Has anyone seen ‘Ice Harvest’? He seems to have been in some weak movies in recent years. What are his best movies? We can probably all agree on ‘Con Air’ but what after that? For me, probably ‘Grosse Pointe Blank’ (which ‘Ice Harvest’ seemed to be trying and failing to emulate), ‘High Fidelity’ and ‘Being John Malkovitch.’
i liked him in eight men out as well.
Tapeheads. I liked Tim Robbins in that a lot, too.
And I have a fondness for Better Off Dead–as teen comedies go, it has some legs.
I missed Ice Harvest though I really wanted to see it, as much for Harold Ramis’ name as for Cusack. I dont think I can agree on Con Air though… I liked those other 3 movies you mention, but the guy does seem to be adrift career-wise.
Maybe he’s perfectly happy being in a couple of come-and-go films each year that make no impact.
Speaking of career death – and death, RIP Nice Guy Eddie. It’s been great reading how sad Corky Romano is that you’re dead, and that he thought you had “innocent eyes.”
How has Jerry Van Dyke taken Penn’s passing? I hope he’s okay.
Props to his cameo in The Player, but come on folks . . . you’ve got to love The Sure Thing and his best work may still be the sweet, kickboxing Lloyd Dobler in Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything . . ..
“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.”
I finally saw Ice Harvest, and it was not very good. But its problems were disappointing because its potential stood out.
I’ve read the novel, a nasty little bit of misanthropic glee disguised as a crime story. And when I could forget the misbegotten tone of the direction and much of the acting, and listen to the talk adapted by Richard Russo and Robert Benton, I often fell into the same joyous reverie about really reprehensible behaviors. As written, this is not Coen Brothers territory, nor is it really film noir, and certainly not Bad Santa; a closer equivalent would be King of Comedy or Happiness. Savage, not ironic; cruel, not cartoonish.
That said, it isn’t just Ramis who steers things amiss. I say this cautiously but: Cusack really can’t cut it beyond a certain range, or without a bit more guidance from a director. He’s got too blankly pretty, or to sweetly empty, a face. As Lloyd Dobler, sure, he sells a sincerity, and it was genius to see him as hitman (named, aptly, Martin Blank, right?). But here he’s woefully adrift–the character is supposed to start five miles past pathetic and creep inexorably toward terrible. Cusack–Ramis? the producers?–really want something a bit more likeable, and it’s a bad move.
Billy Bob Thornton, on the other hand, gets the tone precisely. He isn’t “funny”–and it’d be wrong to read it as yet another of his lovable misanthropes. This guy’s a bastard, his snarls at other people are a bit more raw or real. I wish the whole movie had captured this. Randy Quaid comes close, but he only gets about 5 minutes of screen time.
Then there’s Oliver Platt. He is, like Cusack, given way too much room to amplify the silly side of his character. He doesn’t play drunk, he plays Otis-from-Mayberry-Foster-Brooks drunk. I kind of enjoyed the complete investment, but it didn’t effectively gibe with the story or goals… and that is particularly clear in a scene where Platt and Cusack invade a family Xmas dinner; what should be much more uncomfortable for the audience plays, instead, as just confusingly ill-spirited. Then again, there are moments — when Platt taunts a Christian bartender, coming on to her while her boyfriend simmers at the end of the bar, it is perfection. Sad, funny, mean, lost…
I just kept wondering what this film could have been.
I kept wondering what this film wanted to be. Billy Bob Thornton is good. Platt deserves more screen time in just about any movie but Ice Harvest felt contrived . . . a noir wannabe. And doesn’t Cusack look just a little bit too puffy and overspent these days? I mildly enjoyed the film but quickly forgot it.
just watched this (yes, mark, thanks to hbo ondemand). i didn’t mind it as much as mike and jeff seem to have. perhaps because i had no expectations. i actually thought the first 40-45 minutes were pretty good. it was when it lapsed into full-on noir mode that it went down the toilet fast. i didn’t mind oliver platt–like pete, i like to see as much of him as i can (though, unlike pete, i don’t feel the same way about stanley tucci, who thankfully didn’t show up here).
but yes, without having read this thread, i thought exactly what mike said when the voice-over narration began before the credits: here comes john cusack and his one and a half notes.