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Anne Archer in GREEN ICE Year: 1981 Original: 1977 Rating: **** |
Following a James Bond style opening (created by Bond opener Maurice
Binder while directed by Bond franchise Second Unit Director Ernest
Day), with sexy emeralds in place of women, GREEN ICE is a breezy
seventies Neo-Noir starring Ryan O'Neal as a New York transplant 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
sis 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.
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Ryan O'Neal, Anne Archer facing Omar Shariff in GREEN ICE Rates: ***1/2 |
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 liberal 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!)
is where the film never really recovers...
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Insanely gorgeous Anne Archer faces the bad "doctor" Omar Shariff |
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 within the first forty
minutes or so, this might've been really something.
Although,
throughout the second and third act, when it's only O'Neal and Archer,
the movie regains momentum. Meanwhile, 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 terrible
singing on it.
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Anne Archer in GREEN ICE aka Diamanter i natten aka Зелен лед aka Inferno Verde |
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Anne Archer and Ryan O'Neal in GREEN ICE aka Opération GreenIce |
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Ryan O'Neal and Anne Archer in GREEN ICE aka Πράσινη πέτρα aka El robo de las esmeraldas |
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Ryan O'Neal and Anne Archer in GREEN ICE |
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Ryan O'Neal starring in GREEN ICE |
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Ryan O'Neal and Anne Archer in GREEN ICE |
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O'Neal's Barry Lyndon co-star and Stanley Kubrick threefer Philip Stone in GREEN ICE |
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Anne Archer and Ryan O'Neal facing off in GREEN ICE |
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Groovy Air balloon poster for GREEN ICE |
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Omar Shariff shows Ryan O'Neal his GREEN ICE |
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Omar Shariff shows Ryan O'Neal his GREEN ICE operation |
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Banana-clad Omar Shariff shows Ryan O'Neal his GREEN ICE |
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Omar Shariff shows Ryan O'Neal his GREEN ICE |
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Romancing the Stone villain Manuel Ojeda and blonde beauty Tara Fellner in GREEN ICE |
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Anne Archer and Ryan O'Neal in GREEN ICE
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Anne Archer and Ryan O'Neal in GREEN ICE |
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