The Grey: Movie Review

     The Grey is about John Ottway (Liam Neeson), who snipes wolves in Alaska to protect oil workers. He goes on an airplane with a bunch of the workers who are going home, but they crash in the middle of the wilderness. John takes charge of the survivors who are stranded in the woods, where the wolves are at the top of the food chain.
     
     This movie wasn't great or amazing, but it was really good for a suspense/thriller movie. I liked the plot, the hunters became the hunted, and I found this movie to actually have some symbolism. There's a note that he keeps with him, it's the item of significance, but I can't tell you more. You will just have to see the movie to find out.
    
     I definitely recommend this movie to someone who likes action/suspense movies. Liam Neeson, as usual, does a really great job playing the protagonist of this movie. I also found it interesting that the director was also the writer. I think the script really fit the way that this movie was filmed, so Joe Carnahan did a great job with that.
     
     Overall this movie is really good, but not great. I would give it a B in it's genre, but as a movie overall probably a C+. I'm kind of a tough critic, but if you like suspense you should check it out because they do an exceptional job at keeping you on the edge of your seat.

Billy Bathgate

     E.L. Doctorow's novel, "Billy Bathgate," is a story about a young man growing up in the Bronx during the Great Depression. Billy grows up without a father figure and has a desire to work for successful, big time, mobsters of the Great Depression. He is taken under the wing of Shultz, the leader of one of the most notorious gangs in Brooklyn. As Billy works his way up in the gang he finds himself questioning his actions and motives. Billy comes to a point where he has to make up his mind, is he in or out?

    I really enjoyed this book a lot. I would say that this is like a noir version of Tom Sawyer, it may be hard to understand but this is a darker tale with a similar plot. Both Tom and Billy are growing up in hard times, but Billy isn't in the "country" but the Bronx. He's not doing small time crime, but he's working for a top dog gang. He comes to see things no one could imagine to see at his age now. I felt like I really connected with the time period of the book, the 1930s, and it was interesting to see how people in the city lived through the Great Depression. This book is pretty graphic, but if you liked The Giver and the Godfather than this is a good read for you.