The Ice Storm | | Cast : | Kevin Kline, Joan Allen | | Director : | Ang Lee | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | September 27, 1997 | | DVD Released Date : | December 17, 2002 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 19, 2005 | | Summary | SO UNDERATED | Content
 | I CAME ACROSS THIS MOVIE ON LATE NIGHT TV AND IT WAS ONE OF THOSE RARE MOMENTS WHERE YOUR HOOKED ON A MOVIE YOU DONT WANT IT TO END AND WHEN IT DOES ITS 4 AM .
THIS MOVIE FOCUES ON THE LIVES AND DEALINGS WITH DRUGS , SEX AND ALL IN BETWEEN . A LIFELESS MARRAIGE SIMILAR TO THE ONE IN AMERICAN BEAUTY WITH THE HUSBAND CHEATING THIS TIME .
LISTEN ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS SEE THIS MOVIE IT WILL HAVE YOU HOOKED AND IT MIGHT JUST CHANGE YOUR LIFE.
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| Rating | | | Date | May 19, 2005 | | Summary | The Death of Innocence | Content
| My initial reaction as I was watching "The Ice Storm" was that it was turning out to be one big, long cliche about the 1970's. The Watergate news on the background TV's, the sensitivity without feeling, and the wife-swapping all reminded me of a time that is better forgotten. However, a storm starts developing a little over half way through the movie and I stayed around to see if the title subject might change the direction and outcome of the movie. It did.
In the midst of this dysfunctional cast of characters is a lone individual who represents innocence so well, we don't even notice him until towards the end of the movie. It is through this person that we compare the vices of the world to the purity of the world and come away not liking what we see. The point about ignored virtue hidden in the overgrowth of perversity is well made. While we feel that message, we can't help but also feel the emptiness of the directions all the other lives were headed in. I guess maybe those were messages that made it worthwhile to relive the 70's. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 02, 2005 | | Summary | An overblown view of sexual and family dysfunction | Content
| Can any two families actually be as dysfunctional as those portrayed in this movie? Probably not and let's hope your family doesn't resemble anything going on herein.
From Sigourney Weaver in a shag to Christina Ricci as a 14-year-old questioning the honesty of Richard Nixon to an aging Kevin Kline with lamb chop sideburns acting out a mixed up suburbanite, this movie owes allegiance to certain lifestyles portrayed more readily on screen than in real life during the 1970s.
There were actually "key parties" as portrayed in the movie, but I'm sure my parents didn't participate in them. There was certainly a high level of sexual and social experimentation in the suburbs and elsewhere, but it's hard to believe that experimentation filtered down through parents to their very minor children -- and through the children to the very, very minor siblings of their partners. All this is portrayed in this sad film.
This is a very negative memoir of the 1970s, a fatalistic view of a real and metaphoric ice storm -- one that takes a life and another that robs all lives of their vigor, stability and, most of all, morality.
While the 1973 sets, cars, hairstyles and clothing seemed correct for the most part, I don't think there is one outstanding acting job in this movie. All the big name actors look and act just like they do in all their other movies. While the scenes of what seems today like very self-destructive behavior were compelling, it is no different here than in any other film about family dysfunction.
In summary, I can't think of a thing that makes this movie memorable or lets it stand out in a crowded field of either nostalgic or bad acting family movies. It seems to fit the mold, for the most part, not reshape it. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 02, 2005 | | Summary | Beautiful and Icy | Content
| This movie captures the social, political and cultural currents of the seventies. For those who lived in this period the movie has the look of both an alien world and something more real than our memories.
Set in the affluent suburbs the parents indulge in such things as shop lifting, affairs and key parties while the kids, in the netherworld between childhood and their teen years, are left to try to figure out life.
It is beautifully shot and the sets show an incredible attention to detail.
The movie is brutally satirical yet somehow retains a sympathy for human frailty.
It is a movie that is wonderfully poetic especially in its juxtapositions.
A scary little time capsule.
Worth watching again and again.
Highly recommended. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 02, 2005 | | Summary | Comes from nowhere. Ends no where. | Content
| Imagine you take a bunch of fairly well known actors, you put them in the same movie, and have them try to get them into each other's pants. That was probably the idea behind "Ice Storm."
The plotline essentially involves Toby McGuire coming home from college, his sister Christina Ricci trying to sexually molest every member of the male cast under 12, and their parents (including father Kevin Kline) going to a party that turns out to involve wife-swapping at the end. Of course, they can't just say they don't want to do it because that would be rude.
"Uh oh, honey, turns out our cocktail party is held by a cult about to commit mass suicide!"
"Oh dear, this is really a fix, I can't think of an excuse out of this one. Oh well, when in Rome..."
Elijah Wood is in this too. He dies. That's the film's resolution. At least its an attempted resolution. There's a shot of Kevin Kline crying and then the ending credits. Me and the people watching the film with me were left questioning, "...that's it?"
The biggest disappointment is the ice storm itself. What are you thinking right now? Blizzard? Hail stones the size of tennis balls? Ten feet of snow?...
A light drizzle.
That's the big ice storm we've all been waiting for. Light rain. Wow. What next? Maybe they'll remake "Twister" with a light breeze.
Take the premise of "American Pie" and let it get directed by the guy that did "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Ta-da! |
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