Director: Joe Carnahan
Year Released: 2012
Rating: 2.0
Outdoorsman Ottway (Liam Neeson) and a team of men on their way to work on an oil rig have their plane crash land in the middle of No Cell Phone Reception land - many die in the collision, but those that remain have to trek through the wilderness and fight off some nasty wolves. Neeson gives a strong performance as the Alpha Male of the group, but this becomes a by-the-numbers elimination game as to who the script can wipe out (and in what manner) one by one; it brings out the CGI/puppet animals to attack when it seems fitting (I had a hard time stopping my viewing companion from scoffing at the improbability of wolves behaving in such a manner). The pleas to a higher power lend this a spiritual dimension, but as a survivalist movie it doesn't reach the level of poetry of something like Deliverance or even be as secretively smart as The Edge, which I still seem to like even though many people don't. Regardless, Neeson is carving a nice niche of himself as a real Man's Man of Hollywood in a time when the cinema seems to be flooded with androgynous boys and manicured models.
