“Wolves are the only animal that kill for revenge.” I’m not sure if that’s true but it doesn’t bode well for Liam Neeson and company in The Grey. The Grey is an intense, jump out of your seat thriller set in the Alaskan tundra. It follows a group of men who survived a catastrophic plane crash and are now fighting for their lives against the horrid temperatures and a pack of man-eating wolves. Lucky for them, Ottway (Liam Neeson) was paid to kill wolves in the wilderness and has trained himself to know everything about them. Did I say lucky or unlucky?
The sound of the movie in the beginning is striking. The way director Joe Carnahan uses it to bring you in and out of scenes is frightening. It’s actually more scary than most of the recent horror films that have come out. The plane crash itself is a heart-pumping experience and that takes place very early in the film. The deafening winds of winter and howling of the wolves take over as they terrify you without being seen. It almost gets to a point where it’s unbearable but then you have to realize the conditions that these guys are in and they can’t turn it off…so why should you?
Liam Neeson = badass
Only a handful of men survived the crash and their numbers dwindle as the story goes on. It’s a game of survival and these men don’t know how to play the game. Except for Ottway, that is, who takes charge and sets out a plan to live. After recent movies like Unknown, The A-Team, and Taken, Liam has cemented himself as a bad ass man’s man so it’s fitting that he’s an adventurous grizzly man that doesn’t take bullshit from anybody. He’s the alpha and everything else in the movie – including the wolves – are omegas. A couple more roles like this and Liam Neeson is going to end up in the Expendables 3.
Let's play who's gonna die first?
I loved the script. I really liked how the men interacted with each other and what they actually said. It was a great mix of movie lines and real dialogue making you think that this is how it might actually go down. The different personalities from Diaz (Frank Grillo) to Talget (Dermot Mulroney), Hendrick (Dallas Roberts), Flannery (Joe Anderson) and Burke (Nonso Anozie) make it easy to fit in with the group. There are different opinions, reactions, and stereotypes that any audience member can empathize with. The story and filming was also impressive as they took you through a lot of different scenarios. You’ll be glad to know that you won’t just be following these guys through snow for two hours.
The whole cast and crew must have been freezing the entire time of production
This isn’t another action-packed fighting movie – it’s more about perseverance and will to survive. The Grey tests your own endurance as it holds very few things back. It will scare you, it will make you think and it might piss you off in the end. You never know what can happen next and some of the twists might surprise you. I definitely recommend watching this movie but it can wait for DVD or TV. There’s nothing really gained from watching it, it’s more of a nice way to pass the time on a plane ride or night in. One thing is for sure though, if you don’t have a good sound system, you should watch The Grey in theaters, because that sound mixing will make you jump – guaranteed. Stay til the end of the credits if you’re into that kind of thing but there’s not much there.
Do you know how it feels to be going insane? It’s like a war of being told who you are and knowing who you are. Liam Neeson stars as Dr. Martin Harris who has lost some of his memory in a car accident shortly after entering Berlin for the first time. After awakening from a four day coma, he knows who he is but everybody keeps telling him he’s not. He has to figure out who he is and what happened to him. Unknown is being compared to Taken and while there are some similarities, Unknown is not action-packed…it’s more of a thinker. So if you want to turn off your brain and just watch a flick, this one isn’t for you.
The Next Three Days is such an awkward movie but if you can sit through the first hour, the ending just might be worth it. The movie follows John Brennan (Russell Crowe), a community college teacher, as he rescues his innocent wife (Elizabeth Banks) from jail. He turns from a timid loving father to a conniving MacGyver via YouTube in just three days! That’s a lie, it takes about three years and that is why most of the movie is a drag. (This is Paul Haggis’ remake of a French film, “Anything for Her” from 2008 which I have not seen)
The A-Team was Awesome. Yes, the A stands for Awesome (it really stands for Alpha). I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and didn’t expect the movie to be this good. To me, it’s exactly what an action comedy should be. It’s really funny and the plot keeps moving along with help from the action. It has almost every type of humor: quick quips, corny jokes, tongue and cheek, physical humor, play on words, etc. so everyone’s going to laugh. Guaranteed. I saw it in Dubai and that audience was laughing and clapping throughout the film and the theater wasn’t even half filled. And if you’re in it for the action, there’s enough explosions and gun fire to make anyone trigger happy…happy.
The premise of after.life is really intriguing. When you see it play out in the film, it’s very thought provoking and you will find yourself asking yourself a lot of questions during and after the film. This is a messed up and twisted movie about the transition from living to dead…to the afterlife. Based in a massive funeral home of Eliot Deacon, you join Anna Taylor as she confronts the idea of her losing her life. The story begins while Anna, played by Christina Ricci, is still alive living her everyday life as a middle school teacher with her boyfriend Paul, played by Justin Long. She goes to a funeral of her old piano teacher where she meets Eliot Deacon, played by Liam Neeson, for the first time. Anna’s everyday life isn’t all that well…she constantly pops pills and can’t seem to not have an argument with her boyfriend. One night, she gets into yet another argument with Paul and storms out of dinner by driving away in terrible weather where she eventually gets into a crash. Don’t worry, this isn’t a spoiler to the movie as it happens pretty early and the whole focus of the film is her journey to the other side. She wakes up dazed and confused in the funeral home meeting the funeral director hovering over her body. She doesn’t believe she’s dead and Deacon lets her know that he can communicate with her because he has a gift and that he’s the only one with this gift that can talk to her.
Here’s the gist of it: Clash of the Titans follows a demigod (half man/half god) named Perseusas as he fulfils his fate to bring in the new era of man and replace the rule of the Gods. Man was created by Zeus and man’s prayers fuel the God’s immortality. However, Man started to grow tired of the Gods and started to turn on them. Hades, Zeus’s bitter brother, decides to use this opportunity to overthrow his brother and take power over both Gods and Man through his pet monster called the Kraken. Long story short (the movie is 2 hours long), this is yet another one guy goes on a journey, meets people along the way, finds himself, and saves the world movie. The visuals are pretty poor, the acting is blah, and the music is mundane. It definitely should not be in 3D, but more on that later…
