Regular Price $14.98

Starring: John Cusack,  Billy Bob Thornton,  Lara Phillips,  Bill Noble (III),  Brad Smith, 
Directed By: Harold Ramis, 
Rated: R (Restricted)
Release Date: 2005-11-23
Studio: Universal Studios
Format: AC-3,  Color,  Dolby,  Dubbed,  DVD-Video,  Subtitled,  Widescreen,  NTSC, 

Editorial Reviews and DVD Information about The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition)

Product Description
John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton lead an all-star cast in this hilarious and unpredictable thriller that critics are calling "very funny stuff" (Richard Roeper Ebert & Roeper).When lawyer Charlie (Cusack) and his partner Vic (Thornton) steal from a mob boss they think they've pulled off the perfect crime. But when they race through a night filled with mayhem lust and lethal surprises they realize that the biggest risk they'll take will be trusting each other.From the director of Analyze This and Groundhog Day The Ice Harvest cracks with outrageous laughs and slippery twists that will keep you guessing until the very end!System Requirements:Running Time: 89 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 025192629624 Manufacturer No: 26296

Amazon.com
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

Customer Reviews for The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition)

Great movie I loved it John Cusack is amazing
I love this movie. John Cusack was great. I watch this a lot all the time. That was great.The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition)

IT'S ONLY ME, BUT:
SHOULD OF BEEN FUNIER WITH JOHN CUSAK AND BILLIE BOB THORNTON TOETHER. DIDN'T GUITE GET THERE. JMThe Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition)

HAROLD RAMIS, OPUS 10
***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.The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition)

Good acting
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.The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition)

Perversely amusing, although the novel is better
Judging from the few dozen reviews I perused, not too many people read Scott Phillips' novel upon which this movie is based. Phillips has a great ear for dialogue, which by & large survived the transition into screenplay form. However, there are some significant differences between the novel and the film, not the least of which is the ending. Scott Phillips was involved to a certain extent in the production of the film, and I have to assume that he was OK with these alterations --- but I can't help but think that the movie would have been more effective if it had remained faithful to the novel all the way through.

Additionally, although I like John Cusack generally, I wasn't entirely satisfied with his portrayal of Charlie Arglist, who comes off as a doofus way in over his head. The Charlie Arglist in the novel may be in the dark on a lot of details, but he is not an idiot, nor is he out of control of his own destiny --- something which the novel's end makes all that much more poignant. This poignancy was missing from the movie, and while reviewers may not have realized it, perhaps this is one of the reasons that this film was not well-received.

So --- even though I enjoyed it, I would give it a very qualified four stars, owing largely to some solid performances from Billy Bob Thornton & Oliver Platt. But I understand why the opinion of others might be more harsh.The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition)

Customers who bought The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition) also bought:

Featured DVD's

• Action & Adventure
• Anime & Manga
• Art House & International
• Classics
• Comedy
• Cult Movies

• Drama
• Gay & Lesbian
• Horror
• Kids & Family
• Musicals