Wayne Chesler Movies

Rap artist-cum-actor Ice-T was both the producer and host of the weekly, 60-minute cable "reality" series Beyond Tough. In keeping with the "everyday hero" motif popularized during the dark days surrounding 9-11, the series focused on people who worked in dangerous and death-defying "everyday" jobs. Professions thus profiled included sulfur-pit workers, steeplejacks, and demolition experts. Even the streetwise Ice-T was in awe of these hardy souls, though he suggested that some of the on-the-edge professionals were "just crazy." Beyond Tough first aired on September 18, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this film, there is a popular television game-show called "A Smoking Gun," whose purpose is to solve murders on the air. Nolan (Sam Trammell) is an intern with this show. His job is to investigate the claims of would-be contestants. In this case, he goes to a resort island off the Massachusetts/Rhode Island coasts. Lucille, a woman living in one of the island's hotels has been writing the show for months, claiming that several murders were committed where she lives, and that she knows because she helped commit them. Nolan, a good-spirited lad who wishes to believe the best of everyone, is misled from the beginning by various members of the local community, who claim that Lucille is making things up. Gus (John Randolph), the hotel caretaker, seeks to fulfill his great dream of becoming the owner of the hotel. To that end, while Nolan is busy courting a local girl, Gus reluctantly murders several more people (including Lucille) directly under Nolan's increasingly inattentive nose. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi