come anticipate "The Ice Harvest" with me!

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Early reviews indicate Cusack-Ramis-Thornton have somehow made a not-bad comedy noir! With a long-aborning script by Robert "Bonnie & Clyde" Benton and Richard "Nobody's Fool" Russo. And it's a DARK CHRISTMAS movie. I am there this weekend.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 20:34 (twenty years ago)

pushing MORE tin!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 20:41 (twenty years ago)

haha

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 20:44 (twenty years ago)

That was Mike Newell, director of the current Harry Potter masterpiece, and the writer who did "Taxi" and "Cheers." So yeah, it'll be the exact same movie most likely.

Whoops, s1ocki trying to BAIT me again! What a life!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 20:58 (twenty years ago)

i don't really see how that was aimed at you!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 21:09 (twenty years ago)

unless you're a big pushing tin fan

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

You deflated my enthusiasm, is all.

Actually, Cate Blanchett was AMAZING in it, a good example of a fully alive performance in a mediocre film.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 21:17 (twenty years ago)

hey, if billy bob thornton makes a dark christmas comedy every two years i'm there!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 21:19 (twenty years ago)

I laughed heartily at a couple scenes of Bad Santa (the boxing ring), but it was often too much a subpar-South Park stoopfest. TIH looks like an authentic comedy of desperation ... Very few comedic film actors of the last 20 years look as angsty and anguished as Cusack when he has a decent part.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 21:24 (twenty years ago)

see i thought billy bob in bad santa was really one of the greatest comic performances in years... that alone really made that movie for me.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 21:31 (twenty years ago)

Boy does this look awful. Was High Fidelity the last good film Cusack starred in?

― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 22:34 (twenty years ago)

no, that wasn't good.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 22:39 (twenty years ago)

I don't know if it will be good or bad, but the trailer is as bad as Bee Season's and has played before every. single. movie I've seen at Landmark for the last three months.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 22:44 (twenty years ago)

high fidelity was awful. malkovich last decent cusack flick, though the last decent flick (and only one i can think of that's not a teenflick) i can think of where cusack was a film's strengh and not it's weakness is grosse point blank, and i'm not sure how much you can say that's not a teenflick since that's what it totally plays on. o! and con air i guess, they used him well there. cradle will rock, malkovich, the woody allen ones - he grates. wait - the grifters! he's alright in that. the grifters, grosse point blank, and con air: cusack doesn't nearly ruin these movies. and i guess you could argue he doesn't ruin his recent movies (including i'd guess ice harvest since the recent track records of most involved is pretty abysmal) since they're really really awful.

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 22:48 (twenty years ago)

he's totally fine in the grifters.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 01:59 (twenty years ago)

anyway despite the morbius-slocki ceasefire i gotta say i do NOT have my hopes up for this one. i do not put a lot of faith in harold ramis these days. sadly.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 02:01 (twenty years ago)

I have just read a very negative review of this movie.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 02:02 (twenty years ago)

I just read a very positive one, at The Onion: http://avclub.com/content/node/42856

― monkeybutler, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 02:04 (twenty years ago)

i want to believe

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

cusack kinda sucks. he always plays the same dude.

― howell huser (chaki), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 10:54 (twenty years ago)

cf buster keaton, laurel and hardy, um, michael caine...

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 10:56 (twenty years ago)

except without the soul

― howell huser (chaki), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 11:05 (twenty years ago)

high fidelity was awful.

Mostly in the eyes of a certain dogmatic breed of indie saddo. Oops.

I rather liked parts of Max, tho it's certainly not a good movie.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 14:15 (twenty years ago)

yes, it's true, i am an indie saddo. and indie saddos definitely don't like high fidelity. too true.

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 14:35 (twenty years ago)

back in the indie saddo again

― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 14:50 (twenty years ago)

Chuck Klosterman has written an essay in which he claims that women's expectations of romance have been set impossibly high by John Cusack, thereby ruining it for all men. Apparently this is due to his performance in "Say Anything" which is somehow the paragon of contemporary wooing. I find it hard to believe that any women could consider Cusack so swoon-worthy, but my girlfriend assures me that Klosterman is right.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 15:15 (twenty years ago)

My girlfriend has the hots for Cusack too. My theory is that he sold his ability to change his facial expression to the devil, in exchange for a magnetic appeal to the female sex.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 15:33 (twenty years ago)

my g/f likes him, and she hasn't even seen 'say anything'. i think she bases her cusack-lust on 'con air'.

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

He does change his facial expression; perhaps not regularly enough to suit you, but I've seen it.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 15:38 (twenty years ago)

He does get one funny line in that "Ice Harvest" preview (which I've seen approximately a gazillion times by now), when he says "Must've" after the mobster shoots at them from inside the locked trunk.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 15:45 (twenty years ago)

harold ramis was on fresh air/whyy two days ago -- it was quite a good interview. npr's website seems to be down/not working for me at the moment, so ill post the link later.

it is certainly NOT "this year's 'bad santa'", which is what the commercials keep letting on. moviegoers who are expecting something a bit more goofy and comedic are probably going to feel gypped.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 15:54 (twenty years ago)

im lucky cuz my gf hates cusack. is dr morbius really this crazy?

― howell huser (chaki), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

I'm a girl, and I hate Cusack.

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

We're not lookin' for unanimity, you know.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

Oh whoops, I didn't see this thread. Here's what I posted on the other one:

Most of the jokes are fairly flat and rote (though it's nice to see T.J. Jagodowski and Dave Pasquasi get bit parts)--Oliver Platt is painfully bad. But it's very well directed and works surprisingly well as neo-Noir or suspense. Dave Kehr says it's the best Hollywood movie of the year on his new blog, which I think reflects lowered expectations. It's at least the best Harold Ramis project since Groundhog Day, though.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Friday, 25 November 2005 09:07 (twenty years ago)

A sockfull of grim chuckles and bloodshed -- I found almost all of the Oliver Platt stuff amusing too (esp lines like "Turkey lurkey" and "Three times fast!"). Randy Quaid has the best 5 minutes of his career since ... The Last Detail? Other small parts are cast spot-on too; the mise en scene rules. The trailer was cut misleadingly to make it look like pure wackiness. My friend who'd read the novel though it wasn't cynical enough, but it's sufficiently bleak to ensure bad word-of-mouth. I thought at first the estimable critic Dave Kehr had overrated it by calling it the Hollywood movie of the year, but the only ones I've seen in its league are Corpse Bride and War of the Worlds.

IOW, it kicks the ass of Fargo and A History of Violence.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 28 November 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

I thought it was fun. Maybe the best movie I've seen in the theatre since Batman Begins. Maybe the first movie I've seen in the theatre since Batman Begins. Not super funny. And the noirish whizbang telegraphed everything, but, then, that's the deal with noir, right?
I really liked the way the woman was lit, EXACTLY AS IF IT WAS 1930, even though, y'know, femme fatale was practically stenciled on her forehead.

Oliver Platt was funny/good. Randy Quaid is underrated (though he mostly doesn't do himself any favours in picking roles). And the hitman is great.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 28 November 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

this movie was a fucking waste. totally worthless. so boring. kill me if i ever have to watch this piece of shit again. not one laugh. not one. not one ANYTHING.

― howell huser (chaki), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 04:15 (twenty years ago)

I am exactly halfway between Huk and howell.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 04:19 (twenty years ago)

dr morbius, how the fuck can you find oliver platt in bad lighting, (badly) acting drunk, and looking at a turkey leg and then saying "turkey lurkey." funny? do you see people this was a HIGHLIGHT of the film for him. this movie is like... god damn its bad ?@?#?#@?@##@?@#?@??@!$!@!???!?? my gf thought it was ok.

― howell huser (chaki), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 04:37 (twenty years ago)

You're entirely overreacting. It wasn't perfect, I'll give you that. The pacing was bad, and the plot was way thinner than I thought it should be for a caper movie. The direction was all wrong. But the acting was good, and Oliver Platt was one of the funniest things in it. He was a great drunk.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 05:17 (twenty years ago)

The distinguishing thing about the film is it has nothing of interest in it for the average person under 35 years of age. Hoo-fuckin-ray.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 14:08 (twenty years ago)

lol grandad

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

I hope you have my potency and wisdom when you're a geezer, laddie. Dave Kehr similarly says "This is what you get when you let grown-ups make a movie."

http://davekehr.com/?p=26

Also loved things like one homicidal character's mangling of The Lord's Prayer as he's dying.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 14:46 (twenty years ago)

It was solidly enjoyable.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 14:59 (twenty years ago)

OK, that's a relief. I can put off seeing it for a decade.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)

You'll be glad to see on TBS on a rainy night in 2015.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 17:35 (twenty years ago)

Most movies by Harold Ramis look better on TV.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

Titties and gushing wounds not often seen on TBS (at least that keeps Catherine Breillat off it)!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 17:50 (twenty years ago)

I'm just happy for his family that the L(e)utonian Liberation Front finally freed him.

(xpost)

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 17:53 (twenty years ago)

hahaha

Ice Harvest is significantly better than the last Benton-Russo-scripted noir, Twilight, which at least ends with a shootout between septuagenarians.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 18:01 (twenty years ago)

Nice Seitz sketch of BBT:

"When he talks about his bored, overweight, materialist wife, you can practically hear the bad thoughts rattling around in his head. Thornton's curdled resentment is the movie's nihilistic fuel. He's American cinema's hardboiled loser prince: Bogart reincarnated as a schmuck."

http://nypress.com/18/48/film/Seitz2.cfm

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 5 December 2005 16:41 (twenty years ago)

can i also say that the cheesy 80s action show steve vai esqe magnum pi style guitar music was especially distracting

― howell huser (chaki), Monday, 5 December 2005 18:14 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

Now in stores, haters, and my 6th-best American film of 2005 at the moment.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 March 2006 20:48 (twenty years ago)

Would you post the whole list, please?

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 2 March 2006 21:32 (twenty years ago)

get off the grift, s1ocki, you don't have the stomach for it.

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Thursday, 2 March 2006 21:34 (twenty years ago)

I will, soon. (It doesn't look like I'm gonna get to see The Weather Man or Revenge of the Sith in time, but la di da.)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 March 2006 21:39 (twenty years ago)

"in time"?

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 2 March 2006 21:51 (twenty years ago)

Well, ppl aren't really interested in a year-end list if you show it to 'em after the Oscars, I find, so that's my habitual deadline.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 3 March 2006 15:52 (twenty years ago)

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