The Grey

[Reaper Man]

I tend to overstate the negatives and understate the positives in this movie, but I really liked this one, so I think I have some good stuff to say about it.

Plot: Pretty simple really--a band of oil drillers up in Alaska have their plane crash in the tundra. Most of the passengers die, but a small band survives and tries to make it back to safety. Unfortunately, the are in the territory of hyper-aggressive wolves who are stalking them. The whole movie actually reminds me a lot of the first chapter of White Fang, the short story introducing them to the wolves, the laws of the wild, and the patience with which the wolves work to pick off their prey.

This is a big character and symbolism driven movie, dealing a lot more with human nature and emotions than plot. It has that No Country for Old Men feel to it--the sort of movie that has a very straightforward and simplistic sounding storyline to it, but you feel like there is more to the movie than just the plot and obvious metaphors. A touch more heavyhanded than No Country, but solid nonetheless.

As an aside, I have a big thing for survivalist movies. This movie is not the most McGyver-esque in that the characters don't come up with all kinds of creative solutions to their problems, but it does show the sort of force of will it takes to press on through.

The soundtrack is incredible.

My only criticisms are Liam Neeson is standard Liam Neeson. Not really a criticism I guess, but it doesn't really show his versatility as an actor. He basically is the same guy he is in Taken--an in control badass who is a bit reserved and brooding with the occasional outburst of anger.

[Crunchie]

I really expected this to be a bad movie, maybe now I;ll take a look.

Your review of Warrior was the only reason why I watched it, and I'm glad I did, again I had low expectations of that movie.

Thanks for this

[killemall]

Saw it, was good. A tad depressing but good to watch.

[mikebourkefan]

i dident like it to many "look deep inside yourself moments" and blurry camera work during the action scenes

[Ŧħє Łєшãŋđσẅsķį]

I was surprised by this film when I went out that Friday to see it, It wasn't that I expected an full out ACTION movie from Liam Neeson as the front man but that from the heart that it had and it was more of a character study and it showed the ways of the these flawed men trying to survive and ultimately it was about coming to terms with your fate of dying, especially with Neesons character, and I actually thought his character interested me And I enjoyed the transitions from his wife/father to reality as well as the nice poem he recited towards the end, people will just go over and over with plot holes and this and that about how wolves really act, or what the characters should have done, and this and that would never happen but overall I enjoyed the cinematography, dialogue, and the characters that made up this film, but if you're looking for a real survivalist movie I would suggest "The Edge" as its the movie you want to watch but this for my personal taste was better because of the things I took and enjoyed from this film. I would easily recommend this film.