The Grey

Starring: Liam Neeson, Dallas Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo

Directed by: Joe Carnahan

Rating: I Didn't Like It

I was all stoked for this movie to see Neeson playing another BA, but it was just on the other side of ridiculous in parts that I couldn't handle it.  I argued with people when the previews were first playing for this movie.  I said that I got the arctic wolf angle.  They need something that is a threat in the frozen wilderness other than just the cold.  Little did I know that I was wrong in my defense of this idea.  

The Good: 

• Let's face it.  Neeson has been leader of the A-Team, king of Narnia, Zeus, trained Obi-Wan and Batman and saved over 1,000 Jews from the Nazis (thanks memecenter.com), so, he's still a BA.  Even in this movie he really is.  He always knows what's up and how to fix bad situations.  
• I really like Mulroney and Roberts, and they both did fine work here.  Some of the other minor roles were pretty good, too.  
• The setting was good.  Other than The Thing, I'm not sure I've seen many suspense/thrillers set in the arctic weather.  

The Bad: 

• The killing off one after the other, one at a time thing really didn't work for me, especially since they tried to over dramatize so many of the deaths.  
• I couldn't even take Neeson's voice overs seriously because they just seemed out of place.  
• The special effects weren't great.  They weren't awful, either, just not great.  The wolves in particular didn't look so hot.  
• In general (so as not to drop any spoilers), I thought there was a lot out of my realm of what could be believed.  Some things were just too convenient.  

The Ugly: 

• The final showdown between Neeson and the alpha of the wolf pack - you've seen it in the trailers - where he tapes the knife and broken bottles to his hands was just...I mean...wow!  First, it takes him forever to do this.  All the while the alpha is slowly making his way toward Neeson patiently waiting for him to "suit up" for the fight.  I couldn't by that.  In reality, the wolf would've just pounced.  
• For that matter, it's silly to me that the wolves just didn't take them as a group when there were only three or four left.  

Maybe my expectations for movies have just been to high recently.  I can't seem to watch anything and just enjoy it.  I've been sticking to TV shows just because of that.  The one thing I have seen recently that I really enjoyed was Larry Crowne.  I'll probably write that one up for next week.