'The Grey' - High-Def Digest Review

[Demolition Man]

Sorry but the only thing this film left me thinking was "boy was that a big waste of time." The dialog is badly written. Any time you have dialog that's 3/4th's profanity then that's a sign of lazy writers who don't know how to write real dialog. I get this is an R rated film and all but that doesn't excuse lazy dialog writing. Having characters constantly drop the f-bomb takes away from any good character development because all it does is makes me feel highly annoyed.

Not to mention the cop out ending. Like I wrote earlier I don't care if there was an extra bit after the credits. I find that absolutely lazy on the film makers parts to do crap like this. I'm not sitting through the credits on any film on the chance there might be an extra scene afterwards. If you can't put a real ending to the film and give everyone an conclusion to things before the credits hit then you obviously failed. Yeah it's one thing when Ferris Bueller's Day Off had that little bit after the credits with Ferris telling people to "go home" which was funny and didn't effect the storyline. It's another when you make that "extra" bit part of the ending of the film and the audience has NO clue to sit through the credits for that.

This film in the end is not worthy of an 4 1/2 star rating or even close to it. I would be generous and give it 1 star at best. Yeah I won't deny its cinematography is good but then again there's plenty of Alaska scenery type discs out there that probably accomplish the same thing. I just find it nuts how a film this awful is getting so many good reviews as of lately. It's not just here but I'm equally as stunned that Blu-Ray gave it nearly as good of a review. Makes me wonder if I watched the same film called The Grey as the rest of you folks who keep giving it such high praise. Because trust me this film is not worth this praise at all.

[cheez avenger]

Yeah, I enjoyed it at the theater - will be getting this on BD when it comes out. The ending after the credits seals the deal, and should be watched in order to fully appreciate the entire piece.

[cooltobeyou]

Yeah, I watched this the other day, and I agree with the review. FANTASTIC movie!

I'm not sure where all these comments about "awful CGI wolves" are coming from. The CGI that was used in this film was used very sparingly, and they don't overuse the wolves in the film at all. When the wolves are revealed, they use the classic "monster movie" technique of not fully revealing them too soon. The scene where

Spoiler:

all you can see is the glowing eyes of the wolves, through the darkness is particularly chilling. No crappy CGI there.

Also, the poster Demolition Man really seems to be hung up on "the f word." Honestly, I didn't notice that word being overused at all. I've certainly heard it used more often in other films.

But yeah, a lot of people are hating on this movie because it's not a pure action film. It's more of a "man vs. nature" film with a heavy dose of introspection. I'm not going to try and make an excuse for the secondary characters in this film. They are underdeveloped. However, this movie is Liam Neeson's show, and it's all about the spiritual journey that his character goes through. The movie is very deep, in regards to Neeson's character, and sadly most audiences don't have the attention span anymore to watch a character driven piece like this.

[SpiderJerusalem]

Sorry but the only thing this film left me thinking was "boy was that a big waste of time." The dialog is badly written. Any time you have dialog that's 3/4th's profanity then that's a sign of lazy writers who don't know how to write real dialog. I get this is an R rated film and all but that doesn't excuse lazy dialog writing. Having characters constantly drop the f-bomb takes away from any good character development because all it does is makes me feel highly annoyed.

You probably missed the opening monologue of the film then, didn't ya? They're oil rig workers, most of them ex-cons, some just cons, others violent men, others just running from something. These are the kind of people that use "fuck" as punctuation.

THAT is character, just because you missed the point of it doesn't make it lazy. And no character development? Aside from the fact that most of these men didn't NEED character development, both Neeson and Grillo's character, Diaz, make massive changes as who they are during the movie.

Not to mention the cop out ending. Like I wrote earlier I don't care if there was an extra bit after the credits. I find that absolutely lazy on the film makers parts to do crap like this. I'm not sitting through the credits on any film on the chance there might be an extra scene afterwards. If you can't put a real ending to the film and give everyone an conclusion to things before the credits hit then you obviously failed. Yeah it's one thing when Ferris Bueller's Day Off had that little bit after the credits with Ferris telling people to "go home" which was funny and didn't effect the storyline. It's another when you make that "extra" bit part of the ending of the film and the audience has NO clue to sit through the credits for that.

Again, you're missing the point. That WAS a proper ending. It had Neeson reaching the penultimate destination that his character needed to reach, it had him understanding his father and the poem on their wall, it had him coming to terms with his own life and what he wanted to with it. Even without the final image after the credits, it's a powerful full stop to the story. You may not like it, but to claim that it is not a conclusive ending is just false and a sign that you missed what the film went for.

[HiRez]

I liked this one a lot, but as many have said, I have no desire to see it again anytime soon. It was too bleak and haunting to hold much replay value for me. An exhausting and surprisingly deep piece of work that was marketed as Liam Neeson punching wolves in the face. Those expecting the latter should prepare themselves for a very different kind of movie, but a good movie nonetheless.

[Idioteque...]

Can someone elaborate on what the deleted scenes are? Did the fight make it?

[hedbeeninfested]

I really liked this film. The problem is people seem to think this is about fighting off wolves for survival when it's not. The wolves are really just a metaphor for death coming to those that survived the crash. It reminded me of a Final Destination movie. No matter what the survivors did, Death would find a way to reach them. It was a very dark movie that probably doesn't need repeat viewings, but it really drags you in and makes you feel like your with this group in their struggle.

[Plissken99]

People complaining about the CGI wolves have really missed the train to pointsville.

Grey was astonishingly good. Great acting, impressive use of sound and visuals (and really, you see the wolves maybe five times throughout the entire film, three times of those are animatronics or real wolves) and a thoroughly satisfying theme running through it.

The Edge was fine for what it was, but comparing the two on the grounds of "oh, they both feature men in the wilderness" is like saying 2001 was an awful movie because it featured less facehuggers than Alien did.

+1

People bitching about the CGI really missed the point all together(besides hair is the hardest thing to render if CGI, so cut em a break). I thoroughly loved this movie. Really it was only a big box office movie with a lot of marketing because Liam Neeson is hot right now, normally a movie like this would see a limited release, seen by few and appreciated by afficianodos more. The movie is about humanity and life, not fighting wolves, which all you ever heard anyone talk about "Liam Neeson vs wolves".

One little problem I noted on the BD, and it's not a big deal, when their going down river with the rapids, the image goes pixely for a split second here and there. I only notice because it's blown up to 147in.

[Nicodimus22]

I guess this is a pretty polarizing movie. I come down on the side of liking it a lot, for a few reasons:

-I like the way they show Neeson's flashbacks to build his character steadily throughout the film, and only near the very end do you understand what happened with his wife and how it has affected him.

-I like the fact that the movie has the balls to be so dark, when most films these days either don't allow any of their characters to die or they simply have false deaths and come back later, which undermines the potential drama/suspense.

-It's cool that it shows how people can evolve and develop respect for each other, even if they started off on the completely wrong foot.

-The part with the wallets in the final few minutes of the film was quite emotional for me. It was a very smartly written device for making the audience feel the loss of these people that we didn't even get to know that well.

[hassesolo]

One of the most stupid films I have seen in a long time...

[taygan315]

Well my wife bought me this over the weekend. Good flick but man...it hits you hard.

[weaponX]

Watched this over the weekend while on a Minecraft break and I loved it. The tone of the film was much darker than I expected. As far as the ending goes (without seeing the shot after the credits), I thought it was a great way to end it. Minus a few things, I thought this was a fantastic movie. My wife, who was only passively watching it, didn't think much of it. It's much deeper than a plane crash/survival/man mv nature movie.

[divisionbell]

4 1/2 stars? Really? I thought this movie was AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL! Weak storyline, lack of real character development (yeah cussing up a storm is NOT real development), horrible CGI, oh and an ending that sucks. I don't care if there's an extra bit after the credits. I walked out after the credits started rolling which is longer then a good chunk of the others in the showing made it as half the crowd left between halfway through the film up until the last few minutes.

Pass on this film folks. Or rent it if you badly want to see it. Not worth owning. The review posted on the site is really misleading beyond belief.

What kind of audience was it? This was an excellent movie. If there was any issue it was in the way this film was marketed, not in the film itself. I to LOVED The Edge, but it is a very different kind of film.

[thebluemax]

4 1/2 stars? Really? I thought this movie was AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL! Weak storyline, lack of real character development (yeah cussing up a storm is NOT real development), horrible CGI, oh and an ending that sucks. I don't care if there's an extra bit after the credits. I walked out after the credits started rolling which is longer then a good chunk of the others in the showing made it as half the crowd left between halfway through the film up until the last few minutes.

Pass on this film folks. Or rent it if you badly want to see it. Not worth owning. The review posted on the site is really misleading beyond belief.

I agree and I thought the scenes were so dark, I could barely see the wolves.

[Sky_Captain]

One of the most stupid films I have seen in a long time...

This man owns Ocean's Twelve.