The Grey (2012) is far better than I would have thought. The quote on the DVD box — “Terrifically exciting! Hold on tight! It’s a true call of the wild!” — really doesn’t do justice to the film. You know how when you finally get around to seeing the original Rocky (1976), and you discover that it’s actually a really somber, thoughtful film? The Grey is kind of like that, only along with being somber and thoughtful, somehow it’s also extremely ****ing tense, with explosions of violence and fear spread throughout.
If I had to sum it up (I don’t have to, but I will, I guess), I’d say it’s about how we deal with death: our own inevitable death and what we’ll leave behind, the death of loved ones, the death of those we barely know, and what death is, itself, as a concept. And a movie about death is, by definition, going to be a movie about life.