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The Grey (Liam Neeson): Grading, Discussion, Reviews (SPOILERS)

Grade the film

  • Excellent

    Votes: 4 40.0%
  • Above Average

    Votes: 6 60.0%
  • Average

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Below Average

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Poor

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .

Dream

Admiral
Admiral
This is Liam Neeson's newest action/survivalist film which is based on a short "Ghost Walker". Instead of taking on a Sith Lord or men who kidnap his daughter, he is now going to go badass on some wolves and mother nature.

The reviews seem to be pretty good.
 
This has a pretty decent rating up at rottentomates, and I really like Liam Neeson, so I might give this a try this weekend.
 
I'm checking this out tomorrow... I have yet to find a Liam Neeson movie I don't like, so I was mighty stoked when I saw the trailers for this.
 
Did they only just now think it might be Oscar bait?
If not then why not release it the last week of Dec or do a limited release sometime during that month?
 
I have yet to find a Liam Neeson movie I don't like...

Well...

;)

I originally was interested in this movie when I saw the trailers for it but after seeing so many trailers for it over the last couple of months I'm.... I'm not sure. Is the only threat in the movie going to be the wolves picking them off one by one? I think that'd get sort-of tedious after a while.
 
Is the only threat in the movie going to be the wolves picking them off one by one? I think that'd get sort-of tedious after a while.

Looks like it will also be a survival movie, so he has to try not to freeze to death while helping those people around him.
 
^I'm in the same boat..... like "Unknown", I went in expected something other than what I got. Unlike "Unknown", "The Grey" didn't leave me disappointed. It was a bit more of a violent, horror movie than I was expecting, but I enjoyed it. Amazing movie. I will likely get myself up to seeing it again.

And talk about an ending.... holy shit. I've read several reviews about this movie where the writer said, "Nobody said even a word when the movie ended." and I thought it was just the usual reviewer's fluff. It's true though. This was one of the fuller theaters I've watched a movie in recently, and you could have heard a pin drop at the end. Even the two assholes behind me who were whispering back and forth the entire time didn't say a word. I think it left everyone stunned.... it took everyone forever to start filing out, and they still weren't talking.

I'll give this a sold A.
 
MAJOR SPOILERS in this post!!!! Skip ahead if you want to see the movie first......you have been warned.




I was extremely surprised and impressed with most of this movie. The ending was logical, but it left you wanting a lot more. While Neeson's character was obviously doomed, it would have been appreciated to partially SEE his fight. It's not that I wanted more gore.....just perhaps a bit of on-screen payback on his part. As it stands, the only wolf definitely killed met its end from a supporting actor, not Neeson. That was another convention-defying moment. That character is also the only one who is not shown perishing. We can assume though he was also killed, given the plot. I only hope this is not a sly ploy to get us to buy a special edition DVD full of deleted scenes to good for the multiplex. Anyway, not bad for the director of THE A-TEAM.
 
What a great film that was?! I went in blind, I heard Burnie over at Roosterteeth talk about it on the podcast but that I shouldn't watch the trailer, just go in blind. I did that and was not disappointed. Everyone talks about the wolves and the ending, and while they are fantastic, noone seems to have mentioned the Plane Crash yet.

As far as the few Plane crash scenes I've seen on Film, this was probably the best. The sense of impending doom from the first bit of turbulence was intense. And that shot where he fell out the plane? My brain was just full of "FUCK. THAT."

And although this was probably expected as a straight up men vs wolves film, there was a surprisingly level of subtext and talk about faith for what you'd expect was an action flick. The revelation about Neeson's wife at the end as well sort of threw into question his whole desire for survival. Was it just for the sake of the other men? Was it because he had failed in his mission to keep them alive that he was resigned to death? But then the posturing for a fight at the end suggests otherwise, unless it just boiled down to a personal thing with him and the Alpha.

Either way, I really really liked this film. I wouldn't give it an excellent score as it wasn't quite something that blew me away, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. A well earned Above Average from me.
 
Agreed. The plane crash was just friggin' horrifying.

I think my problem with the ending is that they essentially gave it away in the trailer, using it as a way to entice me with "Wanna see more of this badassery? See the movie!" but ultimately there isn't more, which is kind of a dick move on the part of whoever was in charge of advertising. So I'm having trouble separating my feelings about the movie itself and my feelings of it in relation to the anticipation I had for it.
 
I think the ending works best if you approach the movie with the idea that it was less about the wolves and more about Neeson battling his demons and his journey to reach the point he was at in the end. For better or worse, we can probably safely assume how the movie would have ended if it gone on any longer- even if he survived that encounter, he probably wouldn't have lasted much longer. To a degree, he reached the point that Diaz did just a little earlier, but his reaction to reaching that point was different from Diaz's reaction. He was no longer afraid, but he got himself to a point where he was willing to stand up and fight rather than keep running or lie down. I definitely understand wanting more, and there are moments where i wish for more of a conclusion as I think about the movie, but overall the ending worked well for me.
 
According to Wikipedia, there is a post-credits scene. Wish I'd known that, though from the description it doesn't seem like it would change anything.
 
A solid "Above Average." Nice drama, great ending.

Thing about a movie like this is there's always some animal rights group that comes out and starts whining "Those animals are actually very nice! They walk away from humans and throw vegetarian parties!" And while I was watching this I was wondering if the animal rights group complaining about this has any members that have actually been in circumstances this dire where they can really test their "harmless animal" theories.

Doubtful.
 
^The pro-animal folks were up in arms on Yahoo... lots of, "They're not this aggressive! This will make people want to kill them more!" comments on reviews, and one specific review of one star that simply boiled down to, "I refuse to see this movie as it is once again demonizing wolves. I hope no one else will support this movie."

Yahoo had a short slideshow last week with facts about the movie. Of particular interest is slide 4, where the director acknowledges that his wolf pack behaves highly abnormally, but researched instances where packs would demonstrate unusual behavior and based his pack on that.
 
Saw it. Loved the ambiguous ending and even the end after the credits didn't obviously spell it out, but I completely agree that, either way, it's not all that important. What's important is the journey the character takes from completely giving up, to running, to finally just going in for the fight. Whether it's part of a larger allegory or just a chest-pounding, macho survival pick, I don't care; I just know I enjoyed it. :)

I really liked the quiet music, which was lovely, and how so many scenes were so quiet. The sound of the wind, or just the crunching of the snow under their feet, was noise enough.
 
Ah fuck, there was a post credit scene? Ah well. I still loved the ending as it was, Its just that base need to see it that came over, or at least know the outcome. I guess I'll be hunting for that scene on YouTube...

EDIT: Oh, it was more of a post credits shot. :p
 
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