“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!