Liam Neeson starred in a movie that was so good, film critic Roger Ebert couldn’t stop thinking about it, even when he sat down for his new movie. A lot of Liam Neeson movies have been throwaway action thrillers, but he has also starred in some that left a lasting memory. One thriller difficult to stop thinking about after the credits rolled.
In 2011, Liam Neeson starred in the survival action thriller The Grey, by director Joe Carnahan. With Carnahan back in the news thanks to his latest Ben Affleck and Matt Damon thriller, The Rip, people are looking back at his past films. If there is one movie that showed his talent early, it was The Grey.
Liam Neeson’s Survival Action Thriller Stands The Test Of Time
Liam Neeson stars in the survival action thriller The Grey in 2011. Neeson plays John Ottway, a sharpshooter at a remote Alaskan oil facility, and his job is to protect everyone from grey wolf attacks. The actual story begins when he is on a flight to Anchorage that crashes in the icy wilderness.
The survivors of the plane crash have to make it through the freezing temperatures, but the real danger comes when the grey wolves show up. While Ottway is the only one skilled enough to protect them, the freezing temperatures, difficult fellow survivors, and large grey wolf population make survival hopeless.
Joe Carnahan had already proven himself as a legit action director, with the crime drama Narc and the explosive Smokin’ Aces in his past. However, coming off the big-budget, yet disappointing, The A-Team, he had a lot to prove in this film. He delivered in spades, and The Grey might be his best film.
The movie was a minor box office success, making $81.2 million worldwide on a $25 million budget. However, it ended up as a critical success story, with an 80% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. One critic whom The Grey left a lasting impression on was Roger Ebert.
The Grey Left A Lasting Impact On Film Critic Roger Ebert
In his review of The Grey, Robert Ebert gave the movie three and a half stars out of four and said it was so unrelenting and harsh that he couldn’t stop thinking about it after leaving the theater. He even had a second movie to watch that same day, and he walked out of the theater after 30 minutes because he couldn’t stop thinking of The Grey:
“It was the first time I walked out of a film because of the previous film. The way I was feeling in my gut, it just wouldn’t be fair to the next film. The men have weapons, the wolves have patience, the weather is punishing. I sat regarding the screen with mounting dread. The movie had to have a happy ending, didn’t it? If not “happy,” then at least a relief in some sense?”
The Grey didn’t have a happy ending, and that left Roger Ebert pondering what he had just watched. It says a lot when a movie has such a powerful effect that even a critic who has seen thousands of films can’t stop thinking about this particular thriller. Liam Neeson’s best survival thriller is that exact type of film.
Source: The Chicago Sun-Times
