The Ice Harvest

2005 Directed by Harold Ramis

Thick Thieves. Thin Ice.

A shady lawyer attempts a Christmas Eve crime, hoping to swindle the local mob out of some money. But his partner, a strip club owner, might have different plans for the cash.

John Cusack Billy Bob Thornton Lara Phillips Bill Noble Brad Smith Ned Bellamy Connie Nielsen Mike Starr T.J. Jagodowski Meghan Maureen McDonough Oliver Platt David Pasquesi Randy Quaid Jenny Wade Tab Baker

Alternative Titles

Eiskalt abserviert, La cosecha de hielo, La Cosecha de Hielo, 冰雪圣诞夜

drama action thriller comedy adventure crime

88 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by matt lynch ★★★½

Leave it to Harold Ramis to make this bleak, violent story about giving up in despair totally hilarious.
Discussed on Episode 51 of The Suspense is Killing Us.
Review by Bradley Thomas ★★★★ 8

Charlie Arglist: Did I ever tell you my father was a twin?
Pete Van Heuten: Identical?
Charlie Arglist: Fraternal. Looked a lot alike, though, him and my uncle. Different temperaments completely. My father, he's a cop. By-the-book guy. Believed in the law, wanted his only son to be a lawyer. Drank in moderation, didn't smoke. Kept up his life insurance premiums. Voted in every election, not just for president.
Pete Van Heuten: Lemme guess, uncle didn't vote?
Charlie Arglist: He said he didn't want to encourage the bastards. In and out of jail from the time he was 16... drunk all the time, fucked everything that walked. Won a fortune playing poker, lost it all the same way. Lost an…
Review by Travis Lytle ★★★

Harold Ramis's "The Ice Harvest" is a bleak, black comedy full of unsavory characters caught in unsavory schemes. With an appealing cast, touch of chilly style, and dark sense of humor, the film rates as a solid and humorous crime film.
Taking place over an icy, mid-western Christmas, attorneys, mobsters, and strippers comingle with deadly results after a bank robbery. The story is sturdy and twisted if none-too-original. Still, its compelling in its slow-rolling observation of characters and actions.
Ramis shoots with an eye on his cast and his frozen surroundings. John Cusack, Connie Nielsen, and Billy Bob Thornton star, and Cusack and Thornton offer exactly what an audience would expect from them. Cusack is good-natured, self-effacing, and low-key, while…
Review by Andy Summers ★★

Looking at the cast here, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this would be pretty good. By the time you add director Harold Ramis to the mix, expectations for laughs and a touch of anarchy go up a notch. We have Billy Bob Thornton, John Cusack, Connie Nielsen, and the always reliable Oliver Platt, but somehow this shits the bed rather than delivering what could have been an engaging black comedy with bite. Platt arguably steals the show, especially when drunk and in the mood to offend everyone and everything in his wake. The plot, as it is, we've seen countless times before, and although Cusack tries, Nielsen sizzles occasionally, and Billy Bob plays Billy Bob, it all meanders just a little too much without ever really going anywhere. Even a small cameo from Randy Quaid and Mike Starr can't save this from being just that little bit dull.
Review by Blaze the Action Junkie ★★½

This one is a low-humor dark comedy that highlights the real personal cost of stealing a couple million dollars through the events unfolding around Cusak's lead character. There's suspense, mystery and action in this one, yet all in small-ish doses. Personally I never figured out why Cusak & Billy-Bob never just hit the road in this one after their heist early in the film, which made the entire plot a bit confusing. Aside from that there were certainly some entertaining points, like the whole bit with the man in the trunk and the frozen lake. It's not a bad heist / comedy, but I can't claim this is a great one either.
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Review by Andy Summers ★★

Do you remember when John Cusack was good? Those days of High Fidelity and Grosse Point Blank seem an age away. Don't get me wrong I think he's a fine actor, you don't lose your ability to entertain overnight , but surely you have to question his role choices in recent years. My wife follows him on Twitter and he seems like a complex guy, but boy do I wish for a return to form.
This film is 9 years old. I must admit I'd never heard of it until Harold Ramis's death, so when I picked it up on DVD I had no real idea what to expect. Cusack, the Billy Bob, and a sexy looking Connie Nielsen, could…
Review by Connor Carey ★★★½

It does feel a little tonally confused at times and I do wish it was a little funnier, "The Ice Harvest" is still a really entertaining and breezy watch. John Cusack and Billy Bob Thorton are both really great here and the story actually goes in some directions that I genuinely wasn't expecting. It's certainly not Harold Ramis's best film, but it's much better than the reviews make it out to be.
Review by Brian J. ★★★ 2

The book this film is based on, a novel written by crime master Scott Phillips, is a true masterpiece and one of my favorite written works. It's one of the few novels I've read more than once. I actually like to read it every year around the holidays; it's that good.
The book is a delicious slice of dark, edgy noir masquerading as a Christmas crime story. It walks a tightrope-thin wire between noir tropes and black humor. Where the book works most beautifully is with Phillips's mastery of tone. He's written a hardcore crime story, and the comical elements and the dark cynicism derive naturally from the characters.
The film mostly gets the narrative right -- a sleazy lawyer…
Review by Ragnar ★★★

Grade: ABOVE AVERAGE (3 out of 5)
I don’t have much to say about The Ice Harvest, because there isn’t much to The Ice Harvest. The film is a competently crafted noir that does everything OK. Nothing bad, nothing great. Which works for me because I love noirs. The best thing about this film is that I had a mildly enjoyable time with characters that have zero redeeming qualities.
Review by bbbgtoby ★★★½ 4

One of the last great Cusack films, a cynical, booze and hangover filled neo-noir in the traditional style, loaded with black comedy and still managing to be a straight heist gone wrong flick with a reactive protagonist Forrest Gumping his way through the plot. It's great Christmas time fun, especially the horror of the wife under the tree, the frozen lake and the body in the trunk. Oliver Platt should be in everything.
Review by Jason Alley ★★★★ 2

Love this odd, violent, pitch black dark comedy Christmas noir.
Review by Superargo ★★★ 2

main takeaway: Wichita’s got a helluva lot of strip joints. and they’re all open on Christmas Eve.

Recent reviews

Review by Valdemar Martins ★★★

A PRETTY DECENT TWISTED DARK COMEDY.
Review by Julian Guerra ★★★★

Pretty damn solid noir from the late Mr. Ramis.
Review by rdpJesse ★★★

Part film noir, part black comedy, all John Cusack. Having just stolen a bunch of mob money on christmas eve, a mob lawyer spends a night of folly dealing with mob enforcers, his over the top partner, and a bunch of other characters who want the loot.
Review by dasborak ★★★

Why so slow.
Review by Nerd_in_Norway ★★★

Definitely the darkest film Harold Ramis ever directed. I appreciated its gloomy atmosphere and shades of noir. Oliver Platt steals the show as a miserable drunk.
Review by Leo1963 ★★★

Truly underrated black comedy.
Review by Leo1963 ★★★

Truly underrated black comedy,
Review by b side ★★★★½

It’s weird how good this is.
Review by Ryan Jacobson

watched
Review by Hank Light

I'm partial to a few terrible people do terrible things movies but this didn't really do it for me. Idk dude it just seems like a lot of people to murder over not that much money and nothing else really.
Nice collection of That Guys though and Connie Nielsen, hello.
Review by Oscar Villalba ★★★

Es curioso como recordaba 2 cosas de esta película que no aparecen por ningún lado: la nieve y el humor. Porque esta Cosecha de hielo en un cine negro de libro pero mucho menos de lo que debiera ser. Cusack está bien (cosa difícil de repetir de aqui en adelante), el reparto esta bien y el guión tiene momentos, pero le falta algo. Tal vez Harold Ramis, no fuese la mejor opción para dirigir estando Robert Benton en el proyecto y esa falta de humor se deba a un impreciso tono que recubre la película donde parece que cuando va a arrancar hacia el humor negro, vuelve a ponerse seria. Peor de lo que la recordaba, pero sigue siendo entretenida.
Review by weirdomRando ★★★½

Pits noir and rowdy comedy to strip each of any thread of self-righteous pathos or joy, showing that not every antihero is a lonely bastion of integrity in a cruel world, sticks it up to the man or speaks truth to power. Sometimes they are just tired and not worth much.