The Ice Harvest

THE ICE HARVEST (TIH), another quirky triumph from Focus Features, should really be sold as a thriller with darkly comedic undertones a la FARGO rather than a comedy with thriller elements a la GROSSE POINTE BLANK (even though John Cusack looks remarkably like he did in GPB here). It's a subtle but crucial difference, and a successful change in tone for director Harold Ramis. The suspenseful yet surreally funny Kansas-set story of nervous Mob lawyer John Cusack teaming up with laid-back yet ruthless Billy Bob Thornton to steal over $2 million from Cusack's boss Randy Quaid, only to find themselves stuck in Wichita by an ice storm and all manner of goof-ups and goofballs, with a hit man on their tail to-boot, TIH tells its twisted tale as if my fave thriller author Jim Thompson (THE GRIFTERS, THE GETAWAY, POP. 1280, among others) wrote it in a jovial mood -- though I suspect that in a jovial mood, Thompson would have been more likely to smirk than belly-laugh. Set on Christmas Eve, TIH starts with the best unexpected holiday-themed credits since 1947's LADY IN THE LAKE and only gets more gleefully malevolent from there. You know our antiheroes are literally in for a blue Christmas, thanks to Alar Kivilo's sleek azure-tinged photography. Cusack and Thornton make such a good team that I'm now eager to rent their previous collaboration, PUSHING TIN, even though I've heard mixed reviews of that, too. Oliver Platt has been touted as TIH's scene-stealer in the role of Cusack's friend who stole his wife and, having lived to regret it, spends the whole film getting drunk and hilariously obnoxious. Platt's a hoot, all right, but Thornton has the slyest lines; his explanation of how his wife ends up killed by the hit man is evilly funny, all the more so for Thornton's matter-of-fact delivery. Connie Nielsen also deserves kudos for stealing her own scenes more subtly and sensuously as the sexy owner of The Sweet Cage, one of many strip joints in town that Cusack frequents (I came away from the movie thinking strip joints must be a cottage industry in Wichita). Nielsen looks like a Petty Girl or Varga Girl come to life, fresh from the pages of a vintage Esquire issue. If you want a wicked little tongue-in-cheek noir as an antidote to the season's holiday cheer, TIH may well be your cup of hemlock. (When TIH comes out on DVD, rent it along with BAD SANTA, FARGO, and/or GROSSE POINTE BLANK and have yourself a merry little day of eccentric movie mayhem!)

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The Ice Harvest is one of the first fantastic movies of the holidays. My girlfriend and I, on a whim, decided to catch the new John Cusack flick. We were delightfully surprised. It was the first time this whole season we have been so entertained. The way that the screenplay is written is without any flashbacks and continuously moving forward in time. You have to figure out the back story, and it is no mystery. Just clever. The acting is phenomenal. Overall this movie is highly entertaining, very funny at times, and incredibly witty. It still would be considered a light hearted comedy-caper film. But it is great! Comes recommended to anyone who wants to be entertained at the movies.

The acting in this film was decent. Cusack played a subtle man entering a situation far above his head. But don't expect more than a few twists, all painfully obviously coming. I am a resident of Wichita, KS...and I think the filmmaker had us pegged well. He managed to show the hypocrisy in a scene where an 'impolite drunk' was kicked in the crotch for outrageously hitting on a 'good Christian bartender' in her straight-laced boyfriends presence. Wichita is very much a moral town...on the surface. But scratch just beneath the surface...and you will find greed, sexual repression, and violence here. I suspect many moral Wichita natives (and Kansans in general) will get their panties in a twist over this film...but then again moralists have made an art form out of protesting publicly the vices they practice in secret :(

I don't know why this movie was made. Everything The Ice Harvest tries to do, has already been done before… a million times. John Cusack plays Charlie Arglist, a crocked mob lawyer in Kansas who steals over $2 million from his mob boss on Christmas Eve. I'm sick of Cusack playing the con man / assassin / thief / crocked lawyer / etc. It's been done to death. The plot revolved around Cusack trying to get out of town with the money and killing a whole lot of people in the process. Woo-hoo. I was bored (just ask Jegar, who had to keep waking me up when I passed out). And there is nothing else to this movie. If you're going to make a movie about something as clichéd as stealing money from the mob, at least do it in a way that's never been done before. Make it original and unpredictable. The Ice Harvest is neither.

A suspenseful heist movie needs to have SOME credibility in order for me to believe and enjoy the story. This movie has close to zero credibility though. From the very start there simply are TOO many stupid events that dont ring true AT ALL... More bad. The dialogues are mediocre and dont sound like normal people would talk. Although this is a minor issue compared to the lack of credibility of the plot. Not any good? I would not recommend this movie, not even to John Cusack fans, unless one isnt bothered by lack of any credibility of the story.

This was a great comeback for director Harold Ramis after his last two movies sucked really bad. John Cusack stars as a mob lawyer who has a plan with Billy Bob Thornton to steal $2.1 millions dollars from a mob boss, played by Randy Quaid, on Christmas eve. The first scene of the movie they have the money but the problem is getting out of Kansas and they don't know who they can trust. Cusack has a few hours until they leave and can hardly stand it. Oliver Platt is Cusack's friend and Connie Nielsen is a strip club owner who's club is being shut down on January 1. This is a really great black comedy and it's unfortunate that it only made $5 million on it's first weekend.