The Meg

2018

PG-13

1h 53m

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

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Action

Science Fiction

Horror

A deep sea submersible pilot revisits his past fears in the Mariana Trench, and accidentally unleashes the seventy foot ancestor of the Great White Shark believed to be extinct.

Directors

Jon Turteltaub

Writers

Erich Hoeber(screenplay by)

Jon Hoeber(screenplay by)

Dean Georgaris(screenplay by)

Stars

Jason Statham

Li Bingbing

Rainn Wilson

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Top cast

Jonas Taylor

Suyin

Morris

James 'Mac' Mackreides

Jaxx

Lori

Toshi

Zhang

Meiying

Heller

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson

The Wall

Mother

Awesome Kid on Beach

Thai Boat Captain

D'Angelo

Marks

Injured Sailor

Directors

Jon Turteltaub

Writers

Erich Hoeber(screenplay by)

Jon Hoeber(screenplay by)

Dean Georgaris(screenplay by)

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Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Child friendly horror... You have to take in to context the post release statements by director Jon Turteltaub and lead actor Jason Statham. The Meg is not the film they either read on the page or filmed as a course of grisly schlock entertainment. This was meant to be a proper schlocker, a bloodletting monster of the deep on the loose picture, sadly the suits at the helm didn't see that as a viable money making exercise and had this cut to be a "12" friendly bums on theatre seats cash grabber. Shame on them. What we get is a run of the mill creature feature that although once viewed does not leave a lasting impression (was anyone really hoping for that anyway?), but is kind of fun in that time filling sort of way. It runs through the modern day creature feature playbook 101. So off we go with the hero having a troubled backstory, a money made funder out of his depth, ladies with life quandaries, a man who can't swim working in the middle of the ocean! and on we go. Throw in some quite awfully scripted dialogue and it's cheese sarnie time. Statham is nearly always a good watch - in the muscle bound action hero kind of way - though you see the cracks between what the film was meant to be and what it ended up as. For you see that The Stath comes off as taking it all too seriously, which in this released cut is ridiculous. He's surrounded by no mark actors, though no short supply of beauty (Bingbing Li socko gorgeous/Ruby Rose hard sexy) and the narrative feeds us all the pointers of exactly where this will end up. There's a couple of nifty fun homages to Jaws, some decent suspense scenes, and the cinematography (Tom Stern) is pin sharp and pleasurable. Best bet to enjoy this is to know it's a "12" rated friendly piece, to understand it has ultimately ended up as a same old same old monster movie. It's a million miles away from the class of Jaws, and lacks the tongue in cheek knowing of Deep Blue Sea, but it fills a gap in that undemanding time wasting way. 5/10

John Chard25 May, 2019