Product Details

• Format: AC-3, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: June 14, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002AWM1F8

Editorial Reviews

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Noir and Noel and Nuance: Excellent Movie, Entertaining Backstory, March 2, 2006

By 

Richard L. Pangburn (Bardstown, KY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

This is more than just another last-man-standing suitcase-full-of-money movie.

John Cusack plays an everyman, a lawyer who has sold out to the values of corporate corruption. With mixed feelings, he steals over two million dollars from the local mob on Christmas Eve, then plans with Billy Bob Thornton to make a break for it later on Christmas Day.

The mob boss (Randy Quaid) finds out and sends a hit man to get his money back, and the movie plot is about John Cusack trying to avoid getting killed by them.

The movie has been pretty much panned by almost every critic to review it, although Roger Ebert praised it enough for three stars. I loved it and loved the book before it. I realize that I am in a small minority in this regard.

What makes THE ICE HARVEST work for me is its noir blend of saltiness and satire, its mixture of comedy and karma.

The comedy here is based upon the hypocrisy of Christmas in this era of corruption and greed. All of the liars and killers and thieves in this movie talk about Christmas, about being home opening up presents with their kids. If you don't get that, I guess you won't see the comedy. It is nice that it is set in Wichita, Kansas, especially if you have read Thomas Frank's WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?

The opening graffiti above the urinal, "As Wichita Falls Falls, So Falls Wichita Falls," is a repeated line of jazz that caused an existential crisis for the film's French translator who had trouble distinguishing between "falls" as a noun and "falls" as a verb with a misplaced execution, Wichita Falls not being in Kansas but in Texas.

The author of this blood red graffiti is not revealed until the end of the film, at which time its coded karmic message seems clear, "what goes around, comes around," or "as ye sow, so shall ye reap."

The backstory segments are generous and entertaining, including a segment where the movie is discussed by book author Scott Phillips and the screenplay authors, Robert Benton and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo, author of STRAIGHT MAN and EMPIRE FALLS.

John Cusack is endearing as an everyman who has gone too far with a fantasy and now is just trying to survive.

Billy Bob Thornton is menacing as Vic. His idea of winning is the American way, giving lip-service to religion and humanist values while embracing ruthless materialism.

Oliver Platt plays a jolly-faced loser, John Cusack's hapless doppeldinger, addicted to sexual conquests and alcohol, now married to Cusack's former wife. He seems to be an extention of the drunks who played in GROUNDHOG DAY.

Connie Nielsen vamps it up, a cross between Lauren Bacall and Veronica Lake. She's a tribute to a different era, like the femme fatale in WHO'S AFRAID OF ROGER RABBIT?, not really bad, just drawn that way. The book fills the character out more and speculates more on her background as an abused woman who learned how to survive, a hardened refugee from the war in Bosnia.

Randy Quaid is terrific as a capitalistic Christian mob boss murderer, sad to be doing business when he could be home celebrating Christ's birthday.

This movie has fun poking fun, with style and karma, with a moral and a motto. As Jon Stewart says, "IN GOD WE TRUST" is our motto, and we place it where it can be read on every dollar bill in this film, "right where Jesus would have wanted it."

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why are so many people down on this flick?, February 7, 2006

By 

Arthur Martin "arthurpewty" (Toledo, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

As a fan of John Cusack, and a fan of FARGO-ish dark caper comedies, this was a perfect combo -- lean, smart, and entertaining. I have no idea why so many people seem to LOATHE this movie.

This is easily the best flick Cusack has been in since 2000's HIGH FIDELITY and the wait was painful. His character is a bit of a throwback to his role in THE GRIFTERS, but with a hint of additional warmth.

Admittedly, this movie was marketed all wrong. Advertising this Coen-brothers-like neo-noir as being from "The director of GROUNDHOG DAY and CADDYSHACK" is like advertising MUNICH as being from "The director of 1941 and JAWS." Sure, it's true, but it gives people the wrong expectation.

I say, give it a shot.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New Meets Noir, April 27, 2006

By 

B. Merritt "filmreviewstew.com" (WWW.FILMREVIEWSTEW.COM, Pacific Grove, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ice Harvest (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

If you're dreaming of a black Christmas try putting this DVD in your player for a few hours of entertainment. But be forewarned: it won't be for everyone. If you're a fan of John Cusack (specifically if you really, really, really loved GROSSE POINTE BLANK) then you'll probably enjoy the dark comedy flooding this film.

Harold Ramis steps outside his normal feel-good comedies (ANALYZE THIS, etc.) and jumps headlong onto the dark side. Having the look and feel of a Cohen Brothers noir film, Ramis chose to incorporate old themes (good-looking but flawed guy falls for even more flawed girl while trying to pull a fast one) but did so using an updated script.

The film opens with Charlie (Cusack), a lawyer for the local mob in Wichita Falls, stealing two-million dollars from "The Boss" and meeting up with his partner Vic (Billy Bob Thornton, BAD SANTA). They plan to leave the city in the morning but a horrendous ice storm hits town and life on the roads (and in general) becomes slippery and dangerous. A recurring poetic verse keeps popping up, too: "As Wichita Falls, So Falls Wichita Falls." Charlie keeps seeing it written everywhere. But who's the author and what does it mean?

We quickly learn that Vic is as morally bankrupt as a person can get and has no intentions of sharing the ill-gotten funds with Charlie (are they really ill-gotten if you steal them from the mob?) But thrown into the mix is a beautiful femme fatal named Renata (Connie Nielsen, GLADIATOR). She runs a strip club in town but has an unusual attraction to Charlie, Vic and money. But which will win out?

When mob boss Bill Gerard (Randy Quaid, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) discovers the theft, he puts a thug named Roy (Mike Starr, KNOCKAROUND GUYS) onto Charlie and Vic's tails. But when even that fails to pull Charlie and Vic in, the boss is forced to deal with the two thieves himself.

The karma here is as dark as dark can get, but also amazingly funny. When Randy Quaid waves his gun around at a few of the characters and complains that he should be at home with his kids celebrating "the birth of God", it's actually quite funny in a very irrational way. Worrying more about money than the message a holiday like Christmas is supposed to represent fills every moment of screen time. Are they that far off when compared with the message of modern consumerism in December? Ouch.

Watching the two additional alternate endings on the DVD made me thankful that they chose the theatrically released one; the other two were flat-out TOO dark. But the ending here will make you both laugh out loud and cringe.

This movie was universally panned by film critics, which makes me sad that they couldn't see the humor associated with our counter-culture.

Oh yes, and the "As Wichita Falls, So Falls Wichita Falls" verse. It's fairly nonsensical, but only in a way that makes perfect sense. Understand? No. Watch the film and learn.