The Grey: Movie Review

As of late, actor Liam Neeson has been making quite a name for himself as an action/drama movie star and now you can add survivalist to that list.

I have been following his exploits since his film Taken and I was immediately blown away at how he transformed his character from loving and caring parent to hunter. He literally tracks down his daughter's kidnappers with a combination of intelligence tactics and physically persuasive techniques to convince the baddies in his favor. Yeah, beating the crap out of evildoers makes a plan go into motion.

And, I loved every minute of his stampede through Europe to rescue his daughter. His famous "I'll find you and I'll kill you" line has been a trademark that defined him as a badass. He even obliged a fan during a interview on the Graham Norton Show by recording the line as a voicemail greeting. Check the link below. The voice recording segment happens toward the end of the clip, but watch the whole thing, it's great!



Even his next film Unknown is filled with enough suspense, intrigue and action to keep you glued to the screen. Don't take my word for it, just watch it yourself.

Now back to The Grey. After seeing that Neeson had a new film coming out, I became very interested in what this new project might bring. The title alone brings much vagueness and blurriness, and that not because of all the snow falling. Actually, the title plays an important role in foreshadowing the where the film goes and how it ends. I'm not going to reveal anything because I think anyone interested should just go and watch it. Still, however nebulous the trailer might seem, trust me when I say that you're in for quite a treat!

I have to say right away that this movie has increased my fear plane crashes, collisions and freezing. So, around the 15 minute mark, John Ottway's (Neeson) plane crashes over what I believe is somewhere in deep freezing, snowing Alaska. Out of a plane with about 20-30 passengers, only 7 survive the crash. Not much is revealed about the background of any of these characters. Neeson's character's background is slowly explored through flashbacks of himself with another woman who we later understand is his wife.

Immediately, right from the start, as soon as they start to pick themselves up from the devastating crash the principle antagonists are revealed-- THE WOLVES! The film becomes a quest of survival as Neeson's character tries to save anyone from the feral jaws of nature. Why does Neeson's character take it upon himself to play leader and save everyone? Because he's fucking Liam Neeson! And, his character, Ottway, is a hunter and specialist in survival situations; he makes Bear Grylls and any other TV show survivalist look like an amateur. I mean, Neeson's character fights a wolf with his own DAMN BARE HANDS! I was shouting at the top of my lungs when I saw that. Of course, disagreements happen has members from the surviving party question authority and location, but when the wolves start picking them off one-by-one, they just follow.

Going back to my reemerging fears. Yeah, plane crashes and freezing. I have flown in planes and experienced turbulence of different levels, but the fear is always there and I manage to suck it up and just relax. This probably sounds like I'm more nervous about flying then I actually am, but I'm pretty cool. Anyway, crashing first but the freezing is another story. The survivors end up in blizzard conditions, so maintaining warm is a necessity. However, there are moments where Ottway falls into streams of freezing water and I'm like, WHAT! Even after those moments, he forges on. I think I would've died of hypothermia a long time ago. Characters undergo extreme psychological changes that represent real consequences to conditions of near death.

It was just a great movie that continued to carry Liam Neeson's trademark badassness! I mean, he frickin' fought a wolf--with his bare hands!!



Neeson continues to surprise me by how well he adapts to these tough roles. I like it a lot and would be terrified to go up against him and his badassness. Like I said, the film a well worth a watch, and every moment tests and pushes each of the characters to their breaking point. Watching Liam Neeson strap on a makeshift glove/gauntlet/weapon of broken bottles to one hand with tape, and a knife in the other just sent chills down my spin.

Until next time, survive!

Hanna: Movie Review

 
What up, Movie Lovers,

Well, I pulled out another movie that I bought months ago and finally watched it. This time the selection happened to be the film Hanna. Now I have to say that I only heard about this movie because the stars of the film were at the San Diego Comic Con a couple of years ago promoting its release in theaters. I didn't know much about its premise except that it centered around a young girl assassin.

Of course, the premise attracted my curiosity. I mean, why not? A young girl, long blonde hair, blue eyes, trained in weapons & hand-to-hand combat and special intelligence tactics! What more could I want?

Despite these intriguing details, which I didn't know about at the time, the film interested me. I caught the trailer for it several months after, but like every other movie I am only now watching it for the first time. Saoirse Ronan plays the title character Hanna, and Eric Bana takes the role of her father Eric Heller. The movie begins by establishing Hanna as a rogue nature hunter as she hunts, kills and gathers the meat of a wild buck. Her father confronts her and engages her in a series of offensive and defensive fighting techniques. As I watched it, the scene opened up the idea of remote training and survival skills, but the intention was not made clear yet.

During the next 15 minutes, the film continues to reinforce her father's training as Eric tests and attacks her with a series of different tactics. The only clue we get from all this is that her father has been preparing her for when she has to venture outside of the sanctity for their secluded shack in the woods of Finland. When Eric finally believes she is ready, the first plot is revealed that he was part of a covert CIA group. Certain other details are withheld, but an intelligence officer, Marissa Wiegler played by Cate Blanchett, is now pursuing them.

I'm going to skim though most details to move along forward with this brief review. Well, Hanna and her father part ways, and the film follows Hanna as she escapes from the underground CIA base, travels through most of Europe with the help a vacationing British family and ultimately confronts Wiegler. The interesting aspect of the film is how we're shown Hanna's immersion into modern society. She interacts with and is genuinely surprised by the foreign technology, scenery and experiences that she is encountering for the first time. Many of these moments are captured in Hanna's interaction with the vacationing family, especially with their daughter Sophie. The two bond and share brief moments of attraction and curiosity.

One of the complaints I had was the secret agenda surrounding Hanna. The reason her father trained her and why Marissa is after her are the same. Hanna is actually an experiment to create a super soldier with heightened speed, strength and intelligence making her an elite special forces agent. I just kept thinking that the idea was nothing new and over used. When it was revealed, it didn't have the impact that I thought the movie was aiming for. However, that minor point is, for the most part, irrelevant because Hanna's journey is what I found to be the most interesting part of the film.

The action during the movie is fast and gritty in some cases. You see Hanna take her bumps and bruises, but she also delivers the intense hits as she battles foes. Saoirse Ronan really puts on a performance and shines as she both explores her characters motives and fights with such precision that Saoirse could've fooled me with her expertise. I know its all about choreography but it really shows in how well she moves and the editing. She fun to look at. In addition to the visual display of action, the music, composed by the Chemical Brothers, also added a fast beat of electronica that helped to raise the tension and/or pace of many of the scenes. The score played during the scene where Hanna is fleeing from her pursuers in the shipping yard is my personal favorite. While electronic it also felt very playful and upbeat. The music in that scene mirrored the fact that Hanna was playing around against her enemies.

In recollection, Hanna was a fun action, spy, young girl assassin movie with a lot of spunk and clever storytelling. In a way, I would almost consider it a story that took the Mathilda character from Leon: The Professional and based it on her. So, I would say that it was time that I spent being well entertained.