7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.9 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A group of oil-rig roughnecks are left stranded on the sub-arctic tundra after their plane experiences a complete mechanical failure and crashes into the remote Alaskan wilderness. The survivors, battling mortal injuries, biting cold and ravenous hunger, are relentlessly hunted and pursued by a vicious pack of rogue wolves.
Starring: Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney, Dallas Roberts, Joe Anderson (VI)Thriller | 100% |
Action | 58% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
BD-Live
D-Box
Social network features
Mobile features
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Liam Neeson is one of the few actors who has the physical presence to portray reckless brute force, but who can also be counted on to give performances lit with a deep interior life and an active intelligence. Even in frankly substandard genre fare like Taken, Neeson is that rare commodity who seems to effortlessly combine athletic prowess with keen insight into his characters. Those two abilities are on display again in The Grey, an often riveting Man vs. Nature film that manages to defy its genre leanings and provide thrills along with a fair amount of philosophizing, a tendency which will either enthrall viewers or drive them crazy. The Grey is a film that desperately wants to be taken seriously, despite its setup of a bunch of stranded air disaster survivors attempting to outwit, outlast and outplay a pack of marauding wolves, a premise that reeks of low budget B-movies. What plays out, though, is an often fascinating dialectic not just between the survivors and the wolves, but between the survivors as well, as they individually and collectively face their own mortality. The Grey doesn’t waste a lot of time getting to its central section. We’re quickly introduced to Neeson’s character of Ottway, a far north oil field worker whose job it is to patrol the area’s outer perimeter and kill marauding wolves who pose a threat to the other workers there. Ottway seems finely attuned to the “circle of life” (in one of this film’s frankly most hackneyed conceits), the sort of guy who comforts a wolf he’s just shot as it’s in its death throes (something Ottway does later with a human, obviously no mere coincidence). We’re also introduced to a recurring memory-hallucination (depending on the context), where Ottway recalls a langorous moment in bed with his wife, from whom he seems to be estranged. Or is he? The supposed “twist” of that element of The Grey will come as no major surprise to anyone with a handle on Screenwriting 101, but it’s really a relatively minor gaffe in what is otherwise a remarkably facile screenplay by director Joe Carnahan (The A-Team) and Ian MacKenzie Jeffers. A couple of other secondary characters are introduced as Ottway and part of a crew boards a chartered flight which will take them back home to Anchorage. And then the plane goes down in the frozen tundra.
The Grey is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. All of you Universal bashers out there (and you know who you are) who insist Universal is seemingly genetically incapable of providing transfers with natural grain intact (at least with regard to their catalog releases), rejoice! The Grey is one of the outright grainiest looking films in recent memory, obviously by design, something that gives the film a certain cinema verité ambience. The grain does tend to occasionally overwhelm the image, especially in snow strewn scenes where there's an expanse of white, littered with nothing other than the specks of grain. Contrast is intentionally kept on the low side quite a bit of the time, leading the murky shadow detail, again no doubt by design. While this transfer doesn't exactly scream high definition, it very accurately reproduces what Carnahan and cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi were obviously going for. While the film has obviously been tweaked in post to desaturate and filter the image, this is a great looking presentation for the most part which remains incredibly cinematic and faithful to the look of the original theatrical exhibition.
The Grey's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is, in a word, impeccable. Surround activity is completely consistent throughout the film, creating a wide open sound field through which everything from whistling wind to howling wolves floats, sometimes incredibly ominously. Discrete channelization is the norm rather than the exception, with a huge variety of well placed ambient environmental effects immersing the listener in a very real seeming sonic environment. The plane crash presents especially fine work, with the terrifying sound of jet engines in distress and some really riveting LFE when the plane starts to break apart. Dialogue is well handled and well prioritized, but it's the nonstop recreation of the elements that is the most striking thing about this reference quality lossless soundtrack.
The Grey's is a very compelling film, one anchored by Neeson's fierce depiction of a wounded soul searching for a reason to keep on living. This isn't the typical "survivor" outing, and it's not even really about the wolves, as Carnahan and the editors mention in their commentary (which may in fact be a bit self serving since animal rights groups were up in arms over the film's portrayal of wolves, as well as some alleged use of wolf meat to feed the cast and crew at one point). The film may strike some as too pretentiously philosophical for its own good, but The Grey obviously has ambitions to rise above its genre leanings and deliver something more thoughtful. The much debated ending is probably the best evidence of what exactly Carnahan wanted the audience to experience, for better or worse. Though the supplemental features on this Blu-ray are disappointingly slim, both video and especially audio are incredible, and this release comes Recommended.
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