The Ice Harvest

Harold Ramis, the man behind the camera of some of the great comedy classics from the past few decades like National Lampoon's Vacation, Caddyshack, Groundhog Day and Analyze This (he also wrote the GhostBusters movies, Animal House, Stripes and Bedazzled), is back after some years without a good movie with The Ice Harvest, another adult, dark comedy crossed with a film noir crime thriller, set around Christmas time in snowy Wichita Falls, Kansas.

John Cusack stars as mob lawyer Charlie Arglist, and Billy Bob Thornton is Vic Cavanaugh, it's Christmas Eve and the two of them have stolen 2 million dollars from the mob. The crime boss is Bill Guerrard (played by Randy Quaid) and he wont find out until after Christmas, so the boys plan to stay the night in town and leave in the morning, especially since there's a pretty bad ice storm currently hitting the city. They move around the strip clubs, Vic owns one, and Renata, played by Connie Nielsen, owns the other one called the Sweet Cage. Charlie has long tried for Renata's affection, and now that he's got the money and leaving, he hopes to take her with him. Problems arise when Guerrard finds out early, and sends a hitman to get them. Charlie also needs to take care of his best friend Pete who gets terribly drunk, and he also needs to take care of his drinking too since there are a few cops who seem to find him driving around every couple of hours. Pete is also married now to Charlie's ex-wife, and even raising Charlie's children with her. She is a cold manipulative bitch so Pete is suffering now just like Charlie suffered when he was married to her.

As much as the movie is being promoted as a buddy comedy, it's Cusack's movie, the classic Cusack mannerisms are there, and he pulls it off. Billy Bob's Vic is his now also classic sleazy persona he played so well in Bad Santa and the Bad News Bears remake. He's not much in the movie actually but he's got a couple of scenes towards the end that are great. Danish beauty Connie Nielsen plays it great and she has a great mature sexiness even if she's years away from her Devil's Advocate days. Randy Quaid, though a weird choice for a mob boss, works it just fine and his one scene is great. Oliver Platt plays the drunk Pete and he's the very best part of the movie. He makes jokes, new ones even, and they're actually funny, and he plays the drunkenness great.

Cinematographer Alar Kivilo gives us a great look of the icy lakes of Wichita Falls, and the movie also has a nice Christmassy/film noir score by David Kitay. Based on the novel by Scott Phillips, and adapted by Richard Russo and Robert Benton (who also wrote Kramer vs. Kramer and the original Superman), The Ice Harvest is a good movie, not very memorable and it's uneventful, but is violent, it has a nice language, and it's a good movie overall.