Liam Neeson's late career re-branding as the whiskey-drinker's action hero chugs on in new wintry adventure film, The Grey. Like his character in 2008's Taken, Neeson's John Ottway is a steely professional, employed by Alaskan oil companies to shoot wolves that threaten their workers. When his plane crashes in the wildnerness, Ottway and his merry band of 'ex-cons, drifters and assholes' must fight his way back to civilization before ravenous wolves pick them all off, horror movie-style.

Based on a true story, Joe Carnahan's film seems a sure-fire premise for a thrilling adventure: a stoic yet charismatic leading man, a beautifully desolate backdrop and a difficult problem to be overcome. Yet for a movie about true life-or-death peril, it is bizarrely inert. With its ensemble cast and background of frozen tundra I was reminded frequently of John Carpenter's excellent The Thing, but sadly The Grey never matches that same level of creeping terror.

Part of the problem is the script, which tries too hard to turn an enjoyable popcorn film into an examination of God, or free will, or something. This results in moments like the diabolical opening voiceover where Neeson does his best to lend gravitas to the line, "I move like I imagine the damned do".

At two hours, the film is also much, much longer than it needs to be, with characters explaining their motivations in a way that hinders what should be a brisk pace. January and February are usually a strange netherworld for new releases and one wonders who the target audience for The Grey would be - other than people who want to see Oskar Schindler punch animals in the face. But then again, if the Twilight series has taught us anything, it's that the world can never have enough CGI wolves.