Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Python Hyena The Ice Harvest (2005): Dir: Harold Ramis / Cast: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Platt, Randy Quaid: Title defines the term "skating on thin ice" as two mobsters steal a large sum of cash on Christmas Eve and try to avoid the consequences. Harold Ramis has dealt with questionable humour before with such hilarious outings as Analyze This but this may be his darkest comedy yet. The script is crude especially when people start dying. The concept is appealing with a detailed screenplay but the ending showcases no remorse. Performances are top notch with John Cusack committing the theft with Billy Bob Thornton then discovering that they are in grave danger. Then Cusack begins to question his partnership with him. Thornton dealt with crude dark humour when he gave one of his best performances in the superior and funnier Bad Santa. Connie Nielsen plays a stripper whom was once involved with Cusack. Finally there is Oliver Platt who steals scenes as a drunken relative of Cusack's. Randy Quaid plays a villain whose plans have dire consequences. Many plot turns make this an interesting outing yet not necessarily funny. Its lesson is that crime doesn't stop for the holidays and not everyone is joyful, but Cusack demonstrates the cheapness of certain individuals who go for the low when harvesting a relationship with their children. Score: 8 / 10

NateWatchesCoolMovies The Ice Harvest is one of those dark comedies where the comedy is so dark, you start to feel the cynical, malicious edge to your own laughs. I mean that in the best possible way possible. If you thought Fargo has some dry, sociopathic wit, check this baby out. The deftly written, ice cold script has the most comically jaded, completely amoral characters this side of a Raymond Chandler story. It's also entirely hilarious, if you're into that sort of thing, and quite underrated. John Cusack stars as a downbeat mob lawyer with a broken family, a dead end outlook on life, and a obliviously absent morale. Cusack brings his petty, distant charm to the role. Oliver Platt steals the show as his brother, a raging alcoholic loony toon of a man, whose supporting character antics and inebriated, jolly charm walk away with half the film. Billy Bob Thornton plays a psychopathic criminal with early signs of his character in FX's Fargo. Connie Neilson plays the obligatory femme fatale with restraint and grace. Randy Quaid randomly pops up near the end and almost gives Platt a run for his money in the manic energy department, playing Cusack's furious, maniacal big city gangster employer, and chewing the scenery like he was in a John Waters flick. It's ultimately a low key crime flick, but it has a nice bite to it, some excellent writing brought to life by the cast who are clearly having buckets of fun. Above all it knows how provocatively silly dark comedies must be, acts accordingly, and comes out a winner.

secondtake The Ice Harvest (2005)Okay, someone tell me why this movie is worth watching. For the almost flashy sets and groovy lighting? For the couple of great actors in less than stellar performances? For the gaudy violence that is neither plasticky like Tarantino nor hyper-real like Scorsese? All this stuff is here. And if you give a hoot about who kills who, and can keep track of why, then you might think this is passable. It's meant to be a black comedy, but that requires timing and wit, both missing here. It's kind of a Christmas movie, but only incidentally.It starts slow, and then keeps going slow (as you think to yourself it'll pick up soon), then it does pick up with casual murder after casual murder. You don't really worry about who dies or that it's so brutal. Who cares? The main character played by John Cusack is typical Cusack and maybe you'll like him (the actor), but his character is a bore and you don't really care that he's about to get whacked, or almost whacked, in scene after scene. And Billy Bob? Also disappointing (and more of a surprise because he's a great actor).Yeah, I hated this movie. First it made me sleepy (literally) and then it made me bored (but not sleepy just because there was so much fabulous violence).The director here, Harold Ramis, has some dazzling successes to his credit, including "Groundhog Day" and "Caddyshack." The writers are to blame here as well, but one of the screenwriters has a long admirable history, too, going back to "Bonnie and Clyde." So what gives? Bad luck? Lack of money? Conflict of personalities? Who knows!But the sensibility is just out of touch here. I would avoid this one by a mile.

cormac_zoso seriously, if you don't appreciate the near hopeless desperation of john cusak's character's desire to connect with anyone (anyone at all in his seamy menagerie of 'acquaintances') and oliver platt's character's hopeless middle-age angst poorly salved by whiskey, then buddy, i don't wanna know ya ...this is an excellent movie and i'm not sure why it doesn't connect with so many people ... perhaps people really convince themselves that life is more than just the same routine, mind-numbing in repetition and ultimately pointless when it's all said and done but i haven't seen much evidence to the contrary ... perhaps you've never had a Christmas or holiday alcohol misjudgment, when the booze grabs the leash from your hands and yanks you in an unexpected direction and before you can bite your tongue, an ugly holiday memory is forever seared in the brains of 'loved ones' and you are thought of for all time as a 'poor excuse for a man' or husband or son or ... whatever .... if you haven't then bully for you ...for the rest of us, well, we understand this movie and the only hope we have is to perhaps stumble forward into heaven at the end where pancakes and more finally await us, hot and fresh ...