THE GREY

With Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Dallas Roberts, Joe Anderson, Nonso Anozie, Ben Bray, Anne Openshaw

Written by Joe Carnahan, Ian Mackenzie Jeffers (based on his short story "Ghost Walker")

Directed by Joe Carnahan

Neeson plays a depressed sharp shooter keeping wolves away from oil workers in an inhospitable corner of Alaska. On a plane flight their aircraft goes down, killing many of the passengers. The conflicting survivors have to make a choice – stay at the wreck in the middle of nowhere and die from exposure and a pack of wolves closing in, or try and head for a wooded area. With little defense against the hungry wolves and time running out, the childish and macho internal conflict is almost as dangerous as the animals' canines. It's a fight for survival as one by one they get picked off.

Besides money being the lazy impetus for a movie's narrative, another cinematic element that annoys me is the portrayal of animals (like wolves) as being mean, vicious, evil beasts out to kill people. If you're in their territory, you're fair game in the food chain. But, one consolation would be that most of the men on this team are assholes, and chances are slim that all will survive at the end(!).

Extra features include deleted and extended scenes and a look at the harsh shooting conditions.

3 / C
- Paul Blom

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
- A - B - C

A: Multiple Viewing Potential
B: Deserves Another Look
C: Once Should Suffice