Inferno Verde

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.)

In the Early Eighties ,There was 'Green Ice' which is a surprisingly enjoyable caper that's packed with action - Adventure,and romance, (Ryan O'Neal, plays Joe Wiley a recently divorced Electronics expert, who leaves New York, for the exotic plains of south America, where he meets the beautiful society heiress, Lillain Holbrook,(Ann Archer,

Whilst in the exotic resort of Las Hadas, O'Neal inadvertently becomes involved with Emerald Smuggling, Archer is searching for her peace activist sister, who who is brutally slain in the chilling opening sequence. Omar Sharif,plays Archer's potential but somewhat he sinister Suitor, Meno Argenti, a kingpin banished from the diamond concession but is a big player in the emerald, business,

There is a fantastic sequence, which see's O'Neal and his associate played by the ever brilliant, John Larroquette,travel in a convoy of Custom hot air balloon's to rob Sharif's emeralds,Which are housed in his Voice activated vault, Atop a glistening skyscraper,

Their is excellent Cinematography, throughout this picture particularly the aerial, shots, James Bond credits designer Maurice Binder designs the opening titles which are excellent, Former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, infuses the film with his brilliant Synth electronic score, Like The Green Emerald's in the film Green Ice Sparkles with excellence

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 remember seeing this on HBO and just watching in awe of how well crafted films can be. This film isn't high art in the traditional sense. It came out during the transitional 1970s to 1980s era of one society wanting to be high tech, and another entering the computer age perhaps against its will and without consent. That's important because there's a kind of technological angle that this film uses to further the plot, which was a foretelling of things to come in terms of tech portrayed in films.

But the larger film is a bit long and can be a slog at times, but it's actually quite interesting as the film shows us glimpses of another world. A world where international intrigue shows its seamier side in terms of criminality on both sides of the law; law breakers and those who are supposed to enforce the law.

The film also shows us some of the issues plaguing nations like Columbia, and shows us the extent to which dissident groups will go in order to enable their change for social order. The film shows the truth of such efforts, and the ultimate victors and losers.

I know all of what I wrote sounds kind of high minded, but films in the 70s and 80s were a lot more sophisticated than today's offerings, and more tasteful too. Green Ice has all kinds of tawdry and violent elements that aren't pornographic like a lot of today's media which seem to need to show us, the audience, every sexual act and every bullet striking every body part with every blood splatter.

Green Ice also doesn't rely on a lot of over the top action nor a lot of machine-gun editing nor shaky cam that plagues so much of today's media.

See it once and see what you think.

I kid you not, the last time I saw this movie, I could not have been older than eight years old. It still sticks with me, probably because it was one of the first heist/thriller movies I ever saw.

Omar Sharif was all over the place in the movies of that era, most notably (in mind) in "Oh Heavenly Dog!" with Chevy Chase and Jane Seymour. He was a bad guy in that one, too, and I often think of the two movies with a similar nostalgia. This was certainly my first exposure to the beautiful Anne Archer and the underrated Ryan O'Neal. "Green Ice" also gave us a glimpse of John Larroquette before his face and name became widely known.

This is truly a movie which does not deserve to be forgotten. The music is memorably flaky, but not any cheesier than the "Tootsie" soundtrack or any others from that era. A precursor to "Romancing the Stone", "Green Ice" shows off lots of gems, has lots of suspense and thrills, and a truly despicable, yet dimensional villain. And then there's the action. It is not easy to land a hot air balloon on a high rise, let alone break into said high rise without setting off all kinds of alarms. Using a holographic imager to crack the vault was just the coolest of all techno-geek ideas.

To conclude, I have never seen any film made before or after this one (although "Rough Cut" was close) that brings the romance, action, tension, and characters to the audience like "Green Ice" did.