“Fuck it, I’ll do it myself”. These are the words of Liam Neeson’s character Ottway after calling out to God for help but receiving no answer.

“The Grey” is full of this kind of contemplative dialogue and manly bravado. Director Joe Carnahan, the uber-hyper director behind “Smokin’ Aces,” this time slows things down to give us an intense dramatic thriller. As the loner Ottway (Neeson) and a group of fellow survivors of a plane crash try to outwit the wolves stalking them, there are moments of heartbreaking silence and beauty.

The film begins with Neeson’s Ottway narrating from a letter given to him by the woman who left him and then promptly putting the barrel of a gun in his mouth. He’s clearly in a bad way. Ottway is security, and by security I mean it’s his job to kill wolves, for an Alaskan oil company. After a horrific plane crash Ottway must band together with the other survivors to brave the elements and ultimately wolves.The film sags a bit at the halfway point when some of the less well developed characters dispatched in a “by the numbers” sort of way, but Neeson’s performance holds your attention well enough.

It’s always a mystery to me when a good film like “The Grey” gets dumped in cinema wasteland of January or February. I understand that this struggle for survival tale may be a bit too ponderous for the mega-plex crowd, after all it is marketed as a tense action thriller. The fact is this film shares more in common with “Runaway Train” than “First Blood”. If you’re looking for high action and over the top stunts look elsewhere. “The Grey” is a dark, contemplative, intense action drama that occascionally navigates existential territory. It might not be a film for everyone, but it is a damn good movie.

3.5 out of 5

Hey Kids!

We’re back! We talk unemployment, Oscar snubs and surprises,talk about the Justin Bieber remake of “Fear”, review Man on a Ledge, debate the hotness of Helen Hunt, and Disco gets hosed into drinking Steel Reserve. Dig in and give a listen.

* To win the Drive blu-ray you have to like us on facebook here and tweet the link to this show @johnnyvengeance. Tweet as many times as you like. Each tweet will count as an entry.

**Show open provided by In Isolation – The Wrong Girl. Find it HERE
***Musical interlude from Brodyquest. Watch it HERE

For better of for worse here it is. Forgive us for lack of show prep, general drunkeness, and please tune in next week as we find more things to fuck up.

As promised, behold, in all its glory the first episode of Cinemapocalypse! (Queue amazing music) Josh and I give our top 10 of 2011, I make a few inappropriate jokes and hopefully some of you enjoy what you’re about to hear. For your downloading pleasure…

Cinemapocalypse Episode 101 – The Best of 2011

Episode 101

Hello out there! All 3 maybe 4 readers that I have left. Guess what? I’m back. Well, I’m coming back. I’m partnering with Josh Hylton of www.joshhylton.com to bring you a podcast. I don’t have a name yet, or an exact date that it will be available. Here is what I do know:

1. We will record the first episode next week.
2. We will run down our best/worst of 2011
3. We will bring the awesome.

This is it. Actually I know more…a lot more. I’m just not going to share. I’m going to sit over here, drink my beer, and you’ll just have to wait a week to find out the awesomeocity that is in store.
Until then. – JV

Happy New Year! JV Returns this year with an audio podcast!

Now that Noam Murro has moved on to the 300 Sequel “Xerxes”, Fox has hired John Moore (Max Payne, Behind Enemy Lines) to bring the Skip Woods’ (Wolverine, The A-Team) script to life. Word is that the story takes him to Russia where he and his son, John McClane Jr, will take on baddies together.

Skip Woods hasn’t written a good film yet. Don’t believe me? Check out his track record HERE. If they’re really going to make another Die Hard it needs a few things so it won’t suck. My list of demands is:

1. It needs to be rated R. PG-13 just isn’t going to cut it. Was Live Free or Die Hard good? It was better than I expected and certainly better than Die Hard 2, but it’s by no means anywhere near the original or Die Hard 3. We need an R rating to ensure a solid body count and at least one “Yipee Ki-yay, Motherfucker!”

2. Don’t bring his son into the equation. I’m sure the idea is to get some “hot young IT” actor to take the role and possibly carry the torch after Willis is too old. It’s a bad idea. We don’t want that.

3. Throw out Woods’ script and start over with a different writer. No, I haven’t read the script, but I have seen Woods’ other 7 films and I know that he hasn’t shown me anything I’d like to see in a Die Hard film. He lacks originality, sticks firmly to genre cliches, and his characters are 1 dimensional. I know Shane Black is busy with Iron Man 3, but he’d be perfect to tackle a Die Hard sequel if he could find the time.

4. This is possibly the most important demand…make the bad guy charismatic and awesome. I like both Timothy Olyphant and William Sadler as actors, but they didn’t live up to the awesomeness of Alan Rickman or Jeremy Irons. A Die Hard bad guy needs to suave, funny, and a tiny bit crazy. If we’re going to Russia why not use Gary Oldman? He played Russian pretty well in Air Force One?

5. This is more of an idea and less of a demand. Why not bring back Mary Elizabeth Winstead? She and Willis had good chemistry in DH4.

What say you peoples? Any more demands? Thoughts on Gary Oldman for villain in DH5?

If you’re a fan of Japanese cinema you’ve likely heard of Shion Sono. If you haven’t then you need to get on your Netflix right now. I recommend Suicide Club, Noriko’s Dinner Table, Hazard, Strange Circus, and Love Exposure if you can find it anywhere. If you can’t ask me nicely and I’ll let you borrow my copy. Below is the trailer for Sono’s latest work “Cold Fish”.

The official synopsis:

Shamoto runs a small tropical fish shop and leads a boring, but stable life. His second wife, Taeko, does not get along with his daughter, Mitsuko, and this worries him. He also feels somehow unfulfilled and dissatisfied with what his life has become.

In the end, the conflict between Shamoto and Murata will result in murder, insanity, and an ordinary man being driven to the edge of the abyss.

If you’re lucky enough to have a region free DVD player you can find this available on Amazon in R2 DVD. If not you’ll have to hold out for an American release TBA.

It’s a giant flying squid in a thunderstorm attacking a plane. If that alone doesn’t make you want to watch it you have issues. “Altitude” is comic book artist Kaare Andrews’ first full length feature and even though it debuted to some pretty lukewarm reviews at VIFF I’ll still give it a whirl. The premise is ridiculous, the trailer is more ridiculous, and it’s available on Blu-Ray on Oct. 26. Check it out below.

Hooray! It’s official! Christopher Nolan will direct the next Batman film! Here’s what the man himself had to say:

“It’s becoming inevitable, I’ll put it that way,” Nolan told Empire Online of “Batman 3.” “I feel myself falling into it, I guess. And getting it all figured out and I’m pretty excited about what we’re doing so… If I haven’t announced it, I think that people probably all know at this point that I’m doing it.”

No word yet on where this story will take the character or who the villain will be. I’m glad Nolan decided to return to the franchise as more than just a producer. Do you think he can top “The Dark Knight”?