Ice Storm

Pros: Ang Lee's Direction, Script, Cinematography, Score, Production, & Cast.
Cons: None.

One of the more recent prolific directors in cinema, Taiwan-born Ang Lee has made films in his homeland whether it was the dramas Eat Drink Man Woman and The Wedding Banquet or the martial-arts masterpiece Crouching Tiger, Hidden ...

Pros: Incredible cast, great direction and cinematography
Cons: Feels awfully pointless at times

This past weekend, my boyfriend came home and declared it “Movie Marathon Weekend.” Ah, the joy and bliss of Movie Marathon Weekends… We go to the library and rent 8-10 movies, put them in a pile and randomly pick at different points in ...

Pros: entire cast, cinematography
Cons: ..

If you want a glimpse of what a dysfunctional family looks like, then Ice Storm is the movie for you. It begins at the end, with Paul Hood sitting on a train, frozen in time by an ice storm. We then travel back, to find out how this all ...

Pros: Great ensemble cast. Some cool set design.
Cons: The writing is horrible / an existential statement about inaction and meaninglessness. You can't tell.

Director M. Night Shayamalan is known for making films with a big "Aha!" at the end. I found myself waiting for something like that with The Ice Storm, but it never came. The Ice Storm is a drama laden with weight but seemingly without a purpose. We ...

Pros: Story complexity through many subplots, several acting performances.
Cons: A gross over-statement of the emptiness of suburban culture.

Story:  It's the 1970's and it's the upper-middle-class suburbs and it's Thanksgiving. Our story here shows us a slice of life of two different families: the Hood family (Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci) and the Carver family ...

Pros: This movie just fits together well, it's solidly acted
Cons: The character depictions in this film could use more intensity

“When you think about it, it’s not easy to keep from just wandering out of life. It’s like someone’s always leaving the door open to the next world. And if you aren’t paying attention you could just walk through it, and then you’ve died....

Pros: Ang Lee. Acting. Screenplay. Challenges ‘perfect suburban family’ stereotype.
Cons: May offend people who don’t like to see suburbia in an unpleasant light.

Director: Ang Lee Producer: Ang Lee, James Schamus, Ted Hope Screenplay: James Schamus Based on Book: “The Ice Storm” by Rick Moody Director of Photography: Frederick Elmes Year Release: 1997 Runtime: 112 mins. Released by: 20th Century ...

Pros: A different perspective. Metal ice trays. Ang Lee.
Cons: Glycerin for ice. Unresolved shoplifting scenes. Too much Nixon, I get the point.

The Ice Storm is a story of neighboring families set in early 70’s suburban New Canaan, Connecticut which occurs over Thanksgiving break. Paul (Tobey Maguire), the eldest son of the Hood household, returns from his private boarding school to family...

Pros: Talented cast ...
Cons: ... all of whom have been much better in other movies.

A sexual encounter between the characters played by Joan Allen and Jamey Sheridan lasts about ten seconds. That compels Sheridan to apologize for what he says was "awful." The movie lasts much longer, but it is just as unsatisfying.

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Pros: "The Ice Storm" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" are both great films
Cons: But the latter does not belong on the small screen

Up until now I've barely spoken of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon save for unqualified praise; while the right words still escape me, the seasons of change have put my jaw back in place and permitted a perspective on director Ang Lee. One of his previous...

Pros: Great acting and interaction between characters.
Cons: Erotic scenes involving 14 year olds

I thought American Beauty was a little overrated and I preferred this tale which was made a few years earlier... I personally think of the film in an odd fashion. To me the movie feels like beautiful poetry being put into motion and it is very artistic...

Pros: Powerful ensemble acting; dysfunctional family dynamics are unbearably true to life
Cons: Intense and morally heavy theme around sexual promiscuity that might annoy some viewers

The Ice Storm is the kind of movie that makes you cringe in recognition of some of your own family "stuff" while also managing to allow for the "but we weren't this screwed up!" disclaimer. I can imagine the screenwriter(s) sitting at the...

Pros: Ang Lee's best film. A haunting examination of family mores and healing.
Cons: Kinda creepy in parts. Nixon's likeness used in kinky fare, especially.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The first scene gives us a look at the beauty of the cold. Grass is frozen, branches die, but the ice, killer though it is, stays pristine. Beautiful. And so begins Ang Lee’s lyrical adaptation of Rick ...

Pros: Beautiful detailing of the 70s atmosphere
Cons: A tad depressing, if you let it be

More than sexual morès were challenged in the 70s; morality on several levels was brutally challenged in that decade.

The Ice Storm opens with a commuter train, silent and frosted over, stopped dead in its tracks with no electricity...

Pros: Brilliant script and acting
Cons: Takes its time to get going

Christina Ricci saying, "I'll show you mine if you show me yours," that's what more arthouse movies need. The Ice Storm, adapted from the novel by Rick Moody, is a powerful Ang Lee film that explores the world of empty bitterness and...