Hielo verde

When I was 8 years old my family went on vacation to Las Hadas in Manzanillo Mexico. I remember seeing Omar Sharif sitting in the lobby when we checked into the hotel. He was just sitting in a chair in the lobby reading the paper. He said "hello" to us and seemed like a really nice guy.

We also ran into Ryan O'Neal and Farah several times on the beach. One time my 11 year old sister and I approached them for an autograph. Farah said "go away" but Ryan said "sure, no problem" and signed a napkin for us. WTF Farah? Why would anyone be that rude to kids? I don't understand. I guess because it was the early 80's and she was still a big deal. That was when she was every little boys dream instead of the sea monster that she looks like today. I don't hold a grudge though...

My sister and sat by the pool for hours and hours waiting for them to shoot the pool scene at the hotel, so that we could be in the shot. Finally at around 1:00 in the morning (yes, my parents let us stay up that late) they filmed the scene. And after all of that waiting we can't be seen anywhere in the final cut of the movie.

I said all of that to say this... Although this movie was panned by the critics when it came out and was not really (at all) a hit. I still like it because it was my one little bush with fame. I haven't seen the movie in a while but I plan on looking for it on eBay.

I had never heard about this 1981 movie titled "Green Ice", as I happened to stumble upon it by random chance here in 2024. And seeing that it was an adventure movie that had the likes of Ryan O'Neal, Anne Archer and Omar Sharif on the cast list, of course I opted to sit down and give the movie a fair chance.

Now, the movie is listed as an adventure, which hardly is the case. This movie was a bit all over the place, and was hard to label with a proper genre. Sure, there were light elements of adventure to be seen, but this was hardly an adventure movie. So I was a bit disappointed to find that out.

The storyline in "Green Ice" had potential, but I don't know what writers Edward Anhalt, Ray Hassett, Anthony Simmons and Robert De Laurentiis were thinking here. The storyline was rather incoherent and felt amazingly random and erratic. It was as if the writers were not working together on a single script, but instead worked individually and then handing their work over to directors Ernest Day and Anthony Simmons to piece together into a cohesive movie. The end result was not impressive.

The acting performances in the movie were fair. The movie also had John Larroquette and Philip Stone on the cast list.

While I did manage to sit through the entire movie, I was hardly entertained by what directors Ernest Day and Anthony Simmons delivered. And this is definitely not a movie that I will return to watch a second time.

My rating of "Green Ice" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Following a James Bond style opening, with sexy emeralds in place of women, GREEN ICE is a breezy seventies Neo-Noir (although not released till the early eighties) starring Ryan O'Neal as a drifter in Mexico who meets his damsel in distress, rich girl Anne Archer...

Her hippie sister (Tara Fellner) had been slain by the same crooked third world officials she and her gang were hiding emeralds from, and so big sister uses O'Neal to find out what happened: Which turns out it has to do with... guess what? GREEN ICE, which millionaire Omar Sharif collects like loose change while exploiting the locals.

Here's where things wane, considerably, going from an involving suspense chase thriller into a pointless class envy melodrama with the reintroduction of the dead little sister's mentor, Miguel, a whining communist revolutionary with a chip on his shoulder this size of a dwarf planet and the politics of a dreamy sixth-grader...

The break-in at Sharif's glass-building high-rise to get back the emeralds, by very bizarre means of hot air balloons (manned by John Larroquette, and with a song playing that sounds worse than Yoko Ono), is where the film never really recovers...

Hell, even the heist is boring, despite Sharif... as kinda/sorta Archer's beau (get it?)... giving O'Neal an initial tour in an intriguing manner. And what a shame: with such an adventurous premise, this might've been really something. (Bill Wyman, bassist of The Rolling Stones, provides the cooler parts of the soundtrack, including an groovy opening instrumental that, alas, on the Album/LP, has singing on it.)

This is one of those movies with a cult following. The plot might sound like something you heard before. But its the charm of this movie that sets it apart from the rest. I have seen this movie over 30 times since 1981 and I never tire of it. Some movies are just a pleasure to watch and listen to. It's like listening to your favorite song over and over. It's laid back and just plain enjoyable without all the stress we often get from modern movies.

Certainly a lot of the credit goes to Bill Wyman for making the score. Ultimately it is what puts the shine on Green Ice.

10/10

A poorly developed action adventure film shot largely in Mexico, this affair begins in promising fashion, but after its first of several changes in direction occurs within the plot line, little remains that will interest a viewer. A group of international students (in reality organized supporters of anti-government rebels) is massacred in Colombia by Federales as action opens, while during alternating scenes Joe Wiley (Ryan O'Neal), an American electronics engineer, visiting Mexico to recover from a divorce, meets an affluent socialite, Lillian Holbrook (Anne Archer). When the two become romantically involved, a complicated situation forms since Lillian is being wooed by Meno Argenti (Omar Sharif), a powerful plutocrat who controls the emerald trade for the rotten Mexican government, thus leading to shared distaste between the two men. When Lillian travels to Colombia in quest of her missing younger sister, Joe goes with her, an act not endorsed by Meno who wishes to wed her for personal reasons other than love, and a climactic conflict between the rivals can result only in violence. The screenplay is a hotchpotch with a thread of intended light-hearted romance woven among such disparate themes as murder, torture and sadism, along with grotesquely silly stunts that Joe and his cohorts perform in attempts to foil the evil Argenti. The piece is heavily cut for distribution, and editing is very choppy, increasing the episodic nature of a script that consistently meanders, scenes honouring logic being very rare indeed. The players are somewhat hindered by their cliché laden lines, O'Neal being even more encumbered by a large assortment of electronic and other specialized equipment that is magically available for use in situations requiring derring-do. Camera-work under supervision from cinematographer Gilbert Taylor is strikingly effective and creative but general mistreatment of basic rules of continuity sinks this effort despite its pretty scenic effects.