Poseidon

Review by Tim Basham

At one point in Poseidon when there’s still hope of an eminent rescue after the ship has been turned upside down by a giant tidal wave the captain (Andre Brauger) looks around at the remaining survivors and exclaims, “God rest our souls,” although “save our souls” might have been more appropriate, especially for the audience.

It’s not that this remake of a 70’s classic is bad. If you take away the shallow acting, the rote dialogue and the flat cinematography you actually have…ummm…well, a bunch of special effects—which might have been okay if Titanic had not gotten there first, and pulled them off with much more appeal. Instead, we watch incongruent scenes such as when the propellers spin to a halt after the ship’s somersault and then in the end we see survivors struggling to find a way past the now fully spinning propellers.

It should be pointed out that director Wolfgang Petersen has done a pretty good job with his previous films. Perhaps it’s the material he had to work with—engaging and fascinating books as the basis for 2000’s The Perfect Storm and 1981’s Das Boot, plus classic literature for 2004’s Troy-. But the strength of the original film The Poseidon Adventure came not just from the novel but from the performances of its all-star cast including Shelly Winters, Ernest Borgnine, Gene Hackman (all Oscar winners) plus a slew of then big names like Roddy McDowall, Stella Stevens, Jack Albertson, Leslie Nielsen and Red Buttons.

This current cast could be blamed for the sinking of Poseidon but on the surface the line up is really not all that bad: Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, Braugher and Kevin Dillon as the stereotypical overly obnoxious drunk who we know will die before the film is half over.

Of course, every disaster movie worth its salt has “the kid” and Poseidon is no exception. When he first appeared I had hoped he would be some sort of A.D.D. monster. Unfortunately, the character Conor is closer to Bobby Brady than Bart Simpson and would have fit in well as the lampooned kid in Airplane! (Remember Peter Graves asking, “Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?”) There’s certainly a problem with character development when the kid wanders off and almost drowns and you find yourself really not caring.

Maybe the weight of the original film is just too heavy, or maybe it worked better with an earlier generation. Anyway you look at it—upside down or right side up—this ship should never have left port.

1.5 out of 5

Poseidon
Australian release: 1st June, 2006
Cast: Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, Emmy Rossum, Andre Braugher, Mike Vogel
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
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