Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 10 august 2018
Shark thriller 'The Meg' goes deep, stays shallow

By JAKE COYLE voiced action star, is lured
Associated Press back underwater because
We're going to need a big- one of the three people
ger boat for all these shark trapped — Lori (Jessica Mc-
movies. Namee) — happens to be
On the tail of "The Shal- his ex-wife. With remarkably
lows," ''47 Meters Down," little trouble, he goes from
''Dark Tide" and, of course, boozing in Thailand to eas-
the seminal "Sharknado," ily piloting a vessel straight
comes "The Meg," the lat- down to the seafloor. Sta-
est in a growing school of tham, sometimes a one-
shark movies, all of which, man show, here has a fairly
to varying degrees, use our large ensemble around
fond memories of "Jaws" as him, one assembled to ap-
bait to reel us back in the This image released by Warner Bros. Entertainment shows Jason Statham in a scene from the peal to moviegoers both
water again. film, "The Meg." East and West. Chinese
The hook on this one? Big- Associated Press actress Li Bingbing stars as
ger shark. ing to scientists, they could ror," ''The Meg" has been the base above. the divorced single-mother
To my disappointment, the grow up to 60 feet long. in development for some For the rescue mission, daughter of Dr. Zhang, and
title of "The Meg" does not According to Hollywood two decades, only to finally 11,000 meters down, the Taylor's love interest. Also in
refer to Meg Ryan (though producers, it's more like 75 emerge as American-Chi- team reluctantly turns to the mix as crew members
it's nice to imagine an ac- feet or more. In "The Meg," nese hybrid production. the only expert at such are Ruby Rose ("Orange is
tion movie revolving around a Megalodon's dorsal fin A state-of-the-art underwa- a deep dive: Jonas Tay- the New Black") and Page
Jason Statham making pre- sticking out from the water ter research facility, bank- lor (Statham). The chief Kennedy.
carious escapes from the looks from afar like a cata- rolled by a cocky young researcher, Dr. Minway But the main draw in "The
"When Harry Met Sally..." maran. billionaire (Rainn Wilson), Zhang (Winston Chao), Meg" is obviously the giant
star). No, the titular Meg of Naturally, history could not uncovers a deeper realm elects to quickly bring Tay- shark which, after years
Jon Turteltaub's thriller is the keep such a predator so of the Mariana Trench lor out of retirement (he's stuck at the bottom of the
Megalodon, which sounds perfect for today's movies that has for centuries been living above a bar in Thai- sea, is awfully hungry.
like either a "Transformers" all to itself, especially when separated from the rest of land) against the warnings There are the expected
character or a heavy met- one could be strategically the ocean by a cloudy, of Dr. Heller (Robert Taylor), close scrapes, surprisingly
al band. found somewhere in the cold membrane. Soon af- who believes Taylor reck- good production design,
It is, in fact, a prehistoric un- Pacific, conveniently close ter a research expedition less for an earlier deep-wa- PG-13 rated chompings
derwater dinosaur, a kind to the world's second larg- pushes through the layer in ter nuclear submarine res- and fluctuating levels of
of supersized shark that est movie market, China. a submersible, they are at- cue where as many died even giant-shark-movie
went extinct more than 2 Based on Steve Alten's tacked by an unseen crea- as lived. plausibility. q
million years ago. Accord-
"Meg: A Novel of Deep Ter- ture, cutting them off from Statham, the sleek, gravelly

Solid twists keep plot churning in

'Prisoner in the Castle'

By OLINE H. COGDILL a character that chang- of Scotland.
Associated Press es and grows with each The place is supposed to
"The Prisoner in the Castle" novel. Maggie Hope, the be a secret British training
(Bantam), by Susan Elia heroine of Susan Elia Mac- center but is really a pris-
MacNeal Neal's World War II novels, on for top agents whose
One pleasure of a mystery is a different woman in this supervisors worry they
series is connecting with eighth outing, "The Prisoner could leak vital informa-
in the Castle," than she was tion or have weaknesses
in the 2012 Edgar-nominat- that could be exploited
ed debut, "Mr. Churchill's by the enemy. They can't
Secretary." leave — or communicate
Starting as a typist for Win- with the outside world —
ston Churchill, Maggie has and none of their friends
become a full-fledged spy, or family knows where
working for the Special Op- they are. But the 10 agents
erations Executive (SOE), hardly feel like they are
the hush-hush organization in jail as they roam the
created by Churchill to "set grounds freely and are
Europe ablaze." But at the served excellent meals by
end of 1942, the spy busi- the three servants who live
ness turns against special at the lodge.
agent Maggie when she But then the agents —
is sent to a former Victo- all of whom have been
rian hunting lodge on the trained to kill — are being
This cover image released tiny, remote Isle of Scarra, murdered, and it is obvious
by Bantam shows "The
Prisoner in the Castle," nicknamed the Forbidden that one of them is putting
a mystery by Susan Elia Island, located hundreds to practice his — or her —
MacNeal. of miles from the mainland background.q