Hungry Like A You Know What: The Grey

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: what Harrison Ford was to the "smart action thriller" of the 90s, so ahs Liam Neeson proved to be in this decade, at least over the last four years or so. Unfortunately, as action movies go, this one is a bit threadbare storywise, odd given the presence of writer-director Joe Carnahan ("Smokin' Aces", "Narc") and co-writer McKenzie Jeffers.

John Ottway is an oil company employee (specifically what he does is not clear, at least not to me) in Alaska, and a broken man. In the film's beginning we have a flashback to him about to blow his own brains out with his rifle, largely because eh and his lady are (seemingly) no longer together. Fortunately, he does not complete that act, as he will be sorely needed through the rest of the film. he instead boards a plane, filled with other oil outpost roughnecks. Said plane goes down amid really bad weather (as in really bad even for Alsaka standards) leaving only Ottway and five others.

They may be the only live humans on the scene, but unfortunately for them , not the only mammals. it doesn't take long of the real stars of the feature to emerge, although in Carnahan's hands, they are mostly shadowy, all glinting eyes, fangs, snarls and flashes of fur. The carnage that they leave is, however, far more more obvious, forcing the crash survivors into a "trek for your life" across the unforgiving, frozen wilderness, the wolves in howling, snarling pursuit.

There are, of course, casualties on the lupine side, but from the time the group first strikes out from the crash site, its an easy game of subtraction for the viewer; "and then there were..." Thee's even a token black guy (Nonse Anozie, a easy pick-up from last year's atrocious Conan The Barbarian remake) and he does die (sorry for the spoiler), but he, at least, doesn't get eaten.

So, while it has its moments of drama (especially in the final 30 minutes) and poignance, The Grey is a bit of a retrograde step for Neeson in his ongoing quest to be THE  mature action hero. He's got the crown, he just needs to make some better choices from here on in, lest it slip off.

Just Call Him 'Mr. Action-Suspense': 'Unknown' Trailer

We're not sure how willing or reluctant he was in the whole scheme, but with this engaging (if somewhat credulity-straining) thriller, Liam Neewson has continued his journey in the mature action-suspense territory largely vacated by Harrison Ford.

He proved with 2010's 'Taken" that he was up to the physical rigors of the genre and here again he ably shows his mettle. within an hour after arriving in the German capital of Berlin, Neeson's character has a near-death experience in a Mercedes taxicab (of which we see a lot in this movie), after it crashes into a river. The cab driver (and Neeson's rescuer) has fled the scene, leaving our hero comatose. He awakens with much of his memory gone, but the few snatches that pop up lead him ultimately back to the hotel where he and his wife (January Jones of "Mad Men" TV fame) initially went.

From this point on, the film cranks up the suspense, as the wife denies knowing him or even having met him and what's more, another man (Aidan Quinn) is claiming to be her rightful husband. With no documents to verify his identity, Dr Martin Harris (Neeson) must live by his wits as he tries to put the pieces together before the international bio-tech conference at which he was initially in the city to speak takes place.

Its heady stuff, what with the intervention of the aforementioned lady cab driver (Diane Kruger), a former East German secret police operative (Bruno Ganz) and the head of a global cell of assassins (Frank Langella), but Neeson handles it with just the right mixture of calm aplomb, stupefaction and brazen emotion. Director Jaume Collet-Serra shifts out of the psycho-horror thrillers of his recent past (House of Wax, Orphan) and moves things along briskly, but with care, allowing the characters and the narrative, not the action per se, to impress the viewer.

All in all, Unknown is an eminently watchable actioner, after Neeson's status among the action-suspense crowd will be anything but.