Netflix pick for 8/19/13 – ‘The Ice Harvest’

“The Ice Harvest” is a little dark-comedy crime movie set during the Christmas holiday, and movies juxtaposing crimes and violence with the joy of Christmas are always fun to watch. Nothing says “reason for the season” like a seedy strip club in Kansas and a mob lawyer teaming up with a pornographer in an attempt to steal millions of dollars from a crime boss on Christmas Eve.

John Cusack plays the mob lawyer and Billy Bob Thornton plays his buddy with whom he is trying to steal some ill-gotten money from a bad dude (played by Randy Quaid), but after they get the money, they realize that their escape routes out of town are blocked due to bad weather, meaning they are forced to hide out in town while some mob enforcers look for them. Meanwhile, Cusack’s lawyer character bounces back and forth between trying to impress a good looking strip club owner (Connie Nielsen) and hanging out with his best friend (Oliver Platt), who happens to be married to Cusack’s ex-wife. So life is pretty shitty for this guy. No wonder he’s willing to risk his life to steal a couple million bucks.

Good times.

Check out “The Ice Harvest” right here on the ole Netflix Instant.