Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Meg 2: The Trench (2023) - More ridiculous fun in Wheatley's game monster adventure

8/14/2023

Meg 2: The Trench (2023) - More ridiculous fun in Wheatley's game monster adventure

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Reliable star Jason Statham escapes the primordial mega-shark on this eye-popping poster for Ben Wheatley's Meg 2: The Trench

Passionate ocean protector Jonas Taylor ventures deep beneath the surface with his associates, where they find a secret mining operation in the trench. Here megalodons and other primordial monsters live.

Meg 2: The Trench is written by Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris (The Meg (2018), all), adapting The Trench (1999) by Steve Alten (Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror (1997)), and directed by great British filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace (2009)). It is the sequel to The Meg (2018).

After a smashing dino-age opening that establishes the hilariously ridiculous tone of this action adventure effectively, the film spends a long time in the dark, way underwater trench, and down there it gets a bit long in the tooth, (pun intended, sorry!) It's mostly CGI down there, and sometimes hard to make out what is going on, but things brighten up in more ways than one after this section, which also outlines the film's human villains:

Sienna Guillory (Remember Me (2019)) is fun as the wealthy evil minx behind the costly operations, and Sergio Peris-Mencheta (Rambo: Last Blood (2019)) has got a blessed mug that recalls legendary villain actor Robert Davi: Similarly, Peris-Mencheta delights in the villainry, screaming and fighting to my unspoiled delight. The film also has Jing Wu (The Climbers/Pan deng zhe (2019)) in the big part as a very smiling, risk-taking general manager of the meg-holding facility, and Wu wins over audiences with a highly energetic and likable performance here. The fun continues with returning Cliff Curtis (Training Day (1999)) and Page Kennedy (Same Difference (2019)), game as can be. SPOILER All of them clown around without end as megalodons, a giant octopus and some vicious gator-like dinosaurs attack on Fun Island, a resort vacation spot so shallow and ridiculous that all can recoil in its violent unraveling. Part of the fun of Meg is observing the idiocy of modern man come undone by beastly nature, a savage revenge from the deep. In this film a shot of two obese tourists in a 'biking boat' with obscene drinks getting swallowed up by the monster shark is an especially spectacular highlight.

Jason Statham (Spy (2015)) is back in the no-nonsense lead, a likable guy without much varnish or nooks to him - but he sure is good against a meg! There are more colors and kinetic energy to this sequel, a film that beats the original in ridiculousness and simple-minded, gleeful fun.

The Meg (2018) - Moments of cruel fun enliven Turteltaub's monster shark feast
Ben Wheatley: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

A Field in England (2013) or, Shit and Thistles

Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date
Kill List (2011) - Wheatley's jaw-breaking, great genre-mixer

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 129-139 mil. $ (different reports)

Box office: 256.9 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Meg 2: The Trench premiered 9 June (Shanghai International Film Festival) and runs 116 minutes. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California, Hong Kong and in Thailand. The film opened #2, behind Barbie, to a 30 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it has just spent its 2nd weekend at #4. The film is making as much in China at the moment, (it is officially a US/Chinese co-production.) The first film made impressive 530.4 mil. $, a target that the sequel likely won't reach. It has yet to open in South Korea (August 15) and Japan (August 25). The film should cross 350 mil. $ to be considered successful but is likely to get a sequel nonetheless. Wheatley is slated to return with Freak Shift (pre-production). Statham returns in Expend4bles (2023). Meg 2: The Trench is rotten at 28 % with a 4.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Meg 2: The Trench?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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8/14/2023

Meg 2: The Trench (2023) - More ridiculous fun in Wheatley's game monster adventure

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