Giving opinions for several years and showing like a fine vintage
Giving opinions for several years and showing like a fine vintage
Member since:11.07.2000
Reviews:625
Members who trust:55
When did the ideas factory burn down? It must have been in the last few years as there can be no other reason for why Hollywood can't seem to get many new ideas. This Summer alone we're getting a new Superman movie, we've had a re-make of The Omen and joining the bunch is a re-make of 70's disaster flick The Poseidon Adventure.
With a titanic budget of over $150 million and a US gross of not even half that amount it's safe to say that this movie tanked and was left dead in the water floating away as a distant summer memory. Does the movie deserve such failure? Well to be honest it does.
On New Years Eve, Poseidon, a luxury ocean liner is hosting a lavish party to see out the end of the year. Everyone's having a great time until the party is spoiled by a rogue tidal wave which hit's the liner and leaves it upside down, flooded and in danger of sinking. Many are left dead; all that are alive see no escape. All except a small group who brave the pitfalls of a sinking ship to find a way out. Amongst the group are rugged man in his thirties, older rugged man with daughter and boyfriend he doesn't approve of, gay suicidal man, mother and annoying kid, token Hispanic stowaway and token Mexican waiter plus asshole gambling guy.
Normally I'm a sucker for big disaster movies but Poseidon is frankly an exercise in tedium. For a film like this to work you need to be invested in the characters. The original movie attempted this. At no point in the re-make do we get any interesting character development. At what point did someone actually read the script and say 'hang on we can't spend $160 million on this', the chances are that they never did, instead thinking that a lot of CGI and a load of water would paper over the cracks.
The film moves onto the party pretty much straight away with the wave hitting within the first fifteen minutes. There is no time to know who our main characters are. The most character information we ever get is that Kurt Russell was once mayor or New York and is quite successful whilst Richard Dreyfuss has been jilted by his boyfriend. Aside from that Josh Lucas is nothing and the mother and son combo are baffling, where's the father?
The wave sequence is probably the best moment of the film, epic in scale with a lot of carnage and big scale effects. It also features some embarrassing acting from that chick out Black Eyed Peas. But from then on in it's a case of a bunch of people moving from one obstacle to the next, opening a door, wading through some water and guessing who's going to die next. I say guess, that's a lie as it's fairly obvious who will not make it out alive. Only one of the death scenes is vaguely interesting and that's only because I like the actor involved.
Wolfgang Petersen has gone from making Das Boot to churning out big budget flops. I enjoyed The Perfect Storm but this and Troy have put him right down to the level of some of those other hacks. I'm quite surprised he has made a film that seems to throw away character and just go for spectacle. Quite frankly 90-minutes is far too short for a movie like this.
If you're going to re-make a movie then re-make something from years back that had untapped potential like Ocean's Eleven. There is no sense in re-making classic films other than pulling in some money. On this occasion it's an expensive mistake to make.
The only thing that would have made this interesting would have been throwing some sharks in there but then Deep Blue Sea already done that.
For disaster this summer I'm afraid only a few words will save us.
Snakes On A Plane.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Action/Adventure - Director: The Wachowski Brothers - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Monica Bellucci, Jada Pinkett
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
I haven't seen this yet but a customer told me last night that he'd just watched it on DVD and thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe I'll wait for the Sky Movies release.... As for the ideas factory, I've been thinking that for years. It seems that nobody in Hollywood can come up with a new idea at the moment. Markd.
dazmufc 08.07.2006 22:03
Not seen this I have to be honest. Nice review though -DAZ-
sghawken 08.07.2006 21:33
Absolutely awful movie, but you have to pat the guy the played the drunk a great big pat on the back his performance was fantastic ;o)
The 1972 disaster hitThe Poseidon Adventurewas ripe for a big-budget CGI remake, and who ... more
better to helm it than thriller expert Wolfgang Petersen, director ofDas BootandThe Perfect Storm? It hardly matters that a TV movie remake (also based on Paul Gal...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The 1972 disaster hitThe Poseidon Adventurewas ripe for a big-budget CGI remake, and who ... more
better to helm it than thriller expert Wolfgang Petersen, director ofDas BootandThe Perfect Storm? It hardly matters that a TV movie remake (also based on Paul Gal...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Mayday... It's New Year's Eve and festivities have begun aboard the luxury cruise ship ... more
Poseidon at sea in the North Atlantic. One of the finest vessels of its kind Poseidon stands more than 20 stories tall boasts 800 staterooms and 13 passenger dec...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Its New Year's Eve on the Poseidon - a state of the art cruise liner on its way to New ... more
York - as partying voyagers lift their glasses and toast the future, little do they realise their predicament. Rapidly approaching is a 150-foot rogue wave that when...
![Poseidon [DVD] [2006]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78462323.jpg "Poseidon [DVD] [2006]")
Jul 8th, 2006
very helpful by (96%):
helpful by (4%):
