The Meg

It’s a fact that after ‘Jaws’ came out, back in 1975, beach attendance dropped precipitously.  But Jaws was a regular great white shark.  What kind of impact will Jon Turteltaub’s ‘The Meg’, about a 70-foot Megalodon, have on the coastal tourist industry?

We’ll find out when the film arrives in August.  Everything about this flick screams “guilty pleasure.”  This film has no shot at winning any awards and it appears that everyone involved doesn’t care and have embraced the fact that this will offer moviegoers the perfect “check your brain at the door” popcorn escape.  Director Turteltaub is a pro at delivering these types of movies– favorites that even their biggest fans admit aren’t “great” movies– such as ‘3 Ninjas’, ‘Cool Runnings’ and the ‘National Treasure’ movies.

The film also stars an action hero that has built his entire career on guilty pleasures, Jason Statham, known for ‘The Transporter’ and ‘Fast and Furious’ series, ‘Crank’, and ‘The Italian Job’ among others.  The cast also includes Winston Chao, Cliff Curtis, Page Kennedy, Rob Kipa-Williams, Bingbing Li, Jessica McNamee, Masi Oka, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Ruby Rose, Robert Taylor and Rainn Wilson.

In the film, Statham plays Jonas Taylor.  When a submersible becomes stranded at the bottom of the ocean, trapping Jonas’ ex-wife among others, he is called in to mount a rescue, but the prehistoric force of nature known as the megalodon stands swims in his way.

Check out the new international trailer below:

 

As a bonus, here is a sneak peek of the megalodon taking on a diving cage.  If you’ve seen a shark movie or TV show in the last ten years or so, you know that a shark cage is usually the best form of protection against becoming a feast.  But no cage has ever met a Megalodon!

Check this clip out:

‘The Meg’ swims into theaters on August 10, 2018.