A team of oil drillers find themselves stranded in the Alaskan wilderness after their plane crashes and kills nearly everyone on board. While trying to search for civilization, they discover they're being hunted by a pack of wolves, who view them as intruders on their territory...
This is the first theatrical film I've seen this year and I suppose you could say this sets the bar somewhat in the middle. The Grey has been advertised almost completely wrong, with more believing that it would resemble movies like Alive and other similar survival films. It actually has a lot in common with films like Aliens and The Edge, so I guess you could call it a survival thriller. I could even see some parts it had in common with Jurassic Park III (DO NOT let that scare you away). There is a great sense of dread and isolation, and it definitely made me never want to go anywhere near the great, wide, white open areas of the world. Seriously, mother nature is a twat.
The cast is alright, though nobody comes even close to the level of Liam Neeson's performance. I'm starting to wonder if the man can ever do a bad job in anything he chooses, or if he has ever chosen a bad project in general (The Star Wars prequels don't count). He does a pretty fine job with the surprisingly hit-or-miss script he's given. Some of the dialogue is very hokey, but the director/screenwriter's previous work was Smoking Aces, so this must be a bit of a departure for him. There are truly great suspenseful moments here and you can feel the character(s)' fear, but there are parts where it tries bits of comedy are intertwined, with mixed results to say the least. Every moment the wolves are on screen, you feel nervous. They are a tad bit over the top in terms of ruthlessness (resembling a mix of Xenomorphs and the creatures from The Burrowers), but they're not there to just pussyfoot around. I don't think some of my more animal-friendly acquaintances will take too kindly to some of the actions taken against these creatures (with one scene towards the middle of the film that is sure to ruffle some feathers). Thankfully they don't overuse them either, and you never lose that thought of being in danger from the elements anymore than you do from them.
Lastly, I think the movie was brought down a peg by the very abrupt and somewhat disappointing ending, but I think it's going to be an ending that will divide audiences. I'm told there is an after-credits sequence, but I left before I could confirm this myself. The film is still very much worth watching overall, and it also touches on the subject of death itself better than I expected it to. I'm not sure I could say this should be your first choice when going to your local movie theater at the moment, but then again, I haven't been out to see anything since The Muppets was released, so you could always take those words with the tiniest grain of salt imaginable.
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