Poseidon / Le Poséidon (Bilingual) [Blu-ray]

I love movies about the sea, i.e. especially about power-driven ships, big or small. (The sailing ships are less interesting to me, unless, of course, any of them should happen to have a pirate crew aboard! Errol Flynn still "rocks"!) Nonetheless, ultimately I guess that I have to go to the 1972 movie, "The Poseidon Adventure", or to this 2006 remake, titled simply "Poseidon", for some real ship-kicking fun. My experience on ships as a young sailor was with those of Second World War vintage, and these modern vessels, like the Poseidon sort or any such cruise ship now, are mystifying, with all of that advanced technology. Then, atop that, things are mostly upside down, of course, once the ship has capsized completely! Those factors bewilder, as well as the fact that cruise ships have come to look, and to operate for the passengers, more along the lines of floating hotels (with or without casinos) than more recognisably like "real" sea-going vessels!

Still, it's fun going through the guts of any ship as the actors do in this film, so I was happy that most of the film takes place not in the ballroom and passenger cabins, but deep within the ship, right to the bottom of its overturned hull. For those who like the "innards" of ships most of all, this is fun to watch, as, for the same reason, so much of "Ghost Ship" was, too. The actors mostly are okay, and it is nice to have a talented little boy passenger among them, instead of adults entirely. I'll be watching this again!

This third version of Paul Gallico's 1969 thriller is yet another remake that lacks the heart and wonder of the original. [If you've seen either of the two earlier interpretations, it is important to note that all three have entirely different characters and names.]

As revellers ring in the New Year aboard the luxury cruise ship Poseidon, the liner is capsized by a 150-foot high rogue wave. A small group of survivors decide to take matters into their own hands by racing up to hoped rescue through the bowels of the rapidly sinking vessel. Among them are a gambler (Josh Lucas), an ex-fireman (Kurt Russell), his daughter (Emmy Rossum), her fiancé (Mike Vogel), a mother (Jacinda Barrett) and son (Jimmy Bennett), a stowaway (Mia Maestro), and a suicidal gay man (Richard Dreyfuss).

Screenwriter Mark Protosevitch, whose last effort was the 2000 Jennifer Lopez clunker The Cell, offers little or no back story to the characters and doesn't bother to explore their motivation -- it seems unlikely a self-centred gambler would so willingly become the leader of the desperate party. Director Wolfgang Petersen proves he is just another hackneyed director, whose past successes were mere flukes. In his hands, even the disaster sequence falls short, and leaves you wanting more. The ballroom set, so key to the original, is much less spectacular, while the multi-deck lobby is underutilized. Petersen is clearly motivated by shock value, choosing to crush many passengers while lining every corridor with twisted bodies. While this may excite teens, it just adds to the film's sterility. Although the film is suspenseful and fast-paced, it seems everyone involved with the project was in a rush to finish it.

The special effects are top-notch, but they are never enough to transport a viewer into the action. Poseidon is just an average attempt to masquerade as a blockbuster...cancel your boarding ticket now. Rating: 5 out of 10.

to me,this was a great movie.it had action,excitement,and suspense.it was also very heart breaking.i really felt for the characters.i admit,i even got weepy a couple of times.i thought the acting was believable,and the way the characters behaved was realistic.the movie didn't make very much money in the theatres,which surprises me,after watching it.i'm sure there are flaws in the movie and logic gaps,but i no longer look for those sorts of things.i used, to but i found it harder to enjoy a movie that way.now,i try to base a movie on how entertaining it is and whether the story draws me in.to me,this movie was very entertaining(there were some real nail biting moments)and i was drawn into the story.i pretty much liked the movie as a whole.i only had one small complaint.i thought the ending was a bit too abrupt and they could have expanded it a little.i didn't think it was a bad ending,but i would have done it a bit differently.otherwise,fantastic movie."Poseidon" gets a 4.5/5 from me