Featured Audience Ratings

• Universal D

  
  Its a rainy Christmas in Wichita, 1979, icy rain and cold, when small time mob lawyer Cusack decides to skim a little moolah from mean ol'boss Quaid's illegal loot. Luckily his friends want to help him out (outta the goodness of their widdle hearts!) before he gets… More
  Its a rainy Christmas in Wichita, 1979, icy rain and cold, when small time mob lawyer Cusack decides to skim a little moolah from mean ol'boss Quaid's illegal loot. Luckily his friends want to help him out (outta the goodness of their widdle hearts!) before he gets permanently iced but good in this wee bit of a enjoyable comic noirfest surprisingly directed by Harold Ramis.

• Jeff "

  
  I was expecting something pretty good with this film, but I was disappointed. With a great cast of actors and interesting story, I'm surprised that the filmmakers couldn't have created anything better than what this film turned out to be. This is a pretty bad film, and I was… More
  I was expecting something pretty good with this film, but I was disappointed. With a great cast of actors and interesting story, I'm surprised that the filmmakers couldn't have created anything better than what this film turned out to be. This is a pretty bad film, and I was disappointed because the cast and story were promising. However the film just didn't do it for me. As far as a dark comedy is concerned, this one just doesn't have what it takes and it is plainly a bad film that not even with the good cast at hand, they weren't able to save it from failing. This film could have been great, but it isn't. Harold Ramis over the years has made some great comedy classics, but nowadays he's losing his touch. The Ice Harvest is a boring film that you'll lose interest after a while. I thought that the film could have been much better considering the cast and director. However Harold Ramis can't seem to direct something consistent here. In the end, this is a boring film that could have been better. I think that the black humor elements could have been reworked as well, as even by those humor standards, it didn't do anything to make this film stand out. This film could have been good, but it was just a poorly made film with nothing interesting going for it. I was very disappointed in this film, thought it could have been much better than what it turned out to be.

• Sophie B

  
  Terrible and boring.

• Anthony L

  
  For a thriller, I found it to be a bit light on suspense to be honest but some of the performances were good, it wasn't predictable and overall it was quite entertaining. Nothing special, an easy way to pass the time but it's quite forgettable.

• Chris W

  
  Critics have already pointed out the debt this film owes to Elmore Leonard and the Coen Brothers, and I completely agree. I think it's earned, too. This didn't seem like a Harold Ramis movie to me, but that's alright. It's a good one, too. Really good. It's… More
  Critics have already pointed out the debt this film owes to Elmore Leonard and the Coen Brothers, and I completely agree. I think it's earned, too. This didn't seem like a Harold Ramis movie to me, but that's alright. It's a good one, too. Really good. It's probably his best film in quite some time. I think if I watched it a few more times and studied it, I might be able to pick out some philosophical type stuff that he's prone to putting in his films, but until then I'm content to just sit back and enjoy darkly comedic noir caper. There are some similarities between this and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but I think thos one's much better, mostly because it's played steaight and not giving a wink to the audience. For that reason, the tension seems to work better, and the audience is more drawn into things. None of the characters are really all that likeable, but that's probably the point, and it's definitely to the credit of all t he actors, too. Cusack is fun, and Thornton is great at playing down tright mean guys you don't want to mess with, but For me, the real highlight was Oliver Platt. He's a real scene stealer here, and just a hoot to watch. Connie Nielsen is great as the classic femme fatale, and I love the fact that she looks different with each role she plays, and is able to make you forget that she's European. Mike Starr is also a joy. This isn't for all tastes, and it's really a bitter, dark film even though it's also quite hilarious, so, only see it if you think you'll enjoy this type of thing.

• ♥˩ƳИИ &

  
  John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver, Platt, Ned Bellamy, Mike Starr, Connie Nielsen, Jenny Wade, Diane Frances Fisher, Lara Phillips DIRECTED BY: Harold Ramis It's Christmas Eve in rainy, icebound Wichita, Kansas, and this year Charlie Arglist just might have something… More
  John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver, Platt, Ned Bellamy, Mike Starr, Connie Nielsen, Jenny Wade, Diane Frances Fisher, Lara Phillips DIRECTED BY: Harold Ramis It's Christmas Eve in rainy, icebound Wichita, Kansas, and this year Charlie Arglist just might have something to celebrate. Charlie, an attorney for the sleazy businesses of Wichita, and his unsavory associate, the steely Vic Cavenaugh, have just successfully embezzled $2,147,000 from Kansas City boss Bill Guerrard. Even so, the real prize for Charlie would be the stunning Renata, who runs the Sweet Cage strip club. Charlie's fondest Christmas wish is to slip out of town with Renata. But, as daylight fades and a storm whirls, everyone from Charlie's drinking buddy Pete Van Heuten to the local police begin to wonder just what exactly is in Charlie's Christmas stocking. For Charlie, the 12 hours of Christmas Eve are filled with nonstop twists and turns, both on the ice and off. It's a fun dark comedy. John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton are really good together. Would have liked it if Billy Bob was in it a bit more. It was more amusing when him and Cusack are great together and funnier. I also enjoyed Oliver Platt, he was hilarious on his own. Just a funny comedy that will keep you entertained for about an hour and a half.

• Conner R

  
  I actually found myself really enjoying this. While the script is only so-so, John Cusack just really made a tremendous effort and made it an above average comedy. It also has a very strong supporting cast including Billy Bob Thorton, Oliver Platt and Randy Quaid (go figure). It is… More
  I actually found myself really enjoying this. While the script is only so-so, John Cusack just really made a tremendous effort and made it an above average comedy. It also has a very strong supporting cast including Billy Bob Thorton, Oliver Platt and Randy Quaid (go figure). It is relentless and extremely dark for a comedy, which makes it so refreshing.

• Film C

  
  Really disappointed with this movie i thought this was going to be hilarious maybe not great on the storyline but at least hilarios, i was really wrong the laughs are far an few between even though the should have kept billy bo longer as he did make the movie a bit more bearable! il… More
  Really disappointed with this movie i thought this was going to be hilarious maybe not great on the storyline but at least hilarios, i was really wrong the laughs are far an few between even though the should have kept billy bo longer as he did make the movie a bit more bearable! il love john cusack hes one of these great actors who isnt the most well nown actor like some top A listers but is fantastic and i just wish he didnt pick this movie! Its boring and doesnt answer a lot of questions to be honest i felt confused at the end! Not really worth a watch!

• Jens S

  
  Decent thriller comedy about two crooks trying to get away with a huge sum of money on the night of Christmas while they gotta keep their feet still for a night of ice rain. What starts somewhat confusing as a tour through strip clubs, bars and apartments gets better in the second… More
  Decent thriller comedy about two crooks trying to get away with a huge sum of money on the night of Christmas while they gotta keep their feet still for a night of ice rain. What starts somewhat confusing as a tour through strip clubs, bars and apartments gets better in the second half when there is more crime and murder. Although the showdown suffers from a villain who has not yet appeared in the film and is not exactly unpredictable, the solution is still somewhat satisfying, mostly thanks to John Cusack. No must see but an entertaining piece for fans of "Fargo" or similar films.

• Aaron N

  
  Vic: Pay no attention to the man in the trunk. A movie where the ads cannot do it justice. It's a dark comedy, with almost no sympathetic characters. Despite it being a comedy to it's main extent, there are a lot of neo-noir elements to this movie, main examples including… More
  Vic: Pay no attention to the man in the trunk. A movie where the ads cannot do it justice. It's a dark comedy, with almost no sympathetic characters. Despite it being a comedy to it's main extent, there are a lot of neo-noir elements to this movie, main examples including the femme fetale played by Connie Nielson and the twisty dark nature of the whole thing. Vic: Well? How'd it go? Charlie Arglist: Good. Went good. Vic: How much? Charlie Arglist: A lot. Vic: Am I gonna have to slap the shit outta you? How much? Charlie Arglist: Vic, it's a great, big, fuckin' pile of money: two-million - one-hundred - forty-seven-thousand dollars and change. My God, we're actually doing this. Vic: No, we're not doing it. It's already done. The story takes place on Christmas Eve. An attorney for the mob, Cusack, and his sleazy partner in crime, Thorton, have just stolen a large sum of money from a crime boss, and must now survive the night before they leave their lame lives in Kansas forever. We follow Cusack's character throughout the film, where he must deal with strip club bartenders, his favorite girl, the harsh weather, his drunken ex-wife's husband, and any hit men he may come across. Charlie Arglist: Pete, I know you're not asking for my advice, but listen... you should really shut the fuck up. The story is fairly predictable, but it's more about how these characters go about their business, which is what I enjoyed. John Cusack is always welcome, here playing a character similar but dimmer than in The Grifters. Billy Bob Thorton does his thing, and does it good, despite having only a few scenes. I found him to be very good particularly in the last scenes he appears in. However, the best work comes from Oliver Platt who steals most of the movie, playing drunk, sad, and asshole all at the same time, and it works. Pete Van Heuten: [waking up in back of Charlie's car] Ugh... Where are we? Charlie Arglist: We're in heaven, Pete. Pete Van Heuten: Oh... They got pancakes? Charlie Arglist: They got everything. Pete Van Heuten: Good. Harold Ramis of all people directed this film and tries his hardest to balance the tone of this film. Its tricky due to how dark this movie really is, despite having its humorous moments. By the end you can certainly feel a bit exhausted after the twists have ensued and blood has been spilled, but I enjoyed the flick. It has good performances and supplies a good Christmas movie to watch that doesn't involve so much joy. Charlie: As Wichita falls... so falls Wichita Falls.

• Bobby H

  
  Pretty funny movie and a good cast. The plot was pretty good, but I think they could of done a lot more with it. It was sort of predictable, at points too. Maybe not worth buying, but, def. worth a watch.

• Curtis L

  
  Very odd movie. Kinda predictable. Still, fun.

• Antony S

  
  Hmmm. We're well into Coen-aping territory for this recent neo-noir starring the usually very reliable John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. Cusack plays a lawyer who steals $2 million with his partner, but soon finds a mob enforcer on his tail and a host of other mishaps… More
  Hmmm. We're well into Coen-aping territory for this recent neo-noir starring the usually very reliable John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. Cusack plays a lawyer who steals $2 million with his partner, but soon finds a mob enforcer on his tail and a host of other mishaps befalling his would-be getaway. It's sad that Cusack is kinda slumming it for this one, as normally Cusack + crime comedy = cinematic manna from heaven (see the sublime Grosse Pointe Blank), but as a noir it lacks sparkling dialogue, and as a comedy its not all that funny. In fact, that's really the big distinction between this film and its superior forebears such as the Grifters and Fargo; that where those films (and other 90s crime capers) married styles perfectly, here each scene seems to alternately wildly between strong violence, humour, proper noir and so forth. Still, the movie has its moments, such as banter with a guy trapped in a foot-locker, Oliver Platt giving 110% as our anti-hero's drunken oafish friend, and Randy Quaid is rather effective as the third-act heavy. But against this the picture has an idiotic 'allow-me-to-spell-out-my-plan-oh-shit-he's-got-me-whilst-I-was-waffling' moment, and Connie Nielsen has just a 2D rendering of a femme fatale. Add to this tons of plot twists and a random unexplained message and you're left with an OK film, but a pale imitator of a great.

• Michael S

  
  Way Underrated little Noir.

• Al S

  
  A wickedly funny and twistedly brilliant crime thriller. Great film noir. It packs a wallop of suspense, laughs and deep twist. A plot that will always keep you going. A great cast. John Cusack and Billy Bob Thorton are great. An unpredictable and charasmatic group. Randy Quaid is a… More
  A wickedly funny and twistedly brilliant crime thriller. Great film noir. It packs a wallop of suspense, laughs and deep twist. A plot that will always keep you going. A great cast. John Cusack and Billy Bob Thorton are great. An unpredictable and charasmatic group. Randy Quaid is a knockout. Oliver Platt is a comic dazzeler. He's funny in every scene he's in. A film which develops it's plot and chracters nicely. A dark, hilarious and enjoyable movie. A cool, retro feel. A stylish and sensational flick. One of the years most entertaining films.

• Michael G

  
  A dark, rotten and hateful movie with great characters and superb dialogue. It's also a great neo-noir movie too. A lot of fun.

• Lanning :

  
  For some of the flixster `ohana, you know that I'm a big Cusack fan. For me, he hits way more than he misses. This is one of those projects I'd have wished he'd pass up. If I were part of Team Cusack, I would have tried my utmost to convice Cusack that this was not… More
  For some of the flixster `ohana, you know that I'm a big Cusack fan. For me, he hits way more than he misses. This is one of those projects I'd have wished he'd pass up. If I were part of Team Cusack, I would have tried my utmost to convice Cusack that this was not worthy of the time and effort. Really bad stuff, second-most because of the quality of the script. The foremost problem? It's that he and Thorton have nothing in common on the screen. Zero chemistry. It's beyond sad. Moving into the realm of painful. Come on, John, life is short. Go long!

• James A

  
  A pretty good movie. Billy bob wasnt as annoying as usual and Cusack was great as usual.

• Roy G

  
  The Ice Harvest has talent to spare in front of the camera, but isn't nearly as smart or sharp as it would like to be.

• Nate Z

  
  [center][font=Arial][color=darkred][img]http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/8652/photo111rc.jpg[/img][/color][/font][/center] [font=Arial][color=darkred][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]I’m not a heavy reader per se so imagine my surprise when I found out that a small crime… More
  [center][font=Arial][color=darkred][img]http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/8652/photo111rc.jpg[/img][/color][/font][/center] [font=Arial][color=darkred][/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]I’m not a heavy reader per se so imagine my surprise when I found out that a small crime novel I read years ago was getting the big Hollywood treatment. I read Scott Phillips’ [i]The Ice Storm[/i] in one sitting back in 2003 during a plane trip from Ohio to San Diego. It was deliciously dark down to the very last page and I loved it, but then I am a sucker for a good crime story (check out Jason Starr’s [i]Tough Luck [/i]and[i] Hard Feelings[/i] if you are the same). The movie looked to be on the right track with names like John Cusack to star and Harold Ramis to direct. Ramis is responsible for starring, writing, or acting in or directing some of the most beloved comedies of the last 25 years including [i]Ghostbusters[/i], [i]Animal House[/i], [i]Caddyshack[/i], [i]Groundhog Day[/i], [i]Stripes[/i], and [i]National Lampoon’s Vacation[/i]. That’s one illustrious comedic pedigree. So how could the movie go wrong?[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]It's Christmas Eve and Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) is a self-loathing attorney that works for some of the shadiest folks in Wichita, Kansas. One of those bad customers is mob boss Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid) whom Charlie and his partner Vic (Billy Bob Thornton) have just swindled over $2 million from. Unfortunately for them, Wichita is hit by an ice storm that makes the roads haphazard to travel. The two will wait until the morning thaw and then hit the road with their booty. Vic reassures Charlie to just, “act normal.” This means many ventures to some of Wichita’s finest strip clubs with alluring names like Sweet Cage and Tease-O-Rama. Charlie has a sweet spot for Renatta (Connie Nielsen), a bombshell and the operator of the Sweet Cage. He’ll also have to drive his plastered friend Phil (Oliver Platt) around, who is regretting having married Charlie’s cold ex-wife. Charlie would love to sail off into the sunset with Renatta by his side but first he’ll have to survive the night and a mob enforcer (Mike Starr) is already on his trail.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred][i]The Ice Harvest[/i] feels like an episodic collection of ideas, too many of which have little significance. The titular ice storm seems all but forgotten, only serving as a cheap plot device to keep our characters bottled up in the city. It has no bearing elsewhere on the plot. The reoccurring “As Wichita falls…” passage has no payoff. The nosy police officer plotline looks like it might be building to something important but then is quickly disposed of. The Christmas setting has little impact except for giving the strippers something to complain about. [i]The Ice Harvest[/i] wants to benefit from the juxtaposition of Christmas cheer with all these tawdry, violent asides and it just seems small and shallow. The movie also shifts the story’s time from 1979 to modern day one suspects just for the cheap out of cell phones.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Credit goes to Cusack for making his character as likable as he is. His character is a mob lawyer, a deadbeat dad, an increasingly drunk driver, and a man with his nose in whole lot of sleazy ventures, and yet you still pull for him to somehow succeed. Cusack, forever youthful, seems overly numb to all the horror around him and downplays the danger to a negative degree. Charlie seems like he’s in the wrong movie. Thornton plays yet another hedonistic louse and is quite good though not at his [i]Bad Santa [/i]apex. He seems the most at ease with the physical comedy. Nielsen plays your typical femme fatale with a Veronica Lake haircut and breezy voice, which should both be instant red flags for students of film noir. The two men that steal the show are Platt and Quaid. Platt gives a brilliant uninhibited performance as quite possibly the drunkest man in movie history. Quaid is an honest surprise as a menacing mobster ruing the day he chose a criminal enterprise in Kansas. He chomps scenery with a violent exasperation that truly seems larger than life. This is a bad guy to fear and Quaid makes the most of his very limited screen time.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Ramis is out of his league here. The man cannot competently direct tension or action. Ramis doesn’t let the audience build suspicion because he’d much rather have characters just point-blank say, “Don’t trust this person” instead. He doesn’t give us time to piece clues of betrayal together so instead characters just keep running forward until they get smacked in the face by something made obvious. Ramis’ mishandling of tone really sinks the movie. [i]The Ice Harvest[/i] doesn’t know whether it wants to be a thriller of a dark comedy and therefore just really sputters at both. The comedic elements and the thriller elements butt heads; because of the comedy the character never feel in danger, and because of the thriller/noir elements the characters and their situations never really seem funny. [i]The Ice Harvest[/i] turns into some kind of two-headed beast that snaps at itself. I think maybe Ramis was watching [i]Blood Simple[/i] and taking notes and then he accidentally taped over it with a Charles in Charge marathon and was at a loss.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Part of this problem is that the screenwriters don’t fully commit to the nastiness. Phillips’ novel is unrelentingly dark, cynical, and unsentimental and doesn’t give a damn if you like its characters. The movie, on the other hand, wants to get its hands dirty but is more interested in playing it safe. The film seriously reminded me of last year’s [i]Surviving Christmas[/i], another movie that wanted to be sweet and nasty and wound up just being really bad. You can feel [i]The Ice Harvest[/i] reeling back several times to set up Charlie as a likable lad in over his head, going so far as a slightly contrived yet predictable finale. At least [i]Bad Santa[/i] had the gusto to approach a happy ending on its own crude, unsentimental terms. Ramis needs to stick to broad comedies and leave the bleak neo-noir humor to the Coen brothers.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]There are some plot elements from the book that just don’t work with this half-hearted adaptation.(Spoilers underlined) [/color][/font][url="javascript:void(0);"][font=Arial][color=darkred]At the very end of the movie Charlie has left the city with all the money and stops along the road to help a stalled camper. In the book, the camper backs up over him and kills him, thus ending with the ringing endorsement that crime doesn’t pay.[/color][/font][/url][font=Arial][color=darkred] It made sense, especially for a book that was dark to the very end. [/color][/font][url="javascript:void(0);"][font=Arial][color=darkred]In the movie, the camper backs up and knocks him to the ground but doesn’t run him over. Charlie dusts himself off and that’s that.[/color][/font][/url][font=Arial][color=darkred] The scene feels pointless without fulfilling the end of the book. [/color][/font][url="javascript:void(0);"][font=Arial][color=darkred]It doesn’t provide any last-second tension. Charlie just hops back in his car, dear hung over Phil pops up, and the two are set for one most excellent adventure. Unearned and misplaced happy ending?[/color][/font][/url][font=Arial][color=darkred] Insert finger down throat.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred][i]The Ice Harvest[/i] is only a mere 88 minutes long and yet the film still feels padded and draggy. The drunken Oliver Platt-heavy middle is a generously paced muddle, and though it’s rather funny it’s also rather extraneous. [i]The Ice Harvest[/i] is really a handful of great moments that don’t add up to a satisfying whole. The movie is really episodic and too many of those episodes have little bearing on the plot. Character betrayals are spelled out to us and Ramis seems to lose interest in his own film as it slides further and further into dangerous territory. [i]The Ice Harvest [/i]can’t commit to whatever it wants to be and the audience is the one to suffer. Read the book instead. It’s only 224 pages.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Nate's Grade: C[/color][/font]

Read all 20 featured audience ratings