As he’s laying there the proverbial ominous figure appears over him and it’s none other then the Burned Man.

Burned Man bring him back to his cabin and they have a little chit chat .. most notably about a journal that Wakefield kept in jail with everything in it to easily make a copy cat killer.

NOTE: We also find out that Burned Man and JD’s father were close enough friends for him to visit Burned Man when he was in the hospital with.. well.. burns.

Worried that the Sheriff would bleed out in his cabin :: and then how would he explain that?? :: he took the book and left only to be pierced in the shoulder with an arrow. Getting the Sheriff’s attention, the Sheriff narrowly missed getting hit with an arrow by diving to the floor. Burn Man gets another arrow in the heart causing him to drop the bag carrying the journal and the lantern which promptly sets the cabin on fire..

MEANWHILE… JD is back in the cell next to Shane and their having their jailbird version of a pissing contest. Shane starts to choke JD through the bars and if the deputy hadn’t come in when he did I’m sure we wouldn’t be wondering how JD met his fate at the end.

The deputy breaks it up only to have the lights go out and a shot fired. The deputy is dead and big tough Shane turns into a little bitch.

When the lights come back on, JD realizes that he can reach the keys to the cell that the deputy had dropped when he was shot. He reaches for them.. opens his cells and flies.

Shane did beg for the keys so that he could let himself out but JD is a better person then I am. Where I would have pocketed them and booked, JD tossed them back near the Sheriff.. just out of Shane’s reach.. in a puddle of blood.

MEANWHILE… everyone at the inn is getting ready to head down to the marina to get the hell out of dodge. Shea realizes that Madison is missing and does a mild freak out. Someone says that maybe Richard took her and there’s a moment of spazoid-iness but I didn’t pay too much attention to it because WE already know that Richard didn’t do anything but get harpooned.

Henry tells the crew that he needs their help finding Madison so they split up an d set about finding the little brat.

NOTE: Sorry, not a Madison fan today

Cal, Chloe, Trish and Shae reluctantly go down into the basement and find themselves near the incinerator room. Even though Shae insists that Madison wouldn’t dear go in there, they decide to search anyway and find a gruesome handprint on the incinerator door. Cal opens the door and sifting through the ash, see a human skull. I’m sure Shae is about to have a major meltdown but Cal assures her that it is an adult skull.. not a child’s.

NOTE: I had forgotten that Cal was a doctor! Good thing, huh? Have a feeling his “skills” will come in handy IF he doesn’t get killed off.

MEANWHILE.. Abby, Henry and Catherine search outside..

NOTE: Why wouldn’t Trish go with Henry?

.. and stumble across Richards harpooned body on a HUGE.. I mean HUGE tree trunk. I guess their shock prevented them from getting “too” dramatic at having found Richard’s body.. then again, maybe nobody really like him anyway.. who knows.

BUT.. it is then that Abby’s cell rings with ANOTHER ominious call. .this time it’s Madison saying that she will be killed if anyone leaves the island.

NOTE: I have to type this before I forget but there’s a theory that the murder is Maggie, the Inn Keeper. If so, she could have gotten Madison to follow her lead by saying they were playing a game or something.

The trio rush back to the inn. They discover that right after Madison’s call, the cell phones go dead. They need to call the Sheriff. The phones at the Inn don’t work either.

Hmmm…

They tell everyone left on the island :: basically all the main / semi main characters :: about Richard and the phone call.

Sully, Beth, Chloe and Cal are like, “.. the hell with this.” and tell everyone they are leaving.

Shae and Trish naturally aren’t too happy about this but the issue is quickly set aside because the lights go out.

Quick thinking Maggie leads the group to where they keep the skeet shooting rifles and they arm themselves. Maggie tells Henry that there is a generator but that it’s really old. Henry thinks he’ll be able to fix it.

NOTE: Aren’t there laws about having working generators and stuff?

Just as he’s about to head out, they hear something and turn to see a shadow approaching one of the french doors.

They almost kill Jimmy who came to the inn saying that the last boat left the island. I think he said he came to the inn too because he didn’t see Abby on the boat. Not sure.

Anyway.. Henry and the Black Frat boy head down to the generator and using Jimmy’s truck, make it work.

MEANWHILE… Jimmy and Abby head over to the Sheriff’s department where they find the radio broken.. the dead Deputy and Shane bargaining to be let out in exchange for him telling Abby where her father was.

That happens and Jimmy and Abby head towards Burned Man’s cabin.

Once there.. the Sheriff tells Abby to get the bag out of the fire.

NOTE: Okay… so Burned Man told the Sheriff that all this has to do with Abby.. Burned Man is now stuck to the cabin wall with arrows and on fire.. so WHO does the Sheriff tell to go back outside.. Abby of course!! Idiot.

They want to take him to the hospital but the Sheriff insists on going to the Marina .. :: Not sure why. I might have missed something :: ..

MEANWHILE.. Scully, Beth, Chloe and Cal are heading to the Marina also because Braniniac Cal wants to steal a boat to get off the island.

As they climb into this little speedboad looking thing.. Cal changes his mind… if something happened to Madison, he wouldn’t be able to live with his conscience knowing that they left. He puts his hand out to Chloe to join him. She said she’s scared, he said he is too but she gets out of the boat.

Awwww…

They’re trying to guilt Beth into getting off when they fast flash to someone running down one of the piers.

Scully :: i think :: says it’s JD and they all go chasing after him.

MEANWHILE… Abby, Jimmy and the Sheriff arrive at the marina. Oh wait.. that’s it.. he wanted to go to the marina because he wanted Jimmy to take Abby to the mainland!

But she doesn’t want to go.. saying “I’m not leaving this time” :: insert pouty lip and foot stomping here :: so with a shotgun in hand, her and Jimmy take off.

Not sure why they split up.. I believe Jimmy heard something and told her to keep put which really doesn’t make sense to me because if there’s a killer running around, why would you leave your girlfriend by herself?

Anyway.. Abby hears a noise and of course, goes to investigate. If there’s one thing that creeps me out is that slow walk down a dark path where every single noise gives you the chicken flesh and spooks you!

She winds up stumbling on JD.. holding a blood spurting stomach. Abby asks him who stabbed/shot/whatever him and all he can hiss out is “… it’s all about you.”

A figure appears behind Abby and when she turns around.. it’s Henry. Covered in blood holding his hands out.

Um.. yea.. we kind of already KNOW that.. so could you at least have given a HINT about who killed you??????

It’s obvious that JD and Burned Man were getting too close to figuring stuff out.. OR .. just the fact that they had Wakefield’s journal put them in danger.

Although.. in all seriousness.. I think the journal is just fluff.

The ending does give a little credence to a sect of people who believe Henry is the killer. I toss that one back and forth but I really don’t think Henry killed JD.

Could it have been Shane? Is JD’s murder like Booths? Dead but not at the hands of the killer?

It seems that all the “Wakefield” murders are brilliant designs.. Cousin Ben tied to the propeller, Uncle Marty halfed and strung up a tree, The Reverend strung up, killed and then pieced onto a catfish line.. Hunter and the shotgun contraption.. Wellington and the head spade.. Richard and the Harpoon… you see what I’m saying?

But Booth died accidentally .. and Malcolm appears to have been struck from behind and shoved into the incinerator.

Other then the shock value.. there really isn’t anything too gruesome. yknow?

But we shall see.. there’s only a handful of episodes left so if the rest are anything like this one, we’re in for a bumpy ride!

Harper’s Island: Trying Logic On For Size

You know those logic puzzles that you find in puzzle books? The one’s where it’s basically a grid and there are like 5 or 6 questions that you’re logically suppose to figure out who has what?

I can NEVER do those things… but I was thinking that information is coming fast and semi-furious now that maybe it’ll light a candle somewhere.

So what do we know already?

Cousin Ben made it to the boat, but not the island. He was tied to and chopped up by the boat’s propeller. Minor character.. really don’t think his death has any direct impact because his body was fish bait before it could ever be found.

Uncle Marty had the money at one time. Not too sure if his death could be minor or a missing puzzle piece. I seriously don’t think it’s major to the plot line of Wakefield / Abby but could plug in some of the holes in the under story.

Fire Pit Girl was :: imho :: completely minor except for her little dog GiGi.. somehow, that dog always shows up places that cause mayhem for the wedding party.

Hunter also had the money.. rather, found the money on his boat but who’s splitting hairs? I think his death is minor and was only used to further suspicion that the murders had something to do with Wellington :: Marty had a confrontation with Wellington.. Hunter blackmailed Wellington.. etc. ::

The Reverend being killed was obviously so tht the head spade could be planted in the chandelier OR possibly did he know something about Sarah / Wakefield such as Abby really being Wakefield’s daughter. His story is definitely hidden in flashbacks.

Booth also had the money and wound up dead. Albeit a self inflicted gun shot to the leg but dead none the same. Interesting .. if minor .. death but was his death really an accident? I have no doubt that he actually IS dead.. thing being a common thread on the internet

Malcolm also had the money adn wound up dead! Now, this one I have a few thoughts about :: and if you come up with anything let me know :: Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time? His killing doesn’t necessarily have the flair of the others :: hello, fire pit girl :: so maybe he was killed FOR the money by someone who was not responsible for the other deaths.

Thomas Wellington random victim or planned? Initially it seemed that everyone connected with Wellington was being killed.. and given that they weren’t unfamiliar with Harper’s Island I think the thought process was that all this centered around the Wellingtons. Now that Abby has been confirmed as the key to the puzzle, I’m thinking that the head spade wasn’t necessarily meant for him. Pretty grusome way to die, though

Richard death should then fall in the lines with Wellingtons. He was a random victim nabbed at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

Goth Girl a little more thought needs to go into this one since she had her eyes filled with red ink AND there was a newpspaer clipping with a picture of the sherrif with his eyes colored red… So how does she fit in? She seems to have been “targeted” at least in the sense that she didn’t trip a wire or fall in a pit. So why? Is there more of a connection between her and Abbey then originally thought? Her mother died at Wakefield’s hands too.. there has to be more to this then what’s been blown away on the surface.

JD was not so much “unexpected” but I thought it would have come in a later episode. Was it obvious that he was killed becasue he started finding out too much about the killer OR was Henry just sick of his bullshit? OR :: this just popped into my head :: when Abby and Jimmy let Shane out of jail and then HE went after JD?

Other questions that popped into my head as I was writing this…

What’s the significance of the red ink in Goth Girl’s eyes.. and the eyes redded out on the picture of the Sheriff in the paper?

What about the dirt in Malcolm’s room the day after Booth died and the shower being on?

Where is the money now?

What is the significance of “Ave Maria”, the song that played when Abby received a call on her cell after Wellington was killed?

What I’m finding more and more about this show is NOTHING is fluff. Everything apparently means something in conjunction with something else.

Harper’s Island Recap – Episode 7

Okay.. sorry this was late but like.. you know.. there were other things going on.

So on with it it

Wow..

This episode should have been called :REVELATIONS:.

A lot of the back store was revealed which kinda gave some inside into past relationships and some much needed answers to questions.

LIKE:

The man with the scarred face? Yea, he was a deputy that worked under the Sheriff. There was wide speculation that it was Wakefield.. but too many people with the right sources have been saying that it was the deputy and there it stands.

He makes his speaking debut when he confronts Abby to tell her that her father has been lying to her.. that JD is not the killer.

NOTE: Earlier, the Sheriff and Henry find Uncle Marty’s cell phone in JD’s room.

Cause yea.. like.. finding a phone in some else’s possession is JUST AS GOOD as having a clear pictured video tape with excellent sound to prove somebody is a killer.

In the meantime… Malcom finally comes clean about Booth. Well.. let’s be fair. He didn’t come clean because of a heavy conscience. He got busted with the money by the Frat Boys (Scully and the black dude) looking for Scully’s blow up doll, Muffin.

Malcom tells them everything and needless to say, the boys don’t take to kindly to it. The black dude pummels Malcolm and tells that when he gets downstairs, they are going to the Sheriff.

NOTE: Now, don’t mind me but IF you knew someone KNEW something about the death of your friend but didn’t say anything because he had mega bucks from ANOTHER dead guy where he accidentally sank the boat with the dead body on it.. would YOU let him out of your sight????

Next thing you know, Malcolm is doing the honorable (!) thing and burning the money in the Inn’s incinerator. Where he is promptly taken hold of by behind and hacked? Stangled? Burned? Dosed?

Don’t know how exactly he was killed because they didn’t show it but yet another one bites the dust!

Meanwhile… Henry and Trish decide to cancel the wedding. I think Henry was thinking more “postponment” but Trish was like, “yea.. nope.. not doing it.. EVER“. She can’t get past everything even though Henry can’t help who is brother is :: JD is still the prime subject. They even called out the coon hounds on his skinny butt! ::

Abby goes to talk to her and they yknow.. bond over having murdered parents so Abby told her that the way SHE was able to make peace was to talk to her mother. This was actually some pretty inane stuff but to wrap it up, Abby accompanies Trish to the morgue where under a human burrito wrapped sheet is Mr. Wallingford. Don’t know what Trish said.. I think I may have gone to the bathroom.. but it’s over with.

Meanwhile.. Shay realizes that Richard has been gone all day. Madison wonders if it’s because of what she said to the Sheriff.

NOTE: I may not have mentioned this last week but after the Sheriff interviewed Madison who confirms that she was with her father, she questions her mother on whether Richard would be pleased that she told the police exactly what he told her to. I think Richard was fetish-ing with Catherine during the time in question.

Now.. here’s the meat of the episode.

Like I said, they should have titled this “Revelations”..

The epi flipped back and forth between the present and flashbacks. I’m not going to go frame by frame because I’m not that insane but here’s the scoop:

Back when Jimmy and Abby were dating.. there was a planned campSEXing trip. Abby’s mother busts her on going with Jimmy instead of her girlfriend and her mother says something about Jimmy being dangerous.. with his charm, good looks, etc. The implication was that the Sheriff was safe where as Abby was looking for passion. Her mother tells her the Sheriff IS passionate… about hating Jimmy.

Cute line.

Anyway.. Abby leaves and meets up with Jimmy. As they’re walking in the woods around the inlet, something blows up. They rush down to find one of the Sheriff’s deputies :: the burned man from earlier :: laying on the pier.. um.. burned.

The Sheriff tells Abby to go home and stay with her mother. She does but when she gets to the house.. it’s empty. She notices scratch marks on the door when the phone rings. It’s the Sheriff telling her to lock all the doors and windows. She tells him that her mother is no where to be found and then you hear a scream.

Abby goes outside to investigate and comes across Wakefiled dragging a body down the road where he uses the face spade :: or whatever they call it :: . Wakefield hears her gasp and as he turns to investigate, Jimmy happens to come around with his truck. What we don’t know until the very end of the episode is that Jimmy saw Abby hiding so he called attention to himself on purpose giving Abby the chance to escape. Wakefield comes after Jimmy but he peels away.

Abby takes off and comes across the infamous hanging tree where her mother is swinging in the breeze. The sheriff comes up behind her and the next scene you see where the Sheriff is sending her away to California. The get into an argument and the Sheriff barks “..DID YOU EVER THINK MAYBE SHE DESERVED WHAT SHE GOT”.

That must have been the “pretty nasty things’ he had referred to in a previous epeisode.

After the burned man had told Abby that she needed to talk to the Sheriff.. she confronts him.

He tells her that Wakefield and her mother had been invovled with each other when she was very young but that she came to the island to escape him.

When Wakefield showed up on the island THE FIRST TIME.. the Sheriff, being that man that he is, tells his deputies to hunt him down and make sure he never wants to visit the island again. Apparently, there was some type of altercation between Wakefield and the Deputy-Who-Would-Be-Burned involving a knife. The Sheriff pulled in every marker and had Wakefield charged with some trumped up stuff.

Can’t remember how much jail time he got but you know when he got out, he was one pissed off mo-fo.

Hence his return to the island AND his killing spree.

So that’s basically it.. OH! Except for the letter that Madison receives slipped under her room door. You don’t know what it says but it was obviously some type of instruction. She goes to a room where the door is half open and as she enters, the door slams behind her.

Roll Credits.

Not sure if CBS would want to show a kid being murdered.. but she may NOT have been murdered. We’ll have to wait until next week.

BUT.. Question of the Week is:

SO, Is Abby really Wakefield’s daughter??