TV Series Review - Harper's Island

Over the past 12 or 13 weeks my family and I have been sucked into this show called "Harper's Island" which just wrapped up this past weekend.

It's about what looks to be the picture perfect wedding, being held in a large stately manor on a secluded island.  The bride and groom are the quintessential soon-to-be newlyweds, and you have an assortment of colorful, sometimes a little weird, supporting characters.

However, we soon learn that every week someone will die at the hands of a mysterious murderer.  "One by One" the opening credits tell us, and that's pretty much how it goes for the first 1/2 of the season.

I was pretty impressed with this show - it had all the aspects of a classic "whodunit" and in the end the one I thought did it, didn't.

The season finale had the feel of a modern horror movie, despite the fact that it was on TV.  They even turned up the gore factor a little for the 2 hour show.

As I said, the story revolved around a couple that was soon to be married, however guests start to disappear and at first no one suspects anything.  Soon however, miscellaneous body parts show up and it isn't until the bride's father is killed in a most gruesome (and wicked) way that they begin to realize something is wrong.

There are the usual plot twists, as with any show of this nature, and many questions, most of which get answered at the end.

I think the best part for me though was watching my family's reaction to the finale.  After all, we started out with 25 in the wedding party, and only 4 survived.  So as you can imagine, everyone had their own idea of who the killer was, as well as who would live.

And really, I think the producers did a great job of keeping you on the edge of your seat and guessing who the second murderer was (yes there was 2).

You see, we kinda knew early on that this character John Wakefield, who was responsible for a murder spree a few years ago on this very island, was somehow involved.  And we did find out that he was alive even though the town sheriff said he killed him, but we also learned later on that Wakefield was more of an accomplice and in fact someone in the wedding party was the real killer.

The murders were brutal, but many left more to the imagination than actually showing you the gore (and to me that just makes it worse, when you can hear, but not see what happened).

There were many great moments in the show, such as when the bride realized, just before she was killed, who the real murderer was, or when the flirt, Chloe, committed suicide after her fiance Cal had been killed, rather than having Wakefield kill her.  Or when the first suspect, the groom's brother, ends up a victim and you go "OK so who else could it be?"

I did a search and found the whole season on various torrent sites, so I'd suggest downloading it or watching it on the CBS website.  But if you are horror-adverse, I'd suggest watching them earlier in the day, or watching only 1 or 2 at a time.  But I highly recommend you do watch them.  A great series. 

So I was bored this weekend and hit the mall, something I rarely do.  I thought I'd head into the local video store to see what I could find.

I came across  2 for $20 section and found the 20th anniversary edition of Dirty Dancing and since I know my wife loved the movie I thought I'd pick it up.

It had been a few years since we watched this movie so I thought it would be a good way to spend a Saturday evening.

We put the DVD in and right away it seemed different - I didn't remember it starting the way the DVD does.

The movie, in case you haven't heard of it, is about a 1960's family which goes on vacation to a summer resort in upstate New York's Catskill Mountains.  It focuses mostly on the youngest child, nicknamed "Baby", played by Jennifer Grey.

She is opposed to the idea of a family vacation but soon gets over it when she sees the resort's dance instructor Johnny (Patrick Swayze).

Through a series of events she Baby ends up in a dance contest with Johnny and it is through the practice and preparations for the dance competition that they fall for each other.

Baby's father finds out about the affair and forbids Baby to see Johnny again, and shortly after Johnny is fired from his position for a crime he didn't commit (stealing people's wallets). 

In the end, though, Johnny returns for one last dance with Baby at the final event of the resort's season.

One thing I've always thought is that music is the unsung supporting character in most movies.  The movie's soundtrack can make or break a movie.

With this one, the music definetly helped it along.  If you are a fan of late 50's and early 60's music then you will like this movie (if you haven't already seen it that is).

And to me, that's the best part of this movie.  Don't get me wrong, the movie is alright, but the music is the best part.  I mean, it's a dance movie, and the dancing is good, the acting is ok, but it's the music which really sets up this movie.

And since this is a 20th anniversary edition, it is longer and comes packed with a bunch of bonus features.  For example the bonus disk has a bunch of deleted scenes including a few scenes which were removed from the beginning of the movie.

It also has some of the screen tests done by actors in the movie and has a pretty good clip with what looks to be a fairly recent interview with Patrick Swayze.

Should you watch this movie?  Well if you haven't seen it then probably. If you are looking for a "chick flick" to impress your girlfriend or wife, yet want something you too can watch then most definitely watch this.

Sometimes when you are bored you will stray from the top rentals and find a movie you've never heard of.

Of course, more often than not, the movies found in the middle aisles are old or lame or both.

But sometimes you come across one you've never heard of but are impressed by the cast so you figure "what the heck, how bad can it be?"

That was the case recently when I found this DVD - The Way of the Gun.

What caught my eye was the cast - relatively big names in a move I'd never heard of before, or at least don't remember hearing about.

In this movie, Phillippe and Del Toro are a couple of guys who prefer the shadier side of life.  The movie starts with them starting a fight and Del Toro hitting a loud mouthed woman a few times in the face!

These guys kinda drift through life until the find out that there's a woman who is pregnant and worth a million dollars to the father.

So they arrange to kidnap her, ending up in a gun battle with her security before managing to grab her.

The story follows them as they head for Mexico to hide out and arrange for the safe return on the girl upon payment of a large sum of money.

They soon realize, however, that the father of the unborn baby is actually a well known mobster

The movie ends with the 2 in a big gun battle with the mobsters men. 

They almost get away with it too, but are stopped at the end with gunshot wounds to the legs and hands, effectively hobbling them until the police arrive.

The reason I liked this movie is because there seem to be a lot of subtle things going on that make you wonder if things will work out for these guys, or even if one might end up stabbing the other in the back.

In the end you hope they do make it and you start to cheer for them.  You find that they aren't necessarily as bad as they seem.

Would I recommend you run out and buy this film?  Not unless you are a huge fan of one of the actors and have to have every movie they've ever done, but I would recommend getting out and renting it. 

I give this movie a 7 out of 10.