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Topic: The Meg (2018)

Sam Graham
AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues.

Posts: 1431
From: Waukee, IA
Registered: Dec 2004

posted 08-11-2018 10:15 PM

CINEMA: B&B Liberty 12, Liberty, MO
AUDITORIUM: 1, SEAT: D12
PRESENTATION: B&B GRAND screen ("seven stories wide and four stories tall"...which I call bullshit on) with Recline-o-Vision, butt warmers, ScreenX, and dts X
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Kids running up and down my row through the feature
RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four)

Ticket Guy tries to scan my printed out QR code. Nothing doing. Tries sideways, upside down, against the ceiling light, with his phone flash...finally, it scans. "Thank you. Enjoy the magic of the movies."

Ticket price after taxes and convenience fees: $21.86.

ScreenX is the gimmickiest of gimmicky wide screen formats yet. A bunch of ceiling-mounted projectors project a widened image onto the side walls of the auditorium. The ENTIRE SIDE WALLS above the railing all the way to the back of the room. Trippy, man. Use of the format is scene-specific, so it was only used part of the time during the feature. It's not seamless...there's two black lines at the front corners of the room...and you're looking at stuff that juts around a corner that isn't designed to look that way in the real world. Plus the side projection isn't quite up to par with the main screen. And there's no hiding the surrounds, which sort of look like airplane windows.

The dts X sound, however, was awesome.

The new feature I found most interesting at B&B's new flagship? They're piping music throughout the parking lot.

THE PLOT: Oh noes there's a shark. Wackiness ensues.

This is about as big and dumb as movies get with just about every gimmick these movies use, from the down and out hero to the nemesis of the down and out hero to the budding romance to the cute and unusually bright kid who has no business being anywhere near such a situation to the OH MY GOD DID THE SHARK EAT THE CUTE LITTLE DOG OR THAT GUY IN THE INFLATABLE HAMSTER BALL to the...well, you get the idea.

It has three too many plot twists and three too many endings, but it was still a better production than I was expecting. Still, not even remotely on the level of the second greatest shark movie ever made (Jaws) or the greatest (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou).

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Jonathan Goeldner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1360
From: Washington, District of Columbia
Registered: Jun 2008

posted 08-20-2018 12:54 AM

the IMAX-laser screening I saw made up for a lot of flaws, but a shark on a 4:3 screen (Airbus / Udvar Hazy) was fun, if not slightly non-bloody, apparently the director had shot several scenes with more gore, but the studios balked and made him cut it to secure it's more marketable PG-13 rating. I'm kind of annoyed that I wasn't able to see this in 3D, as those who've seen it as such, say it's really good and effective.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 08-23-2018 05:01 PM

They sure do work hard to keep dumping the ship's crew into the water, over and over and over throughout the movie.

It's not bad as this sort of movie goes, though. Certainly not boring.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-09-2018 10:01 PM

I swear they lifted some of the music in this movie straight out of a Disney theme park attraction. The "scenes of wonderment" near the beginning where we are first seeing the huge undersea scientific facility...if those aren't Disney, they're Disney cutting-room-floor.

I liked this movie better than Skyscraper, if only because the action wasn't QUITE as preposterous, physics-wise. (That's if you discount the whole basis of the shark's existence.) The story was silly as could be, but it was definitely entertaining.

I enjoyed Rainn Wilson's performance, although he's going to have a hard time shaking that Dwight Shrute stereotype. I got a little tired of Jason Statham's voice by the end of the show.

The CGI shark did not look as obvious as some reviews have led me to believe, but it never gave me a real scare either. We watched this along with a trailer for "The Nun" and my wife commented that she got more scares out of the trailer than this movie.

Every review I've seen has compared this movie to Jaws. Of course the shark in Jaws didn't look as good as the sharks here, but the other thing was character development. By the end of Jaws, you felt like you were friends with Brody, Hooper and Quint. In this movie I just watched it four hours ago and I've totally forgotten about all the characters already.

I did think it was pretty cool that they put in a slight "nod" to Jaws, in that the dog in this movie has a very similar name as the dog in Jaws. (I'm surprised they didn't use the same kind of dog.)

Sound mix was pretty good, the show moved along at a good pace, and I never felt the urge to get up and pee in the middle, so I'll give it 3 out of 5 stars.

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