REWIND REVIEW: The Grey

MOVIE
The Grey

CAST
Liam Nesson, Frank Grillo

RATING
R

RELEASE
January 27, 2012

DIRECTOR
Joe Carnahan

STUDIO
Open Road Films

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 57 minutes








STARS
****










REVIEW:

Have Oscar contenders ever been released in January before? I'm dead serious about this one. 'The Grey' got critical acclaim and did well at the box office when it was first released back in late January. There was even some Oscar talk about Liam Nesson's performance in the film, which was being praised by anyone who saw the film. Since then, not much has been discussed about this movie by anyone other than a few friends of mine. Wanting to see it myself, I finally got it at Redbox and put it in my laptop to watch. Two hours later, my jaw was dropped. My mind had been blown. This movie is something that shouldn't be missed, whether seeing it on the big screen or not.

After a horrific plane crash in the middle of nowhere occurs, eight men come out of the wreckage cold and desperate for survival. One of the men is a skilled shooter with a mysterious past. Ranking himself as the leader of the survivors, the man uses his skills to help the remaining men find shelter and get to safety from potential danger in this part of the world. It turns out that there is indeed danger in this frozen barren in the form of carnivorous wolves, and they are hungry. Picking off the men one by one, the men have to fend for themselves and stay alive for as long as they can before they suffer a gruesome and terrifying death.

Liam Nesson gives one hell of a fantastic performance. His character goes through some terrible and gruesome stuff, so much so that at one point he starts to defy his religious beliefs. There are some moments in this movie where his character brought tears to my eyes, which rarely ever happens in movies in general. Nesson deserves at least an Oscar nomination for this film, but unfortunately that might not happen due to how early in the year this came out. The rest of the cast were all good, but none delivered like how Nesson delivers in this film. This man deserves much more than being the modern aging badass.

The screenplay was co-written by the film's director, Joe Carnahan, along with the author of the short story for which the movie is based on, Ian MacKenzie Jeffers. Carnahan's previous films include the underrated 'The A-Team' and 'Smokin' Aces.' Having only seen 'The A-Team' prior to seeing this, I was a little skeptical on how serious this film would actually take itself. Surprisingly enough, this film is really dramatic and really deep at times. In fact it was so deep that it nearly brought me to tears within the final 20 minutes of the film. Carnahan and Jeffers wrote an absolutely brilliantly written script and created such a dark and realistic atmosphere in this movie and deserve all of the love they've been given since January.

'The Grey' isn't like any other movie to come out this year. This is more of an incredible perspective on the life of a man who is starting to reconsider his beliefs in religion when his plane crashes and he is one of seven survivors who have to save themselves by fighting off a pack of vicious wolves. Liam Nesson gives on of the best, if not THE best performance of the year. The story and script are so deep and emotional that it nearly brought me to tears. Sure the wolves look kind of fake and some of the characters can get a little bit annoying for a brief period of time, but those are really tiny problems that don't affect the quality of the movie whatsoever. This tremendous experience is without a doubt one of the year's most exhilarating movies, and one of the year's best in general.