The Ice
Harvest (1/2
star)
review by Jon
Waterman
Charlie and Vic have just pulled off a monumental robbery.
They are currently in possession of two million dollars, and
the plan went off without a hitch. Or at least they believed
so. Somehow the boss they stole from got wind of the scheme,
and he is sending his goons after the crooks. Charlie and Vic
find themselves trying to figure out a way to remain out of
sight and away from each other. But with un-trustworthy Vic
is the guy handling the cash and the gun-wielding baddies chasing
them, Charlie just may get a little too anxious. It’s
a slippery slope of a Christmas caper.
And they fall flat on their face on the black comedic ice.
Writers Richard Russo and Robert Benton completely fail to
produce a believable, exciting, interesting, intriguing, funny,
thrilling, mind-warping heist picture. The biggest problem
is that the film is set up to be a comedy. If it doesn’t
attempt to make you laugh, there is absolutely no way it could
ever work. There are too many zany mishap situations that occur
to allow for a straight crime flick. Unfortunately, the comedy
isn’t efficient, rapid firing or on target. Too much
serious filler has to be included to allow for a rhythm to
develop and the lines just aren’t good enough to begin
with. Oliver Platt (Charlie’s alcoholic friend Pete)
has all the funny dialogue. It’s not acceptable in a
comedy for a seldom scene supporting character to carry the
comedic weight of the film.
On the caper side, I might have been interesting to see some
of the backstory of the two leads, such as how they know each
other and the process of devising the plan, although that could
have been equally boring for all I know. And you may or may
not be able to guess the ending, but chances are you either
wouldn’t want to, or wouldn’t care enough to do
so. It’s incredibly clichéd and almost seems like
a last ditch effort to breathe some life into the picture.
I haven’t seen any of Robert Benton’s previous
comedy attempts so far, but this film is a fry cry from two
of his previous accomplishments: “Kramer vs. Kramer” and “Bonnie
and Clyde.”
It would be great if this film were to act as a career reassessment
tool for the three slipping key players: John Cusack (Charlie),
Billy Bob Thornton (Vic) and director Harold Ramis. Although
all three are steadily working, rarely is it anything worthwhile
or that live up to the potential they’re fully capable
of. The worst offender is Ramis who hasn’t given us a
solid outing in over a decade when he released one of my favorite
movies of all time, “Groundhog Day.” I’d
love it if these people stopped churning out stuff like this
or appearing in throwaways like “Must Love Dogs,” “Runaway
Jury,” the “Bad News Bears” remake, or “The
Alamo.” Start acting like you can act in better movies,
because we all know you can.
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