Ice Harvest
The Ice Harvest (Director: Harold Ramis)
Ramis, still best known for playing Egon on Ghostbusters, has directed some comedy classics--first off, Caddyshack. Then National Lampoon's Vacation. My favorite: Groundhog Day. Then...Stuart Saves His Family...cough. Multiplicity was pretty good. Then he did Analyze This, which was a huge hit and I liked, but it's begun to show its age already, and the sequel Analyze That was terrible. Between those is the fairly likeable Bedazzled.
I don't know who gets away with playing "himself" more than John Cusack. I admit, he's likeable in everything, but have we ever seen him really stretch? I think, at this point, it would be too late for him to make a career change because we all have grown accustomed to the Cusack role--damaged, quirky, witty--expressing the everyman reactions to all of life's situations.
Charlie (Cusack) has just conspired with Vic (Billy Bob Thornton, which makes this a Pushing Tin reunion) to steal over two million dollars from a gangster (Randy Quaid). Now...why not just split the money and run? I don't know...I don't even know if the movie answers that question, because the loose ends seem to be not important at all. So, milling about Wichita Falls, Charlie becomes designated driver for friend Pete Van Heuten (Oliver Platt), is trying to woo a hot strip club manager (Connie Nielsen), and briefly interacts with his ex-wife and kids before all the sure double-crossing is about to begin.
But that's the thing...what seems like a darkly comic Heist has really no loops to throw you, no savory Mamet dialogue, not much of a point, really. It's a tired premise that's not even trying to be different, and so none of the surprises are surprises, there's no whammy, there's not really much reason to watch. It's a shame, because the trailers made it out to be something that, while not commercial, was certainly going to be a fun, cozy, quirky dark comedy.
Late one night when this comes on cable, it will seem like a better movie. But here, on the big screen, it's pretty average.
posted by Chris @ 11/24/2005 02:51:00 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I saw this last night, and while I think I liked it a little better than you did, I feel the same about a lot of the things you said. The reason why they didn't just leave after they took the money was only given one explanation, and it was a lame one. Billy Bob Thorton makes the comment that it's too icy out there, but yet they are driving around the freaking town all night and don't get in one wreck, so I'm thinking they could have made it out of town. This was definately one of those movies that could have ended in about ten minutes.
But I would give it a slight reccomendation based on the performances alone. These guys are obviously having a lot of fun. Cusack is Cusack, but it's actually nice to have him back in a darker persona. We haven't seen him like this since "High Fidelity." That romantic comedy crap he was trying to pull with the likes of "Serendipity" and this year's "Must Love Dogs" wasn't working for me.
Let's face it, Billy Bob Thorton has been the most consistently engaging actor over the past ten years, and he doesn't dissapoint here. Oliver Platt, as usual, steals every scene he's in. Seeing "The Producers" preview before this movie, I was actually thinking how brilliant he would be in the Will Ferrell role. Connie Nielsen is just hot as hell in this film; she plays the best femme fatale since Kathleen Turner in 1981's "Body Heat" (If anyone on this site hasn't seen that movie, go rent it now). And even Randy Quaid in his brief stint is a lot of fun.
There's a lot of contrivances and it's trying too hard to be like much better films of it's type ("Fargo," "A Simple Plan," "One False Move," etc.), but at least it's trying. There are some really funny moments, and some great dialouge. There are a lot better choices out there, but if all those movies are sold out this weekend, this would be a decent substitute.
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