As Good As It Gets

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Blistering performances.

If you can set aside the scientific implausibilities (or impossibilities) that abound in this movie, you can appreciate it from a number of angles. I first saw it many years ago and just watched it again - and still found it touching and relevant. Timothy Hutton starred as Sheppard - part of a scientific team in the Arctic who discover something frozen in the Arctic ice, and eventually discover that it's a Neanderthal who was somehow trapped there perhaps 40000 years ago. Intending to thaw him out and cut him up and ship various parts of his body around the world for study, the team is shocked when the Iceman comes to life. Played superbly by John Lone, the Iceman is alone, afraid and bewildered by the strange surroundings in which he finds himself, and the team basically continues to see him as a science project for lack of a better way to describe it - a specimen to be studied. But Sheppard sees him as a man and tries to understand him, communicate with him and befriend him. The interaction between the two came across as authentic, and the bond between them was believable. The viewer bonds with the Iceman too - or, if you don't, there's something wrong with you. The viewer starts to see him as a person; starts to sympathize with his plight. This is definitely a movie that pulls you in successfully.It's also a movie that - while dated in many ways - does have a strange relevance to today's world. We're not likely to ever find a frozen Neanderthal and bring him back to life. Even Otzi the Iceman (who was frozen in ice only 5000 years ago is most definitely dead and not coming back.) But there are scientists who think they can bring back extinct species like mammoths, and some speculation that eventually someone might try to bring back a Neanderthal (notwithstanding that most of us aside from Africans already have Neanderthal DNA in our bodies.) Watching this movie and thinking about that possibility - I started to wonder. Should we? Even if we could? What sort of life would we give to the poor creature? Would we treat it as a human, or would we treat it as a lab rat, subjecting it to never ending experiments and tests and studies? Would we be Sheppard - or would we be everybody else? I suspect I know the answer to that.Maybe it's best to leave the Neanderthals where they are - buried deep in our own DNA. (7/10)

After the last 34 years of only knowing about this movie and its premise, I finally watched this on YouTube just now. Timothy Hutton is among a group of scientists who discover a man from thousands of years ago being preserved in ice. Once he is thawed, Hutton argues with his teammates over the best course of action: should they experiment on him or try to get to know him socially. Hutton chooses the latter and he and John Lone as this Neanderthal man have quite a humorous and touching give-and-take in communicating with each other, Lone by mainly dong many grunts and hand gestures. I was pleasantly surprised one of the scientists was played by the same person who was Principal Strickland in the Back to the Future movies! I really enjoyed this film including the way it ended. So on that note, I highly recommend Iceman.

I was born in 1978 and this film came out in 1984 however I remember watching it on VHS so it must have been around 1986, and this film stuck with me though out my life.I stumbled across it on Netflix and sat down to watch and still was drawn into the story as if it was my first time watching it. I knew what was going to happen, yet it all still seemed new.I find myself drawn to Charlie (the Iceman) and always wish there was more to know. Watching him always makes me wonder What ifs. He maybe an iceman but he is a very warm character.Dr Shepard (which I find a funny twist that his name is Shepard) tries to connect with Charlie and to watch their relationship draws you in, and for me at least makes me want to know more.The movie can be a little slow, it takes about 1/2 the movie before we really get into the meat of things.The sound on it is not the greatest either. Sometimes the lines seem to be a bit lost with the rest of the sounds.However it is also interesting to see the "state of the art" computers and games (there is an OLD SCHOOL Hand held Nintendo gameboy cameo appearance) that are used in the film.Over all it is a movie I think that makes you question yourself and what makes you human.

The comments made by thesnowleopard from Scotland are absolutely ignorant. Don't listen to his claims of knowledge of science and anthropology. He knows nothing about these fields, and even less about film. The film is great, and the science used in the film is well informed. Of course they take liberties, but then again it's a film, a story. Not to mention that in 1991 an Iceman was discovered, of course it wasn't alive and this plot point is dubious but again it's a movie, and similar events unfolded as in the film. I think if you suspend your disbelief for a moment you will see the strong points of the film. Enjoy the film, it's well done, and the acting is superb.