GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Steve Pulaski Harold Ramis's The Ice Harvest is a perplexing miscalculation of a plot less exercise in film noir that tries to adhere to the principles and personalities of its characters, in a presumably more effective manner, but instead, creates too many threads that result in untidy management of such loose ends. There is simultaneously too much and too little going on here, even less so in the way of character/human interest when characters are either drawn too broadly or too unbelievable to take seriously. The coffin-sealing nail at hand here, however, is the film's inability to find a consistent tone or one that effectively merges dark humor with crime, greed, loyalty, and seamy characters. When there's little humor working and the characters are too broad to feel for is when you know you have a lackluster film noir on your hands.The film takes place on Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas, where a mob lawyer named Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) and a businessman and pornographer Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) have just pulled off the heist of a lifetime. They've stolen $2 million from their mob boss Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid), in an act of slick sabotage, but because of horribly icy roads, they learn they'll be unable to leave town until the next day. Vic takes the money for the time being, and go on their own ways, in hopes to avoid Guerrard and his goons, who are onto their activities.For the next eighty minutes, we mostly follow Charlie, as he restlessly roams around town, at one point being forced to take care of his drunken pal Pete (Oliver Platt) for a large portion of the night. This was the fatal flaw of the film I predicted within the first few minutes, being that both Charlie and Vic would have to split up and we'd be greatly deprived of the great banter that could've taken place between Cusack and Thornton. Instead, the conversations Charlie has with a barrage of acquaintances, and the frequently incorrigible Pete seem to exist only as dreary substitutes for anything other than some sort of intriguing conversation. This is the first time in memory I can think of a film less than ninety minutes in length feeling padded and bloated with a great deal of air more than anything.Ramis's contributions to the comedy drama are undeniable; he's a low-key, often forgotten treasure of the genre and works to put a remarkably relatable spin of magic on each film he does. However, his direction is sterile with The Ice Harvest, certainly not elevated by Lee Percy's basic editing structure, offering no visual flair or complex connective tissue that rises from the surface. Even the cinematography, done by Alar Kivilo, does little to concoct an environment other than a depressingly boring location that just so happens to be the place where two criminals conducted a heist.On top of having little interesting dialog and flat characters, The Ice Harvest is a film without a personality. Even the film's actors seem bored and unfazed by the material at hand, mainly because writers Richard Russo and Robert Benton infuse such little life and excitement into the script. A film concerning the dialogs between Charlie and Vic could've and should've been the very meat of the film, but instead, it meanders around, hoping to find something to do that will interest and provoke emotions, but unfortunately lies stagnant most of the time. The Ice Harvest is a film on autopilot, and while it's not particularly offensive or worth condemning on a horribly mean-spirited level, it's depressingly mediocre given the talent and the potential involved.Starring: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver Platt, and Randy Quaid. Directed by: Harold Ramis.

Tony Bush Infinitely cool, twisted, post-modern and blackly comedic noir that ends up being an ideal antidote to the saccharine-overloaded bloat of sickliness that defines most festive movies.Mob lawyer Charlie (John Cusack) and his associate Vic (Billy Bob Thornton) heist two million in cash from gang boss Guerrard (Randy Quaid) on Christmas Eve. Now all they have to do is act normal and get out of town on Christmas Day. But, as is the inevitable way of such things, it's not going to be that simple.Cue cross, double-cross, duplicity, murder, violence, slapstick and some razor sharp dialogue along with a sex-on-legs femme-fatale (glacial Connie Nielsen) and Charlie's friend, and also husband of his ex wife (alcohol challenged Oliver Platt) and you have a neo-noir classic to watch as the chestnuts roast and the wine mulls.Cusack, Thornton, Platt, Nielsen and Quaid are immensely watchable and the minor characters who come and go as the film proceeds are all impressively sketched. It's not a fast-paced action spectacular, but it has its fair share of gore and grisliness. If the usual Christmas fare of animated Santas, nuns singing on mountains and elderly misanthropists finding redemption through multiple haunting is beginning to pale, reinvigorate your festive palate with this absolute gem of a movie. It's a bit tasty.

Kate Dixon (foolwiththefez) As this movie opens, our main character, Charlie (John Cusack) explains how he believes that it is possible to commit the perfect crime. In his opinion, all you need is to be the kind of person who would never commit a crime. This is the kind of circular logic that rules not only the film, but Charlie's life as well.Charlie has, in a monumentally out of character moment of courage, has just stolen two million dollars from his mob-boss employer. Now all he and his wonderfully droll partner, Vic (Billy Bob Thorton), have to do is go their separate ways and wait out the icy Kansas rain. Their plan is to meet up when the weather clears and head for the airport and parts unknown.Watching Charlie realize that he would be all but incapable of dealing with the normal perils of Christmas Eve, much less a Christmas Eve on which he has just committed an extraordinarily dangerous crime. He all but hangs a sign around his neck saying that he's leaving town. He wonders from one of his usual haunts to another being nice to people and trying to seduce the one woman he's lusted after for years, the lovely Renata (Connie Nielsen) who seems to manage a seedy strip club. He knows that his boss's chief hit-man is looking for him, but keeps going to familiar places none-the-less. He eventually hooks up with a friend, Pete (Oliver Platt), who is, perhaps, the only person in town who is both more drunk than Charlie and less equipped to deal with the miasma of holiday cheer in which they find themselves.While these events start out like a screwball comedy, the movie quickly descends into the morass of complications, lies, secret motivations, and murder that define film noir. It amazed me just how dark the movie became. It moves from scenes of incredible humor, such as Oliver Platt showing the kind of simultaneous recklessness and concern for his body that is endemic of drunks or Billy Bob Thorton and John Cusack discussing whether a Lincoln or a Mercedes is more suited to transporting a body, to scenes filled with an almost nausea-inducing sense of dread and despair. Despite all the wonderful performances and spot on dialogue, I think the aspect of this film that shines the most is it's ability to shift gears and tone so seamlessly without betraying it's characters and plot.I won't give away the ending, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention how perfect it is. The last scene of this movie proves that the filmmakers know the noir genre well enough to know exactly how they should end if they could end happily, though they can't.

kosmasp The movie has quite a few good actors at hand. And I do think that they're trying their best. But I also do think that the movie isn't able to walk the thin line it set out to walk on. Like it tries to be clever and you can feel it trying. And that's not a good thing. A movie is either cool or it isn't.It's also switching back and forth between action, dark humour, Slapstick and thriller moments. Unfortunately not that well mixed together. The movie is just not sure what it wants. Another indication for that, are the alternate endings that were put on the disc. Not that they do shine a new light/perspective on things.I know quite a few people enjoyed this more than me, but I just couldn't. So read a couple of other comments and then decide if you want to watch the movie