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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Universal Studios
Salesrank: 11056
Released: February 28, 2006 |
| Our Price: $2.49 |
| Used Price: $0.91 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A wickedly funny thriller about a mob lawyers plan to steal money from his boss on a dark & icy winters night. This is filled with mayhem & lethal surprises that will keep you laughing & guessing until the very end. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/09/2007 Starring: John Cusack Connie Nielsen Run time: 89 minutes Rating: R
Description of The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition):
Holiday movies don’t get much darker, or more darkly humorous, than The Ice Harvest, an offbeat comedy that defies expectations. The involvement of director Harold Ramis might lead some to expect a straight-up comedy like Groundhog Day or Analyze This, but despite Ramis’s fine and atypically subdued work here, it’s the writers (Robert Benton and Richard Russo) who put a stronger stamp on their adaptation of the novel by Scott Phillips. Benton and Russo previously collaborated on Nobody’s Fool and Twilight (with Benton also directing), and those films are similar in tone and spirit to this quirky, modern-day film noir, set on a freezing Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas, where mob lawyer Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) has a lot on his mind. He’s just stolen $2 million from his boss (Randy Quaid), he can’t trust his partner Vic (Billy Bob Thornton), he’s secretly in love with the manager (Connie Nielsen) of the strip bar he owns, and his best friend (Oliver Platt, giving yet another terrific performance) is married to his ex-wife. Before the night’s over, several murders will complicate matters even further, and throughout it all, The Ice Harvest is anchored by Cusack’s good-natured presence in a bad-natured story that dares to combine double-crosses and bloodshed with elusive yuletide cheer. It’s a strange but oddly appealing combination, not for all tastes but refreshing for that very same reason. --Jeff Shannon
The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition) Reviews:
Mislabeled as a comedy 
2008-11-13 - I guess because Richard Russo cowrote the screenplay, someone figured this should be labeled a comedy. There are no laughs. It's a dark Christmas movie with a Mob theme, several murders and a $2 million heist that goes awry. I enjoyed the atmosphere, but some won't. The dialogue is high quality. The alternate endings don't work, though, unless you want this to end even more darkly.
Great movie I loved it John Cusack is amazing 
2008-10-07 - I love this movie. John Cusack was great. I watch this a lot all the time. That was great.
IT'S ONLY ME, BUT: 
2008-06-01 - SHOULD OF BEEN FUNIER WITH JOHN CUSAK AND BILLIE BOB THORNTON TOETHER. DIDN'T GUITE GET THERE. JM
HAROLD RAMIS, OPUS 10
2008-02-19 - ***1/2 2005. Directed by Harold Ramis. The screenplay, adapted from Scott Phillips' The Ice Harvest: A Novel and written by Robert Kramer vs. Kramer Benton earned a nomination for the Edgar Allan Poe award. In the icy city of Wichita, two unskilled amateurs, who've stolen $2 million from a mob boss, try to get away. I liked a lot the cynical mood of the film who must be enjoyed like an old liqueur. Enjoyable.
Good acting
2007-08-08 - Ever since "High Fidelity" came out, I've been a big John Cusak fan. Before "High Fidelity" I had never really heard of him (I can be a bit out of it sometimes), but after "High Fidelity", he has been one of two actors whose face on the box alone can be enough to make me rent a movie. (Kevin Spacey being the other one).
Of course that can be a dangerous policy because John Cusak has been in as many stinkers as successes, but fortunately this time around "The Ice Harvest" is highly watchable. It's a suspense about a mob lawyer who tries to steal money from his boss, and then finds he can't trust a lot of his friends as well. A lot of dark comedy is thrown in as well. The dark humor aspect of it reminded me slightly of "Things to do in Denver when you're Dead." And Billy Bob Thornton is pretty good in this movie also.
Not anything I would recommend you go out of your way to see, but if you're looking for a video on a slow Wednesday night, you could do a lot worse.
