Beauty and The Beads

Authentic extraordinary hand- crafted adventures born of the experience of Santa Fe Walkabouts and Seven Directions Tours in collaboration with several specialized adventure experts, from horseback riding, to rock climbing, ballooning, fly fishing, jeep rides, winter sports, and the best white water rafting expeditions and luxury camping on New Mexico rivers.

Santa Fe, New Mexico (PRWEB) January 27, 2012

Seven Directions Tours and Santa Fe Walkabouts have joined their experience and passion for the magical beauty of New Mexico and the Southwest to create quality adventures that are enlightening and fun. Their new partnerships multi-day adventures, Southern Rockies Eco Adventures, combine slow paced cultural sightseeing trips with direct experiences into nature and bring together the regions unique history and culture, and the diverse and marvelous natural settings, mountains, canyons, and rivers.

At the core of Southern Rockies Eco Adventures philosophy are respect for the wilderness areas and their wildlife, a wise use of the land, and the commitment to value and honor the cultures and traditions of the Southern Rockies.

The knowledge of Seven Directions Tours in designing and delivering unique tours and getaways and the experience in taking adventurous spirits on amazing pristine trails, canyons, and slopes garnered by Santa Fe Walkabouts are supported by the respective skills in creating exciting adventures in a highly professional and impeccable way. This is now available in several unique multi-activity packages, all of which can be customized at travelers request.

The multi-day adventures offered by Southern Rockies Eco Adventures include hiking or biking on the mountain ranges surrounding Santa Fe, Taos, and Southern Colorado; spending a day at centuries-old archaeological sites, like Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde or Canyon de Chelly, to hear the voices from the past and climb to the most distant dwellings. Alternatively one can choose three adventure-rich days in a comfortable campsite, with three meals a day, along the Chama River in Georgia OKeeffe Country where other activities are made available, from horseback riding in the wilderness to reading Native poetry.

Sue, Georges and I are very excited to be able to create something not widely available, said Patrizia Antonicelli, owner of Seven Directions Tours, and we are confident that it will be a lot of fun both for our guests and ourselves.

This group is uniquely equipped to serve travelers from different countries and cultures. Sue was born in Myanmar, and lived in Malaysia for several years, before moving to the United States. Georges has his roots in Bulgaria and France, and speaks his native languages fluently as well as Russian, whilst Patrizia is a native Italian, who lived in London, and has extensive traveling experience. They all met in Santa Fe, New Mexico!

In essence, at Southern Rockies Eco Adventures one will find the best personal attention, very knowledgeable and dynamic people who can craft the most satisfying experience, based on the profound knowledge of their land, as well as organize all essential components of each adventure, including accommodation, transportation, and an exceptional service.

New adventures are always posted on the website. Coming soon an adventure featuring hard to find Native Pictographs, a full immersion in nature, and the intriguing saga of the atomic Manhattan Project.

For further information and media inquiries: Patrizia Antonicelli – Tel.505.820.3305

About Seven Directions Tours:

Seven Directions | Cultural and Sustainable Tours has established itself as one of the finest sustainable tour operators in the Southwest. They facilitate exceptional tours that create a memorable and authentic experience that is relaxing and profound in every respect. Seven Directions Tours caters to a wide-ranging audience that seeks a hands-on experience by putting them in touch with the landscape and the people. Clients learn salient information in the comfort of a tour they can customize. Seven Directions Tours can accommodate large and small groups, and individuals. They also specialize in Fly amp; Drive programs that clients can take on by themselves. To learn more about Seven Directions visit them at www.sevendirections.net.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prwebsevendirectionstours/southernrockiesecoadventu/prweb8858633.htm

First-person shooters, dance games, role-playing fantasies… All games involve some type of action, yes, but not all of them fall into the Action/Adventure genre. Action/Adventure games arent laser-focused on specific activities like shooting, solving puzzles, or racing, although they may explore those mechanics. Its a broad genre with a proud history reaching back to gamings infancy in arcades. Notable examples we would classify as action/adventure games include The Legend of Zelda, Grand Theft Auto, and Batman: Arkham City.

With that in mind, we thought it time to take a look at the big action games headed our way over the next 12 months. Behold: your year in fist fights, sword clashes, and explosions.

Costa Rica is one of the few places that can be legitimately described as up and coming in terms of visitor numbers and attractiveness.  While this is due in some part to the instability that is plaguing other Latin American destinations, especially Mexico, it does also represent the variety and commitment of the country to building a sustainable tourism market.

One of the reasons that Costa Rica is becoming well known for adventure holidays is the variety of adventures you can have in the relatively small country. The most ecologically sound of these are the wildlife tours which aim to showcase the tremendously diverse and fragile ecosystems of the Central American Isthmus. The tours aim not only to give visitors wonderful experiences to be captured in glorious technicolour on hi-tech digital cameras but also to raise awareness of and support for the ecological charities aiming to preserve these vulnerable environments and animals.

The varying landscapes within a small area and the subsequent abundant river channels found in Costa Rica provide excellent opportunities for rafting of various types. More sedate options allow visitors to cruise through otherwise inaccessible terrain and can be combined with a wildlife tour. Visitors seeking a more thrilling ride can choose a white water option where the opportunities for admiring the scenery will be limited but the pituitary gland will be challenged and the adrenaline will flow.

The location of Costa Rica, jammed as it is between two of the world’s greatest oceans, means that there are fantastic opportunities for surfers to catch some very large waves. The country is becoming better known among the professional surfing community as a place where, compared to other surfing hotspots such as Australia and California, the water is cleaner and the associated costs of living are much, much lower.

Mountain biking is another past-time that is becoming very popular in Costa Rica, again because of the challenging landscape. Many of the best trails are located on the foothills of volcanoes and so can be very challenging and are probably best not attempted by amateurs, at least until you have acclimatised. As with any physical activity in such a tropical climate visitors should always drink lots of water and rest during the hottest parts of the day. However, the trails are worth the effort and experts have declared that they are among the best in the world.

Adventure travel can, by definition, be more dangerous than more sedentary types of tourism and visitors are advised to be bear this in mind when in Costa Rica. Although crime can be a problem in the cities the biggest danger, as with anywhere in the developing world, is on the road. Cyclists should be especially careful and travel on cycle trails wherever possible. Erratic driving and poor quality roads can catch out even the most astute travellers, especially at night.

Hotel in Costa Rica:

Hotel Posada Canal Grande
Average Price: EUR36
Average Rating: 9

La Gioconda House Hotel
Average Price: EUR55
Average Rating: 8.9

Hotel Villa Los Candiles
Average Price: EUR55
Average Rating: 8.9

KODIAK, Alaska In May 2011, New York Times writer Ted OCcallahan traveled to Kodiak Island in search of an environmentally friendly way to see bears.

What he found was Kodiak Treks on Uyak Bay. Harry Dodge founded the lodge in 1995 and married Brigid in 1997. Today, the two run the lodge to provide a low-impact bear-watching experience.

Their efforts to reduce the environmental impact of their business have garnered them several awards. This month, Kodiak Treks was recertified by Adventure Green Alaska, the sole Alaska organization offering a certification process for ecotourism.

I guess we feel a responsibility to continue to push ourselves to see what we can do better, Brigid said. Were a small, family business, and we dont generate a lot of revenue . we dont get the attention a bigger business would, but we can still demonstrate that small and sustainable are important to Alaskas future.

Harry and Brigid are the businesss sole employees, guiding clients from June 1 through late September at their lodge on Aleut Island. The rest of the year, they travel to destinations around the world.

Harry and I try to travel in the winter and bring home ideas from places . where wildlife-based tourism is, Brigid said.

Theyve traveled to Southeast Asia and South Africa, Sweden and South America, and Brigid said she appreciates the effort other places have taken to train or certify tourism guides and lodges.

Alaska doesnt have a state-run training or certification process, but Brigid said she ensures Kodiak Treks does its part to preserve the environment for future business. In addition to participating in AGAs certification program, Brigid serves on the AGA board and runs a bear-viewing guide training program each spring at Kodiak College.

Were a small, family business, and we dont generate a lot of revenue . we dont get the attention a bigger business would, but we can still demonstrate that small and sustainable are important to Alaska s future.

Its just too much of a delicate resource to throw in someone just to do a job (without training), she said. I dont think the bears in the area we operate in can handle that.

Brigid and Harry also try to train their visitors. During guest stays, they hold sit-down lessons about the preservation aspect of their mission and encourage guests to contribute to groups such as the Kodiak Bear Trust. Last year, visitors donated $1,700 to the trust.

Its a way for our tourists to contribute to sustainability in the way hunting and fishing do with licenses, Brigid said.

Kodiak Treks operates on a strict schedule as lodges go. Visitors are required to stay at least three days and be prepared to hike greater distances the idea is to limit motorized transport as much as possible.

I think thats a really important part for our dedication to sustainability, Brigid said.

Those restrictions limit the lodges audience, but she said thats OK with her and Harry.

The people that want to find us are going to be with us, she said. Were not reaching out to the world; were reaching out to people like us, who when they travel want something unique, undiscovered.

___

Information from: Kodiak Daily Mirror, kodiakdailymirror.com>http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com

Nintendo has already sold 5 million copies of Super Mario 3D Land and it looks like the plumber and all of his pals from the Mushroom Kingdom will be back for new adventure sooner than we thought. During a recent talk with in investors Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata revealed the publisher already has plans for a new 2D Mario adventure for Nintendo 3DS.

Sadly, no real details for the game were released, but Iwata did mention the game would be a side-scrolling title. He also noted that game would launch sometime in Nintendos next fiscal year, which places it sometime after March 2012.

We were big fans of Marios return to side-scrolling action in New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii and were really hoping they carry over the co-op multiplayer game modes as it added quite a bit to the replay-ability.

A March 2012 launch would give us plenty of time to finish up Super Mario 3D Land, but that doesnt mean were any less excited for a new game. You can be sure well be keeping you up-to-date this one.

[Nintendo via Joystiq]

Related posts:
CES 2012: Nintendo Breaks Out Wii U To Show Us Zelda HD, Chase Mii and More
Nintendo Download Weekly Update 1.26.12

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Tags 3DS, nintendo, side scrolling, Super Mario, super mario 3d land

ORLANDO, Fla. – I dont analyze myself, or what people think about me, Christian Bale says, pretty much any time any conversation with him even hints at turning personal.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; He doesnt know how much his profile changed after he landed the lead in the Batman / Dark Knight movies. He cant say if his actors actor reputation was burnished by adding an Oscar (for 2010s The Fighter) to his mantle. He isnt self-reflective that way. And he isnt sharing.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; I dont want to know too much about how it was made or much about the person acting in it, he explains. It depresses the (bleep) out of me to get into an actors head. Completely unnecessary. Its a distraction, a thorn in the side of any performance.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; He doesnt want filmgoers thinking about this bit of gossip or that snippet of viral audio about him. Obliterate his brooding take on the Dark Knight from your memory. He wants us to attempt what he himself shoots for, with every new film – to think about only the work.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; And after his raw, moving and yet amusing award-winning turn in The Fighter, maybe thats his due.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; The great directors, from Terrence Malick (A New World) to Werner Herzog (Rescue Dawn), Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) to David O. Russell (The Fighter), have long been eager to get his attention and land him as their lead, even before the Dark Knight movies put him in the ranks of Hollywoods elite. Now that hes in that top tier, hes more than happy to let them use his name to get their visions on the screen. He has become that rare … bankable star willing to help get a movie made, as New York Observer critic Red Reed has noted.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; Thats how Bale came to star in his latest film by the great Chinese director Zhang Yimou. The Flowers of War is set against the Rape of Nanjing, the murderous, weeks-long rampage that Japanese soldiers went on after capturing the capital of China in 1937.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; The event was well-documented by Westerners who were there at the time, people supposedly safe in the international zone of the city, Bale says. I wasnt going to play one of the real people – John Rabe, Minnie Vautrin, the missionary John Magee – who wrote the famous accounts of this massacre. But when Zhang Yiimou reached out to me, he said he wanted to acknowledge those Westerners in his movie. Plainly, in a practical sense, in wanting to relay this story to the rest of the world, engage the rest of the world, he wanted a Western face near the center of his movie. So I was a practical consideration, too, and happy to be one.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; Bale put a Western face on the front of a $100 million Chinese production, a film whose sets were built out of concrete – theyll last 100 years – outside of present-day Nanjing. He would work with a director who speaks little English on a huge production in a foreign land, because why wouldnt you make a movie thats something of an adventure?lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; The English actor, who turns 38 on Jan. 30, got the sense, working with the mostly Chinese cast and crew, that this story is something that carries great poignancy for many Chinese. And the fact that it is surprisingly little known in the outside world, the States, bothers them. He had heard of the Rape of Nanjing and had even read Iris Changs bestseller about the atrocity, in which as many as 200,000 Chinese civilians and prisoners of war were murdered, and as many as 80,000 women and children raped by the Japanese Army. Bale was drawn to the idea that a down-on-his-luck American, a cynical, hard-drinking mortician, could be moved by what he saw to act out of character and try to help a convent school full of young girls escape the horror.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; The phenomenal thing about human nature is how we can surprise ourselves by being that person who will stand up and be counted, he says. You cant simply predict it based on who a person has been. Its not often clear who that will be. I wanted to be able to play around with this idea that the movies story is told through the eyes of Shu (Zhang Xinyi ), the 12-year-old convent girl. Shes seeing my character through her eyes, and sees who I was and who I become.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; True to his nature, Bale pays no heed to reviews – notices for The Flowers of War have been mixed. And he wont confess to any grand strategy, to collect credits from as many of the worlds greatest filmmakers as possible.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; You either enjoy getting to work with people youve had a good experience with in the past, or you get to enjoy having a whole new experience with someone you admire and have a great deal of respect for, Bale says. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; No, he wasnt revisiting his childhood (Bale starred in Steven Spielbergs Chinese-set WWII drama Empire of the Sun when he was 13). No, he didnt do it just the see the country. But you know, all those things played into this – liking the story, admiring the director of Raise the Red Lantern, making a big-budget picture in China with a Chinese cast and crew, and being intrigued by the adventure of it all. Its not every movie that offers an actor all that.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; 2012, McClatchy-Tribune News Service.

It seems like all of the major studios are hunting right now for the next big young adult fantasy adventure franchise, and no wonder.

Harry Potter and Twilight, the two most frequently cited examples of the genre, have raked in considerable box office sums, and shown studios that, for YA fantasy at least, sequels and franchises can be more than minor investments.

Disneys latest initiative? A script recently purchased from Max Landis – Son of Director John Landis. The currently untitled project has few details so far, but Variety tells us its going to be about a brother/sister adventure team and their emotional journey. Unlike the other current attempts at a new YA franchise, this script is not an adaptation of an existing work, as far as we know.

Landis has been a small-time scribe for a few years, having penned several minor projects and some TV episodes. Of course, the project getting him attention is the shaky-cam super hero flick Chronicle, which hits theaters next next Friday. The director of Chronicle, Josh Trank, has also gotten a high profile job offer out of it.

Heres the trailer again, in case youve forgotten:

Landiss new script is one of the first to get picked up by Andrew Panays film studio, which Disney currently has a first-look deal with. The only other film we know about in Panays stable is Late in the Count, a romantic comedy about baseball.

The untitled project has no director, and has not begun casting. There are no production or release dates yet announced.

Pressures will never affect Irans political position, Mahmoud al-Zahar told FNA on Saturday, and stressed that the EU oil ban on the exports of the Iranian oil which is aimed at increasing economic pressures on the country will eventually prove futile.

Under the current conditions that the Obama administration is on the threshold of a new stage (presidential election) and is faced with economic crisis, it would not go on a new adventure to attack Iran, he reiterated.

Israel and its close ally the United States have recently intensified their war rhetoric against Iran. The two arch foes of the Islamic Republic accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Both Washington and Tel Aviv possess advanced weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads.

Iran vehemently denies the charges, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Iran has, in return, warned that it would target Israel and its worldwide interests in case it comes under attack by the Tel Aviv.

The United States has long stressed that military action is a main option for the White House to deter Irans progress in the field of nuclear technology.

Iran has warned that in case of an attack by either the US or Israel, it will target 32 American bases in the Middle East and close the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

An estimated 40 percent of the worlds oil supply passes through the waterway.

Although India and China agreed to avoid flare-ups along their border on January 17 this year, yet despite the 15 round of talks, the issue still remains unsettled owing to Indian obstinacy. Both the countries had fought a bloody war in 1962 over a disputed border. Indian hegemonic designs to dominate the region can well be judged from its plans to spend huge amounts on military build up and purchases of sophisticated arms and weapons from France, Germany, Israel, Russia and USA. Indian leaders openly state that India will defend its national interests beyond South Asia. On the one hand, Indian rulers assertively advocate regional peace, but on the other, they mislead the world by cunningly projecting their threat perceptions. These are certainly source of concerns, especially for China and Pakistan which are particular targets of India?s duplicity.

In this regard, in November, 2011, The Chinese media hit back at India?s proposed military build-up on the border and its recent relationship with East Asian nations such as Japan and Vietnam at the cost of Beijing. In this respect, China?s official newspaper ?People?s Daily?, recently reported, ?East China Sea and South China Sea issues continue to expose some countries? envious, jealous and hateful attitude towards China?India has begun to consider Beijing as an opponent.? While China?s state-run news agency Xinhua warned, ?if India intends to antagonise its neighbour by taking China as an imaginary enemy and gets unwisely involved in affairs which fall within others? backyards, it would hold its national strategies as hostage and put at stake its own national interests.?

Today, China is India?s biggest trading partner with which New Delhi has signed a number of agreements in various fields, but American support, it is playing a double game with Beijing. In this context, in the mid of October, 2011, as part of its second phase of military expansion against China, Indian government has given the go-ahead for the deployment of BrahMos cruise missiles in Arunachal Pradesh along the Chinese border. With a range of 290 km., these missiles are being deployed to improve India?s military reach into the Tibet Autonomous Region. The three BrahMos missile regiments raised so far have also been deployed in the western sector to counter the presumed threat of Pakistan. Indian new scheme has coincided with the revival of propaganda campaign that China has allegedly been deploying troops in Pakistan?s areas of Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and FATA. Both Beijing and Islamabad have denied this false accusation.

Besides, as part of its military adventure against China, Indian government is planning to increase the strength of the Indian Army by almost 100000 soldiers over the next five years. It would also be the largest increase in deployment along the China border since the aftermath of the 1962 war. It will also focus on Indian islands with the larger view of securing maritime routes crisis-crossing the Indian Ocean. As regards Indian military build up against Beijing, on May 31, 2009, after 43 years, New Delhi re-opened its Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) airbase in northern Ladakh, which overlooks the strategic Karakoram Pass and is only 8 kilometers, south of the Chinese border-Aksai China area. New Delhi has also erected more than 10 new helipads and roads between the Sino-Indian frontiers.

On April 20, 2008, The Times of India had written, ?By having a full-fledged airstrip at DBO, India will be able to rush in troops and supplies to the region during emergencies.? The paper quoted Western Air Command Chief Air Marshal P K Barbora revealing, ?Yes, we have also plans to land our AN-32 transport aircraft at DBO. It is part of the Indian Air Force to improve air maintenance of the far-flung posts in the region?. In this connection, Defence Ministry planners are working on building additional airfields and increasing troops?raising two new mountain divisions to be deployed along the 4,057-kilometer Line of Actual Control (LAC). With the help of Israel and America, on 26 February 2008, India conducted its first test of a nuclear-capable missile from an under sea platform after completing its project in relation to air, land and sea ballistic systems.

Notably, Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta had disclosed that New Delhi ?will soon float tenders to acquire six submarines?. Mehta also accused Beijing saying, ?Indian Navy would keep a close watch on the movements of Chinese submarines which are operating out of an underground base in the South China Sea? and ?wish to enter the Indian Ocean?. However, under the pretension of China factor, New Delhi and Israel, with the tactical support of the sole superpower are plotting to block the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean for their joint strategic goals.It is mentionable that in October, 2011, India hosted the leaders of Vietnam and Myanmar, highlighting its intentions which it is following regarding its ?Look East Policy? as it is building close security and economic relations with these two nations in East and Southeast Asia. In fact, New Delhi designed this policy to initiate its influence in the region, while main aims behind are to sabotage the interests of Beijing.

During her trip to New Delhi, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on July 20, 2011 urged India to be more assertive in Asia, saying that the country should play more of a leadership role. She explained, ?India has the potential to positively shape the future of the Asia-Pacific.? Clinton further said, ?India should play a role as a US ally in regional forums such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).? It is noteworthy that on October 15, 2010, Indian Army Chief General VK Singh had openly blamed that China and Pakistan posed a major threat to India?s security, while calling for a need to upgrade country?s defence. Indian former Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor had also raised similar allegations. So, under the pretext of presumed threats from China and Pakistan, New Delhi which signed an agreement of civil nuclear technology with the US in 2008 has been acting upon the direction of the latter to counterbalance China and destabilizing Pakistan including Iran.

Particularly US clandestine aims could be judged from the fact that on November 2, 2011, America agreed to sell India the most expensive?the new F-35 fighter jets. In a report to the US Congress, the Pentagon said, ?We believe US aircraft such as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)?to be the best in the world?, referring to the radar-evading F-35 jet. Unlike India, Pakistan mostly prefers to develop its arms, equipments and aircraft with the joint cooperation of China. For example, the JF-17/FC-1 is designed as a co-operative venture between Pakistan and China to replace Chinese A-5C (massively modified MiG-19), F-7P (MiG-21+), and French Mirage 3/5 aircraft. In this connection, defence analysts opine that unlike the US F-35 fighter jet, the JF-17/FC-1 fighter is better due to its quick system of surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition.

Nevertheless, recently, India also decided a major purchase of US F-16 and F-18 fighters. The Pentagon?s government-to-government program of foreign military sales to India has included C-17 and C-130 aircraft, radar systems, Harpoon weapons and specialised tactical equipments. Besides acquisition of arms and weapons from other western countries, America which emerged as a potential military supplier to India has lifted sanctions on New Delhi in order to import nuclear technology. In fact, Pakistan?s province, Balochistan where China has invested billion of dollars to develop Gwadar seaport, infuriates both US and India. With the help of India, US desires to control Balochistan as an independent state in containing China and restraining Iran. It is due to these reasons that Washington and New Delhi are creating instability in Pakistan by backing Baloch separatists to complete their hidden strategic agenda. In this regard, Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) gets logistic support from India, while another separatist group, Jundollah (God?s soldiers) is also harming the cordial relationship of Pakistan with China and Iran. In the past few years, their militants kidnapped and killed many Chinese and Iranian nationals in Pakistan, while committing other subversive acts in the province and Iran?s Sistan-Baluchistan. Tehran had directly indicated American CIA for patronage and funding of that type of terrorist attacks.

It is of particular attention that in May 1998, when India detonated five nuclear tests, the then Defense Minister George Fernandes had declared publicly that ?China is India?s potential threat No. 1.? India which successfully tested missile, Agni-111 in May 2007, has been extending its range to target all the big cities of China. Nonetheless, with the support of US, India?s military adventure against China is likely to destabilse whole of the Asia because of its chain reaction.

The man vs nature genre of action/adventure films is usually a pretty reliable one when it comes to attractive scenery and entertaining scraps between man and beast. From the popcorn perfection of Jaws to the bloody thrills of Savage Harvest there’s a visceral thrill to be found in battles fought fist against claw (or teeth, beak, trunk, etc). With the exception of the very best however the films are usually pure entertainment that stop well short of anything resembling engaging human drama.

The Grey is one of those exceptions.

Mostly.

Live or die on this day.

A group of oil-field workers in Alaska settles in for dinner at camp after a hard day’s work, but one of the men looks distant and not all together thrilled with the cafeteria food. Ottway (Liam Neeson) leaves the company of his coworkers and heads out into the cold night air. He falls to his knees with a hopeless and lost look in his eyes, and presses the barrel of his rifle to his face. He’s a man on the verge of giving up completely, but something halts his trigger finger, and he instead boards a plane the next morning bound for Anchorage with some of the other guys.

But when the plane crashes killing most of the passengers on board Ottway and a handful of survivors find themselves stuck in the inhospitable Alaskan wilderness. He assumes a leadership role out of instinct, but before the group can come to a consensus as to their next course of action they discover that freezing weather and starvation aren’t the only threats they face. It seems they’ve crashed into a stretch of frozen wasteland called home by a pack of wolves, and it’s a home the animals are desperate to protect.

Ottway and the eight other men are forced to fight for their lives against the harsh elements of nature as they make their way towards safety. But can they trust their lives to a man who just hours prior was ready to give up on his own?

The Grey is an adventure film that dips its frostbitten toes into both the drama and horror genres, and the result is a surprisingly powerful tale of survival peppered with jump scares and heartfelt emotion. It isn’t simply about physical survival either as it champions the desire and will to live and questions the source of that strength in the men. Whether it be your family waiting for you back home, your faith in a higher power, or the simple drive to go down swinging the film highlights that will as an essential element to life. Ottway in particular is someone whose inner strength is in question, but flashbacks to a life before Alaska reveal both a reason to give up and a reason to go on on living. It’s far heavier stuff than a genre picture usually attempts, but Neeson and director Joe Carnahan nail it.

The last few years of Neeson’s career have seen him capitalizing on the success of Taken by placing him in the tough guy role as someone who never flinches and always succeeds. That trend continues somewhat here, but the character of Ottway also offers up a rare fragility visible on Neeson’s face and captured in multiple close-ups by Carnahan. The actor is more powerful in his troubled silence than he is spouting threats and one-liners.

The remaining men, played by Dermot Mulroney, Joe Anderson, Frank Grillo and others, offer varied levels of back-story and baggage, but they all add to the rough and gritty texture of the film. They’re described as men unfit for mankind for a reason as they prove through their actions and choices that the top of the world (or close to it) may be the best place for them. Some early deaths are done for horrific effect and to dwindle down the numbers, but later ones begin to hurt as characters who’ve crossed over from disposable to personable fall victim to the wolves and the environment.

Carnahan and co-writer Ian Mackenzie Jeffers keep things well paced as the film moves between the quiet moments where character is discussed and the action and attack scenes where character is defined. The film’s more dramatic scenes are equally helped by Mar Streitenfeld’s score, especially a short reprise that gets replayed at key moments.

It’s unfortunate that a film so focused on humanity and nature is let down by the intrusion of technology, but the weakest element on display here is the visual effects. A few of the shots stand out for their obvious green screen/CGI-enhanced look with the most egregious being a scene involving a cliff and a tree. It should have been a suspenseful and edge of your seat set-piece, but the lacking visual aesthetic distracts too much and it’s instead diffused of much of its power.

The wolves on the other hand, which are composed mostly of CGI and practical effects, are pretty effective. They’re realistic enough for the most part even if the alpha wolf does tease a hefty resemblance to Gmork from The NeverEnding Story. The attacks are done in a furious, fast cut style that flashes fangs, hair and blood across the screen, and wide shots are filled with a calm menace. The only real problem regarding the creatures is the statement Ottway makes that wolves are the only animal that will seek revenge. Has he not seen Orca? Or Taken for that matter

The Grey is a fantastic adventure and easily Carnahan’s most mature and entertaining picture. It’s both frightening and exhilarating throughout, and some sloppy effects aside, does a great job of putting viewers on the cold, dangerous Alaskan tundra with characters worth caring about. Parts of it are played like a horror film, but the film never casts the wolves as real monsters or the bad guys. Instead it’s about survival on all sides in a world where bad things simply happen, challenges must be endured, and the only thing you can really count on to get you through is yourself.

The Upside: Exciting and suspenseful action scenes; characters are fully realized instead of simple cardboard action-hero cutouts; far more emotional than you’d expect; powerful and haunting ending

The Downside: Some terribly obvious CGI and green-screen in a couple scenes

On the Side: There’s a post credits scene, but I think the film works better without it.