If you looking for a real “hairy” film (on both a figurative and literal level) to catch at the theaters this week, Director Joe Carnahan (The A Team) and newly converted king of action hero movies Liam Neeson, will provide your fix in The Grey.
Ottway, (Neeson) has a special niche amongst his fellow oil rig roughnecks in the frozen tundra of Alaska: He is a sharpshooter that protects his co-workers from the constant threat provided by 300-pound invading wolves. During a flight to Anchorage, Ottway and some of the oil company’s men hit inclement weather and the plane crashes into a frozen wasteland far from civilization. Only seven of the men on board survive the crash and they attempt to bond together in order to stay alive. Their problems are multiple: sub-zero temperatures; no food; and worst of all, a pack of pissed-off giant wolves who really don’t like strangers close to their den.
Ottway becomes the leader of the group because of his special talent as a wolf exterminator but he no longer has his high powered rifle to protect them, and as the men attempt to traverse an escape route over the tundra the wolves begin picking them off. Ottway soon realizes a strange phenomenon is taking place: the wolves are not killing for food; they are mutilating the bodies for some kind of revenge.
The movie is a bit slow at times and probably a little long at close to two hours, but the cinematography, action sequences, and wolf attacks, will have you on the edge of your seat. I highly recommend it.
(Note: the movie was shot in the Canadian tundra where temperatures were as low as 40 degrees below zero.)
My Rating: 4 of 5 Wolf Packs.