January 28, 2012
Review - " The Grey " - (in theaters) By Roland Hansen
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The Grey
Director: Joe Carnahan
Stars: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo,
James Badge Dale
Grizzly Liam Neeson takes charge when a plane full of
oil workers crashes in the Alaskan wilderness. But
while cold is the survivors’ bitter enemy, its bite is
nothing compared to the ferocious wolf pack whose
territory they find themselves in. After leading The A-
Team into action, director Joe Carnahan answers the
call of the wild to steer another desperate crew
through a blood-chilling blizzard of suspense and
machismo.
I went into The Grey with very little expectations other
than seeing Neeson vs some wolves. What I got in the
first 15 minutes was something broader & more
meaningful than that. Then the plane crashes & The
Grey becomes a survival horror movie with
supernatural wolves & a cast of characters that I did
not care about at all because the film makers did
nothing properly to flesh them out before hand.
Neeson is fantastic for the entire run of the movie but
everyone else is so one dimensional that in the end
even Neesons character comes off a little flat.
Heres where my mind went when all was said & done.
What if they did away with the entire cast right up front
& instead of a pack of wolves they just used the alpha
or some lone wolf & let Neeson carry The Grey as a
straight character study of a man fighting his demons
alone. Hell they didn't even have to leave the site.
Liam Neeson could have held my interest for the
entire duration of this movie because he is such a
good actor & because Ottway is such an interesting character either way. I understood all the heavy handed symbolism
because they were constantly repeated over & over & over & over. As it stands The Grey is a predictable horror movie
shoehorned into a good story about one mans fight for salvation against all odds. Bad movies don't bother me as much as
ones like these where the potential is just squandered. Not to mention it frustrates me to no end when someone attempts to
disguise a rudimentary action flick as a thinking mans action flick. Who are you fooling???!!! Oh apparently everyone seeing
that The Grey is being toted as the first great movie of 2012. What do I know!!
I probably would have passed this one up if I hadn't heard such high praise given to this movie. I should have known better!
From the storyline I was expecting it would be similar to the exciting movie called "The Edge". Unfortunately The Grey is a
dreary, creepy, colorless movie that looks like it was made on a shoestring budget. Liam Neesan heads the otherwise no star
cast. Unhappy and depressed Mr Ottway ( Lian Neesan ) is a hired gun who works for an oil drilling company in Alaska. His
job is to scare off or bump-off any wild animals that may threaten the lives of the workers. OK ,so now our cast of unfortunate
frequent flyer's board an old creepy aircraft that Stephen King would be proud of . The flight is short lived as the apparent
iced up wings causes the plane to stall, I guess. We don't see any good special effects of the plane going down. Instead we
get the " Shaky Cam effect " as in the Blair Witch Project to simulate vibration in the cabin. In the next scene we see the
remains of what's left of the airplane scattered all over the snow covered landscape. How 7 people manage to survive the
crash is nothing less than a miracle. As expected , the wolves start to move in same as sharks would have if this flight had
been over water . One by one our band of unlucky travelers get picked off by the marauding wolves in some truly frightening
scenes. The volume is turned up high so when the wolves growls the audience gets scared out of their seats. The close up
scenes of the big bad wolf are almost comical. It is quite obvious they used fake looking stuffed animals for many of those
scenes. As expected the wolves begin to whittle down the survivors one by one. There are no colorful shots of the landscape.
Everything is bleak and colorless. Many scenes are filmed in black & white. At nearly 2 hours this movie is at least 20 minutes
too long. I felt myself dozing off.
The final climax between sole
survivor Ottway and the wolf is
disappointing. The movie goes
black as the credits start to roll.
Most of the audience exited in
disgust. I waited a few minutes
to see if they were going to
continue the grand finale' but
not wanting to be the last one
in the theater, I left too. I
assume Ottway became lunch
for the hungry wolves ... The
Movie "The Edge" had style ,
a good subplot, top notch
actors , great cinematography,
and a real bear that was one
heck of of good actor! The
Grey is a so-so horror film that
is only worthy of seeing on
your TV
