4. The Grey
Joe Carnahan makes good action films, and what's usually crucial to his winning formula are spadefuls of payoff in big, memorable scenes think the Aryan brothers shoot-out in Smokin' Aces, or the three-cups-and-a-ball sleight of hand trick writ large in The A-Team. For the longest time, we all thought we'd be treated to something similar in The Grey, thanks in no small part to the acres of foreshadowing involving Liam Neeson and the Alpha Wolf, the leader of the wolfpack hunting down Neeson and his erstwhile colleagues. Yet when it came time for the ending's big payoff, everything was left strangely ambiguous Irishman lying against his lupine adversary. Leaving aside that the film skimped out on its biggest scene a vodka bottle-wielding Neeson taking on the four-legged menace was used as a major selling point in the trailer we got absolutely no hint as to what the hell had gone down, and who the hell had won. Especially in an action film, this can somewhat stick in the craw. However, I think it's quite obvious what happened by hook or by crook, they ended up killing each other, and what you saw was both of them breathing their last. I mean, it has to be this way there's no way Neeson would use that beast as a giant throw pillow unless he was one breath away from kicking ass in the afterlife, and I highly doubt a giant monster of a wolf would approve of having a hardy Irishman draped over him without being some way toward knock-knock-knocking on heaven's door.