"We're not critics. We're professional fan-girls." --- This blog is dedicated to movies and the entertainment industry. We use random selection to bring into light the best and worst of streaming films and entertainment news.
This week, I couldn’t resist spotlighting something with big
pointy teeth!
Whoever said Facebook isn’t good for anything but memes,
food pics, and internet arguments needs to check themselves. I apparently subscribe
to the interesting corners of the interwebs, because a few days ago a story
from ihorror.com snagged my attention and sent me into a geeky squee-fest.
Jason Statham (Wild Card, Spy, Mechanic: Resurrection) is
starring in a megalodon movie.
Move over Jaws (1975), this has my attention.
What movie, you ask? The title is
simply MEG – but there’s going to be little simple about it. Set for a March,
2018 release by Warner Brothers Pictures, this is going to be mega. (Yes, I did
that.) With a budget of roughly $150 million and a high-grossing action badass,
there’s a recipe for success there. That’s before you take into account the
rest of the well-known cast. I’ll get to that in a bit. It’s not a guarantee,
of course. We have seen plenty of big-budget flops in the past – but I hold out
hope.
Statham’s character is both deep
sea diver and paleontologist, and on a collision course with a prehistoric
monster in the deepest trench in the Pacific Ocean. With Statham’s swimming
background and action-movie repertoire; I am praying for a hole-in-one.
Jon Turteltaub (Jericho, National
Treasure, The Sorcerer's Apprentice) is at the direction helm of this movie.
The film also features a well-known cast including Bingbing Li (The Forbidden
Kingdom, Resident Evil: Retribution, Transformers: Age of Extinction), Ruby
Rose (Orange is the New Black, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, xXx: Return of
Xander Cage), Masi Oka (Jobs, Heroes Reborn, Hawaii Five-0), Rainn Wilson (The
Office, Cooties, Backstrom), and Cliff Curtis (10,000 BC, Columbiana, Fear the
Walking Dead).
The film is an adaptation from
the international bestseller MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten (The
Shark Is Still Working, Jurassic Fight Club, Monsterquest), whom also worked on
the screenplay for the movie.
Alten’s series is comprised of
five books, currently. If this one does well; who knows, we might see a film
franchise spawn. I’ll be honest that I haven’t read these books. That will be
corrected, however. I have been a shark fanatic since I was little, and can’t
believe I missed these. MEG was first published in 1997 and has been released recently
as a special hardback 20th anniversary edition.
For any whom might be asking themselves
what a megalodon is, I have your answer. It is only the largest shark that has
ever lived. Carcharodon megalodon was the nightmare of the Cenozoic era. They
grew to be nearly 60ft long, and weighed upwards of 13 tons. Baby megalodons
were about the size of modern day great whites. Babies.
Just for some perspective,
picture the mosasaurus from Jurassic World (2015) – you know, the giant aquatic
reptile that chomped a great white in the trailers? Megalodon put the size of
that beast to shame. Those reptiles of the ancient deep topped out at about
50ft. Hollywood roughly doubled its size for the sake of the movie – but picture
a shark in scale that was 10ft longer than that monster and with teeth seven to
ten inches long.
Left: Fossil reconstructive specialist, Dr. Jeremiah Clifford, holding jaw of large great white shark. Photo by Louie Psihoyos, Corbis Right: Megalodon tooth in comparison with great white teeth, scale in cm.
When I was in third grade, my dad
found some fossilized shark teeth while working on a construction site on the
East coast. I brought those huge teeth to a museum for identification, and they
turned out to be none other than megalodon teeth. I have been fascinated with
sharks ever since.
My shark teeth fossils.
Alten promised in his recent
interview that this movie will keep you at the edge of your seat. I don’t want to wait a year. I want to watch
it now! Though, considering this project has changed hands through development
hell since 1997, I suppose a year isn’t that long.
Keep your eyes peeled for this
one, and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed.
Bonus!: The following is a promotional trailer released for the special 20-year-anniversary edition of Alten's first book. Please note this is not the movie trailer. No actual film footage has been released at this time. Trailers circulating YouTube are either book promos or fan-made, claiming to be official.
If you'd like more information on the megalodon, check out the Discovery page dedicated to them here.If you would like to see more cast or production information about the movie MEG, you can find it on IMDb here.
But I Digress... is a new weekly column for trustthedice.com that
can't be pinned down to just one thing. It's Cat's celebration of
tangents, random references, and general fan geekdom that both
intertwines with, revolves around, and diverges from our movie-review
core. In homage to the beloved Brit comedians, we want to bring you
something completely different!
Actors: John
Abraham, Chitrangda Singh, Prachi Desai, Mini Mathur, Zarina Wahab, Sheena
Shahabadi, Mukul Chadda, Raima Sen, Krish Chatterji, Arlette Evita Grao, Deepti
Gujral, Sai Gundewar, Micky Makhija, Errol Peter Marks, Prianca Sharma, Amar
Talwar
Stunt Doubles: N/A
Languages
Speech Available:
Hindi
Subtitles Available:
English, Spanish
Blurb from Netflix:
A narcissistic music producer who has been indulged by the women in his life
must finally grow up and take responsibility for his ne’er-do-well ways.
Selina’s Point of View:
In foreign films the biggest hurdle is usually the cultural
differences. Happy endings in one country are not necessarily happy endings for
others. Morality and ethics differ from culture to culture. Some value love
highest while others value responsibility highest.
That being said, I was actually incredibly surprised that
there was really a complete lack of cultural difference between a romantic
comedy that would be made here and I, Me
aur Main. In fact, it followed a recipe that I was almost certain only
applied to American cinema. I’ve seen foreign romantic comedies before and they
usually have much different recipes they follow.
There was so little cultural difference here that parts of
the film were actually in English.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t fond of the language swapping. I’d
be reading the subtitles, then start listening to the English being spoken,
then not return to the subtitles quickly enough to see what the next Hindi line
meant. It was a little on the annoying side. I did get used to it after a bit
and managed to just stick to the subtitles, but still.
I did find it incredibly amusing that whenever they said “shit”
in the film the subtitles actually said “darn.” What was up with that?
As far as a recipe film goes, this one was fine. There was
nothing overly spectacular about it, but it did make the plot its own.
The main actor was charming enough to keep his character’s narcissistic
tendencies just the correct side of unbearable. John Abraham (Shootout at Wadala, Rocky Handsome, New York)
managed to keep Ishaan relatable enough for the audience to sympathize with him
instead of taking joy in his failures. I was also completely enamored by Prachi
Desai (Azhar, Life Partner, Once Upon a
Time in Mumbai). Her portrayal of Gauri was absolutely adorable and fun to
watch. The chemistry between her and Abraham was off the charts.
I haven’t seen much in the way of Bollywood films. I heard
that they were all really over the top, so I was pleasantly surprised to find
that this was easy to follow.
It was a perfectly adequate film. I’d actually sit through
it again. Even without the subtitles I’m pretty sure I’d be able to keep up.
Cat’s Point of View:
I’m going to be honest – when we rolled this movie for
Foreign Film Friday, I inwardly groaned. The description made it sound like
some sort of romantic drama. Of course, I try not to ‘pre-game’ by looking up
movies on IMDb before watching, if I haven’t seen them before. So when the
comedic and musical elements came into play it was a surprise.
This movie had to be nearly the complete opposite of the
last film we watched hailing from this region of the world. That isn’t
necessarily a bad thing. My reaction to the film was pleasantly unexpected.
So I mentioned last time about feeling like I missed
something because there was no translation available for the background music.
That is not a problem in this movie. I will admit that keeping track of the
subtitles between the musical score, the speaking, and watching the story
unfold visually was sometimes a challenge.
I have one beef with the subtitles, though. It’s a big one.
I absolutely can’t stand when someone translating takes liberties with what
they’re conveying. Now, in this case – the most noticeable of the discrepancies
occurred with profanity. They said ‘shit.’ The subtitles did not. So is this
some sort of censoring going on? Did that happen to maintain the “TV-PG” rating
that Netflix proclaims? The language of the characters is sprinkled with
English, so it’s not like I heard the Hindi word and knew it was
misrepresented. It was English plain as day. That wasn’t the only instance.
I guess that’s a risk you take with subtitles.
Bollywood movies are fun and engaging as the song and dance
numbers work their way into the plot. The movements are so intricate and high
energy. This movie didn’t go 100% into that genre as it’s usually represented.
My primary reference for such is the movie Bride
and Prejudice (2004). I absolutely love that movie. I digress. I’ve been
told it’s a good example. Given that the main character is a music producer, I
think they incorporated those elements in a savvy way.
I enjoyed the strong female characters portrayed and the
story was pretty good. Sure, it was a bit predictable and I wouldn’t put it up
for award contention – but is that really why we watch movies like this?
Adorable dimples. That’s why. No, wait. Fun. The message in
the movie didn’t take away from its enjoy-ability, and it was entertaining. I
wouldn’t mind watching this one again – and can’t wait to see what the dice
gives us next week.
Production Companies:
Rovio Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, LStar Capital, Sony Pictures,
Producer: John
Cohen, Mikael Hed, David Maisel, Kimberley Gray Rozner, Catherine Winder, Julie
Zackary
Director: Clay
Kaytis, Fergal Reilly
Writer: John
Cohen, Mikael Hed, Mikko Polla, Jon Vitti
Actors: Jason
Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Sean
Penn, Keegan-Michael Key, Kate McKinnon, Tony Hale, Hannibal Buress, Ike
Barinholtz, Tituss Burgess, Ian Hecox, Anthony Padilla, Jillian Bell, Billy
Eichner, Danielle Brooks, Blake Shelton, Charli XCX, Romeo Santos, Cristela
Alonzo, Alex Borstein, Ali Wong
Stunt Doubles: N/A
Languages
Speech Available:
English
Subtitles Available:
English, Spanish
Blurb from Netflix:
Sentenced to anger management class, grumpy Red becomes a hero who trains his
fellow birds to unleash their inner fury when pigs invade their island.
Selina’s Point of View:
The Angry Birds Movie
was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be. It was cute, filled with
references, and a little cheesy.
Although I wouldn’t put it in the same class as some of the
other animated films we’ve seen recently, like Home (2015) and Minions
(2015), I still found it rather enjoyable. There was plenty for the kids to get
excited about, but enough references meant for adults that it wouldn’t be overly
boring for parents to watch with them.
Sure, most of the laughter it got from me was that minor,
half-snicker that occurs when something is amusing but not quite hilarious.
Still, the cuteness factor was pretty much through the roof and made up for it.
I’m not going to go into the voice acting because, well, you
see the cast list. It’s not necessary to go into it. A bunch of professionals
worked on this film.
All-in-all, I’d recommend this movie to families with kids
or adults that are fans of the game.
Cat’s Point of View:
In the days before my daughter had her own Kindle (and
disappeared into it), I tried so very hard not to get into the whole Angry Birds thing. I’m not exactly sure
why (aside from the time vacuum). I’m not really one to talk, though – but
that’s beside the point at the moment. While visiting relatives for
Thanksgiving a few years ago, someone let the kiddo use their phone to play.
I very soon became acquainted with the furious feathered
fliers.
For those that haven’t played (I know there are a few
holdouts out there), this movie answers the burning question most have when
first encountering this franchise. Why are the birds angry?
The movie is funny and full of all sorts of tidbits that are
Easter-egg-like nods to pop culture, the Angry Birds games, and cast trivia.
Speaking of the cast, there are some heavy-hitters of Hollywood’s comedian
crowd as well as some old-school actors. Watch it and guess which role Sean
Penn (Milk, The Tree of Life, Gangster
Squad) has – without looking it up on IMDb!
The PG rating doesn’t seem too heavy handed. Very small kids
might be disturbed by some of the events in the core plot, but there isn’t a
lot of language or anything like that. Overall, I’d say this is a great family
night movie!
I would definitely recommend this and would watch it again.
This was, after all, my third viewing! We are a family of moviephiles. What can
I say?
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 43%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 47%
Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 4/5
Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 3/5
Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 4/5
Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score
– 4/5
P.S. There’s some
stuff during the start of the credits – a very Shrek (2001) like dance number – and another scene after that.
Production Companies:
Vitamin A Films, Backlot Post Melbourne, Yellow Brick Films
Producer: Sylvia
Dambrosio, Michele Davis-Gray, Mike Gillespie, Gemma Godfrey, Wayne Marc
Godfrey, Peter D. Graves, Richard Gray, Christine Holder, Mark Holder, Jamie
Houge, Robert Jones, Virginia Kay, Christopher Kikis, Christopher Lemole,
Raffaele Lopriore, Vanessa McMahon, Bryce Menzies, Benton Morris, Warren
Ostergard, William Rosenfeld, Joseph Trichilo
Director: Richard
Gray
Writer: Robert
Cross, Michele Davis-Gray, Richard Gray, Ross McQueen
Actors: Joseph
Cross, Birana Evigan, Rafi Gavron, Julianna Guill, Alex Meraz, Diane Duca,
Ethan Peck, Rebecca Da Costa, Michael Guillod, Lindsay Lamb, Duane Loken
Stunt Doubles: Tim
Henderson, Chris Nielsen
Languages
Speech Available:
English
Subtitles Available:
English
Blurb from Netflix:
When a group of friends fine a remote abandoned mine and decide to explore, their
excitement turns to fear as they’re haunted by a mysterious force.
Selina’s Point of View:
This wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. In fact, it wasn’t
anywhere near what expected. That didn’t mean it was unique. It was just
exactly what I would have expected from a different type of film. What that
means is that the lazy storytelling was marketed incorrectly. I don’t know
which part bothers me more.
I’ll be clear. It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen. It
wasn’t even close. Then again, I’ve seen a fuck-load of crap in my day. It was
simply on the low side of mediocre.
I can tolerate recipe films. Especially if there’s something
remarkable about them. The problem with Mine
Games is that there really isn’t anything that made the recipe special for it.
I can’t really explain which recipe I’m talking about without giving spoilers,
however. Of course, about ten minutes into the film you’d probably be able to
guess how it ends… but we still don’t like giving spoilers here at Trust the
Dice.
It might be acceptable background noise or something, but
don’t bother watching it for the actual story.
Cat’s Point of View:
This one’s a tough call. I’ve been sitting here, for what
has felt like forever, trying to figure out what I should say about this movie.
I’m conflicted about how much I actually enjoyed it.
On one hand, it fell prey to a few of the standard horror
tropes. The film did, however, seem to try something different – and managed to
do a decent job of it. I’ve still got questions as to what was actually
happening. I usually say that’s a good thing. Movies that make you think and
leave you scratching your head afterwards have done their job, right?
The cast was a mixed bag. There were relatively unknowns and
also familiar faces. Ethan Peck (Twelve,
In Time, Eden) was a little stiff, but I think that was part of his
character – thumbs up there. Briana Evigan (S.
Darko, Sorority Row, The Devil's Carnival) is usually a pleasure to watch.
I loved her in the dance movies she’s been in. Here, I bought her
performance…for the most part. Joseph Cross (Running With Scissors, Milk, Lincoln) sold me on his role, even
though I just seem to be missing something where the plot is concerned.
Unfortunately, Rebecca Da Costa (Trick of the Witch, Breaking at the Edge, The Bag Man) fell a bit
flat to me. I didn’t really get into her part in the story. There was a bit of
a disconnect for me there, and it took away from my overall suspension of
disbelief.
This is one of those movies that I think you’d have to watch
again to try and catch little details that might fill in the gaps for what
might’ve been missed the first time around.
Do I want to watch it again, though? That’s the question I’m
not sure I have an answer to.
If someone asked me what I thought of the movie, and whether
or not I’d recommend it – I’d likely say it was ok, and they should see for themselves.
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 26%
Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 4/5
Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 2/5
Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 3/5
Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score
– 3/5
The Random Rating:
R
P.S. A different
name for the film appears on the title screen of the movie.
