The Grey

The Grey - Dir. Joe Carnahan (2012)

Once more into the fray.
Into the last good fight I'll ever know.
Live and die on this day.
Live and die on this day.

The early part of the year is generally the season for movie goers to catch up on all the best picture nominees as well as a dumping ground for forgettable action flicks and rom-coms. There's a new tradition now with Liam Neeson led action movies being released almost on a yearly basis. There was Taken in 2009 and Unknown in 2011. 2012 follows suit with The Grey with Neeson reunited with Joe Carnahan, the director of The A-Team. The script is based on the short story, Ghost Walker, by Ian MacKenzie Jeffers, who also penned the awful revenge thriller Death Sentence. Given the participants, I would have been satisfied with an hour and a half of Liam Neeson punching the fuck out of wolves. Indeed, the money shot of the trailer is Neeson duct taping a knife and broken miniature bottles to his hands as he prepares to dive into battle. Imagine my surprise to find The Grey is far more philosophical and contemplative than one would expect from Joe Carnahan.

Neeson stars as John Ottway, a sharpshooter stationed at an oil pumping station in the remote Arctic. He protects the workers from the wolves living in the surrounding wilds. It's not exactly a noble profession as the station employees are mostly reprobates and desperate men. As Ottway describes them, they are "unfit for mankind." Memories of his late-wife (Anne Openshaw) are the only things keeping him going.

A plane ride to Anchorage turns to disaster when the aircraft is caught in a blizzard and crashes into a snowy wasteland. Ottway assumes leadership of a handful of survivors that include the hotheaded ex-con Diaz (Frank Grillo), the devout family man Talget (an unrecognizable Dermot Mulroney), and the reserved Hendrick (Dallas Roberts). Their journey back to civilization is endangered not only by the harsh elements, but by a pack of vicious wolves. These wolves are stalking the survivors not for food, but for vengeance as they are trespassing on their territory.

What differentiates The Grey from the winter season's cinematic detritus is the existential tone as it deals with faith in the face of a cruel world. There's an overriding sense of the impermanence of mankind, who will always be at the mercy of Mother Nature. These are certainly heady subjects for what Open Road Films has marketed as a standard action movie.

The Grey does offer a visceral experience as the deaths can occur suddenly and without warning. The wolves themselves are like unrelenting creatures from a horror film. One shot features the protagonists face to face with the pack as their eyes glow a stark white against the jet black night sky. Another sequence sees the survivors, forced to trudge through deep snow, helplessly watch as wolves tear apart their friend. Amidst all the brutally, some of the deaths are handled with emotional gravitas. The first one occurs when one man is found in the wreckage bleeding to death. Ottway doesn't bother to comfort him or mince words, he tells the man in a matter-of-fact manner that he's dying and nothing can be done. Despite the survivors being a collection of stock characters, it hits hard when one of them goes.

Liam Neeson has had a long career as a respectable actor, but it's only recently that he's become a top shelf action hero. With his booming voice and imposing 6'4 stature, he definitely has the credibility. As Ottway, Neeson gives a rich performance that's tinged with an unshakeable sadness. It's obvious this was something of a therapeutic role allowing Neeson to work through issues following the death of his wife Natasha Richardson in 2009. There's talk The Grey may be re-released for a run during awards season. Frank Grillo, previously seen as the trainer in Warrior, gives an excellent performance here and is the centerpiece for one of the film's most powerful scenes.

The Grey represents Joe Carnahan's best work, even better than his breakout film, Narc. His direction is still stylish, but almost understated, refraining from his usually overly kinetic tricks. The plane crash is one of the most realistic and harrowing crashes committed to film. After that, we see Neeson lying peacefully next to his wife and underneath a white sheet only for her to be ripped away as he awakens in a snow drift.

The Grey is one of the first great films of 2012, a gut wrenching tale of survival in the vein of Jack London. The ways in which it deals with manhood, spirituality, and the inevitability of death would make Hemingway proud.

Rating: *** (*****)

If you want to read my spoilerific thoughts on the ending, click on the comments section.

The Crazies

The Crazies - Dir. Breck Eisner (2010)


The Crazies has a lot going against it. First, it’s a remake. Hollywood has been remaking old horror films like there’s no tomorrow and the majority haven’t wowed audiences. Second, it’s a remake of a movie that wasn’t so great to begin with. In this case, it’s George A. Romero’s 1973 film of the same name. Romero’s Crazies has never been as well regarded as Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead. Third, the new Crazies was directed by Breck Eisner, the son of ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner. The younger Eisner made his directorial debut with the big-budget flop Sahara

In spite of all that, The Crazies succeeds beyond expectations. It’s one of the rare remakes that actually improves upon the original. It’s easily one of the best horror movies of the year.

The Crazies is set in the small town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa, which is smack dab in the heart of Middle America. It feels like another day in the sleepy town until Rory Hamill (Mike Hickman) walks onto the field of a high school baseball game with a loaded shotgun. Later, Bill Farnum (Brett Rickaby) sets his house on fire with his wife and son still inside. Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) discovers a downed military aircraft in the swamps and realizes the water supply has been tainted. He eventually learns the plane was carrying a biological weapon nicknamed “Trixie.” The virus causes insanity in its victim and eventually death.

The military swoops in and begin rounding up the town’s citizens without a single word of explanation. Children are ripped from their mother’s arms while those who attempt to escape are gunned down mercilessly. Sheriff Dutton just wants to escape the military cordon with his pregnant wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell). Along with Deputy Russell Clank (Joe Anderson) and Judy’s receptionist Becca (Danielle Panabaker), they must avoid the infected, the army, and even a few folks who weren’t that nice to begin with.

Though Romero was best known for his zombie movies, The Crazies wasn’t technically one of them even if it contained many of the same tropes. Nobody comes back from the dead and the infected don’t crave flesh.

As with Romero’s other films, social commentary played a big role in the original Crazies. The picture was his reaction to the ongoing Vietnam War and the My Lai Massacre. The remake downplays the heavy handed message, but still portrays the military and the government as the primary villains. Romero’s version also told the story from the perspective of the townsfolk as well as the army in the form of one sympathetic officer. Eisner and screenwriters Scott Kosar and Ray Wright wisely keep this from the point of view of the people. The soldiers are as much of a faceless horde as the psychotic crazies. The individual disappears behind a gas mask and a hazmat suit. Meanwhile, there is an underlying theme of big brother is watching you in the form of constant surveillance from spy satellites.

Focusing on the Sheriff and his companions keeps the film on a smaller, intimate level. We become invested the journey of this ragtag group of survivors. The filmmakers also avoid bogging down the movie with long-winded scenes of exposition. As the town doctor, Judy Dutton gets a few quick, explanatory bits to answer questions about the virus, such as is it airborne? However, anybody who’s seen any halfway decent zombie flicks or disease movies, such as Outbreak will already have it all figured out.

Eisner directs The Crazies with a slick hand giving us several creepy sequences. They won’t scare the pants off you, but they are pretty damn exciting. This includes a spooky ride through, of all things, a car wash. The best scene in the film involves Judy and Becca in a room full of infected patients, all of them strapped to gurneys. A crazy slithers in scraping a pitchfork against the floor. He begins stabbing the others while the women watch helplessly in horror.

Eisner does overplay his hand when it comes to the score and the repeated use of harsh string chords. You know the kinds that are struck whenever a hand suddenly reaches out from the shadows to grab one of our protagonists.

The Crazies is a tremendously entertaining movie. This is a horror film that relies on true scares rather than out and out gore. It is a breath of fresh air after bad remakes like Nightmare on Elm Street and the endless stream of Saw and Final Destination sequels.

Rating: ***