I like just about anything with Billy Bob Thornton in it. In one respect he's a lot like Joe Pesci, he can raise the level of gutter language to an art form. In this film, his character Vic Cavanaugh is a gangster in league with mob lawyer Charlie Arglist (John Cusack),pulling some sort of swindle on big boss Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid),who doesn't make an appearance until late in the picture in one of those outside the box performances. I got a kick out of the establishments these guys frequented, with names like The Sweet Cage, the Tease-O-Rama, and the Velvet Touch. All pretty surly and reeking of criminal intent. Cusack's character is entirely uneasy throughout the story because he never knows if Vic is going to double cross him over a two million dollar heist, but he does know enough to stay out of the way of Guerrard and his enforcer Roy Gelles (Mike Starr). And he also maintains an unlikely friendship with the guy who stole his wife, which doesn't compute really when you get a load of Pete van Heuten (Oliver Platt) side by side with Charlie's ex, Sarabeth (Justine Bentley). Seriously, I don't think so.

But if you like black humor with a touch of noir sensibility, you might go for this. It helps that the humor is kept low key with lines of dialog that make an impression a few seconds after they're uttered. Like bartender Sidney (Ned Bellamy) saying goodbye to his Mom on the phone, you'll have to pay attention to that one. Eventually, the relationship between Charlie and Vic is put on ice, which goes a long way to explaining the title of the picture. Taking place on Christmas Eve, don't be tempted to consider this a Christmas story in any way. I should probably mention that Charlie has the hots for lovely stripper Renata (Connie Nielsen),who's plans for ditching Wichita Falls may or may not include the conflicted mob attorney. For that you'll have to stick around till the very end, but as it was for most of the characters here, it's just not pretty.

In Wichita, in the Christmas Eve, the coward and smart mob lawyer Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) associates to the small time crook pornographer Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) and embezzles more than two million dollars of the powerful mobster Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid). Charlie intends to runaway with his share bringing Renata (Connie Nielsen),who runs the Sweet Cage strip club. Along the long night, Charlie discloses secrets about Vic and Renata.

"The Ice Harvest" is a sort of blending of film-noir with black comedy that unfortunately does not work well in spite of having a great cast. The story is too short and not well developed, with the character of Oliver Platt, Pete, being unpleasant and miscast. Further, the plot is too serious for a dark comedy, and too silly for a film-noir, therefore it never works. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Sangue Frio" ("In Cold Blood")

The movie has quite a few good actors at hand. And I do think that they're trying their best. But I also do think that the movie isn't able to walk the thin line it set out to walk on. Like it tries to be clever and you can feel it trying. And that's not a good thing. A movie is either cool or it isn't.

It's also switching back and forth between action, dark humour, Slapstick and thriller moments. Unfortunately not that well mixed together. The movie is just not sure what it wants. Another indication for that, are the alternate endings that were put on the disc. Not that they do shine a new light/perspective on things.

I know quite a few people enjoyed this more than me, but I just couldn't. So read a couple of other comments and then decide if you want to watch the movie