Has Anyone Seen The Poseidon Adventure?

Cafe Society
1

The new Poseidon Adventure movie has me intrigued. I liked the book, although I never saw the original movie in it’s entirety. I’ve seen good reviews, along the lines of “Those who like this sort of thing will like it very much”. However, I still remember the last movie I saw without checking Cafe Society first. It was Troy and, two years later, it’s still a running joke.

Has anyone here seen The Poseidon Adventure? If so, is it worth it? I rather like disaster stories and disaster movies, including Titanic. I realize they’ve changed the characters around a lot which makes me think the dynamics of the plot will be very different what with no preacher daring God to kill him and no champion underwater swimmer. Does it work anyway, or should I find something else to do this weekend like renting the original?

2

I saw it yesterday and to my complete surprise actually enjoyed it. It does have a “champion swimmer” in it though surprisingly he is the only male in the movie that doesn’t act like he’s a pro. It was very suspenseful and enjoyable. It won’t be winning any awards, but it was nice. The character development was interesting, while some of the characters didn’t stay true to who their character was it was still an all around good movie.

What struck me most about the movie was how realistically (for the most part) the characters were acting, at least in the beginning. Towards the end the characters adopted the traditional martyr/hero mentality, but even that wasn’t bad enough to wreck the movie. It would be worth it to go see the movie just to see the sets that they built for it, I couldn’t help but think of what a pain it would be to do the construction for it.

Other than some parts in the beginnning the CG wasn’t overly used or used badly, which is a welcome change these days. Also if you do plan on going keep in mind that one of the lead characters is not Matthew Mcconaughey, its some guy named Josh Lucas. I didn’t realize this until I saw the credits.

Not that it matters, it just took me by surprise, they could be brothers.
Matthew
Josh

3

I thought it was a good movie for what it was, but it needed to be fifteen minutes or so longer with more material to flesh out the characters. Either at the beginning or strewn throughout the movie. The audience never really got to know them so you didn’t care whether they lived or died.

Andre Braugher was wasted, as usual.

4

One of our radio stations gave away a theater full of tickets so I got to see it on the IMAX. I liked it better than I thought. Of course, seeing Emmy Rossum on the huge screen could make me sit through anything. Some of it was quite unbelieveable, particularly that these common passengers were quite knowledgeable about the layout of the ship and its controls. The special effects were better than the original, but the acting was not as good and the character development was amateurish. There are some things, like the speed of a propeller when not submersed in water, that I’d like to see comment from those that would know since my BS meter was maxing out throughout the film.

5

The Poseidon Adventure starred Gene Hackman, Poseidon is the one out in theaters now. Just so no one gets confused.

I liked it. Very little fleshing out of characters (which worked for me, because all they would’ve done was put in more love interests), very intense, and surprisingly graphic (lots of deaths with bodies floating around, being burned, etc).

My only problem was Josh Lucas’ character’s motivation.

However, he can save me, any day, no matter what the motivation.

Anyone recognize Jacinda Barrett of Real World London fame? I thought she was good.

6

You should know by now not to bring your BS meter to a movie like Poseidon. You’re going to wear it out.

7

Even if you don’t like it, you know there’s got to be a morning after, right?

<ducks and runs>

8

That reminds me – you know what’s funny about the original? One of the crew members thinks this song is some kind of hard-rockin’ newfangled music that the kids like. He says to Roddy McDowell, “Pah. Give me a good Strauss waltz any day!” (or words to that effect.) When did this movie come out–early '70s? Who on earth would have thought Morning After is noise?

But anyway, I love the original in all its campy glory. YOU KILLED HER. YOU KILLED MY LINDA. I’ve rented it several times and the kids love it, especially the PITA kid who knows where everything is on the ship.

So I was particularly interested in seeing a new version with great special effects. We even watched the horrific TV-movie version, with what’s-his-name Steve Guttenburg? The guy from Cocoon. It was bad.

So the new one–it’s watchable from a mindless-entertainment point of view?

9

I saw it (the new one) with Mr. Rilch and some other people. I liked it for what it was.

Cons: —All the minority members dying. Not sure why Dreyfus’ character was made gay if he wasn’t to succumb to this, but perhaps he was supposed to be the one exception.

—Not enough mileage gotten out of Dreyfus being an architect or the stowaway knowing her way around the ship. Lucas was made to be the brains of the outfit, which didn’t quite add up.

—No explanation given for how the kid got behind that grating (okay, I suppose a current could have swept him away because he was so light, but why didn’t his mom notice his absence sooner?) OR how Lucas got him out! I can excuse the first but not the second.

Pros: —Faster pacing. And we really didn’t need more characterization. A crisis situation brings out a character’s true motivations; you don’t need an extra hour of backstory so that you already know how they’ll react when it comes to the crunch.

—Kurt Russell. 'Nuff said. Well, okay, a little more: his death was the scene that stayed with me afterwards. Imagine using your last seconds of brain power still trying to think of a way to save others.

—A more realistic finale. In the original, the final dollop of cheese was the last survivors getting to the hull and pounding away at the exact moment that the rescue crew arrived. Okay, granted, the timing was equally perfect in this one, but at least they were outside the ship and visible.

One of the people we saw it with kept harping on how cheesy and predictable it supposedly was. One of his sticking points was “So of course, we have to find out that the waiter was a jerk, so we don’t feel bad about him dying!” Finally, I said, “Yeah, like 9/11. I mean, not only did we have the building on fire, but we had to have people jumping from the top floors because they’d rather die that way? Talk about tugging at our heartstrings. And how about that big cheesy fireball when the second plane hit – puh-leeze! And, how come we never heard any more about the Pentagon? I mean, they brought that storyline in out of nowhere and then just dropped it!”

So that derailed into a discussion about action movies in general. Me, I just pay my ten bucks and wait for my fillings to get jarred loose by the THX. When I want deep meaning, I’ll see a film that has a message. But he’s young, so he still thinks every movie should have a message. :stuck_out_tongue:

10

We went and saw it–it was getting such bad reviews and we were in the mood for some cheese. It was better than we expected, pretty much your usual action disaster movie with lots of explosions and stuff. We weren’t sorry we saw it.

11

I haven’t seen Posidon but I remember seeing the original in the theatre and I loved it. I only had a vague idea to see the new one till I read this.

I now have something to do this afternoon.

12

I loved the original (cheesy as it was) and expected to HATE this new one. But, I, too, liked it. Very exciting, hold-your-breath action. Great f/x. I did think Kurt Russell’s character combination of firefighting hero/NYC mayor was sort of unbelievable. . . but, what the heck! And I think shortening it from the original was brilliant! I did miss the climb up the inverted Christmas tree and the impaling of the slutty chick, but not too much. I thought Dennis Haysbert would have made a better captain. . . but then everyone would have obeyed him and stayed in the ballroom and croaked. Not so good a film, then.

13

The original is schlocky, cheesy fun but the new one sucks ass. There’s no exposition to any of the characters, no reason to care about any of them, the wave hits at like 4 minutes into the movie. Only bad people and minorities die. The movoe pusses out by splitting the Gene Hackman character into two characters so we can get the noble death and still have the happy ending of the other “hero” surviving to save the bimbo and her obnoxious brat kid.

One thing that struck me about the movie was how stupid the underlying message was. The message is "If you ever find yourself in a disaster scenario, you should never listen to anyone in authority or follow any of their instructions about what to do in an emergency. You should strike out on your own instead because you are more special than everybody else. If at all possible, find a rugged, professional gambler because they always know more about the ship and its dangers than the captain does. They are also good looking and white so they are the people you should listen to.

"Even though hundreds of other people are dead, dying, maimed and have lost loved ones, you should still expect that everyone else on the ship will go out of their way to help you find your own histrionic, over-acting daughter and her worthless boyfriend. Remember at all times ou are more special than everybody else.

“If you are a minority, you should probably try to stay the hell away from Richard Dreyfuss. Trust me on this.”
The movie is just worthless in every way. We always know exactly who will live and who will die (no one who is a child or love interest of a “hero” can die). Just once I’d like to see the weaselly Kevin Dillon character make it out instead of the irritating kid. The timing is always perfect. The protagonists (at least the white ones) will always get out of every hole before the water gets to them, The second they get out of the boat, there’s a convenient life raft waiting for them. The second they get on the raft the boat sinks. The second they fire a flare, the rescue helicopters show up.

Rent the original. It’s not Shakespeare but it’s watchable. The remake is ass.

14

Just one question.

Do any of them women in the new one wear hot pants?

15

You’re referring to the crucial role played by Pamela Sue Martin’s red shorts in the original. Unfortunately, they do not appear in the remake. All the women are chastely dressed and nothing much is revealed even when they’re soaking wet. Another reason this new movie sucks.

16

What was good about the original–there was plenty bad, but was good–were the characters. The movie took time to flesh them out as real people. In the original, they had to survive *each other, *almost more than the disaster around them. This one–I went to see it because, hello? Wolfgang Peterson? Das Boot? How perfect, I thought. Only, not so much. In this version, the characters take a back seat to the technical goings on; they only have to survive special effects. Plus, while it’s undeniable that WP is a master of claustrophobia, what was effective about the original, to me, were the echoing, cavernous spaces they had to traverse. The claustrophobic bits seemed a little phoned in; obligatory; like they were in Peterson’s contract or something. Overall, it was way closer to a video game than to a human drama. Yawn.

17

The group I was with all noticed the dead minorities thing.

One thing I noticed was that you’d never guess they were upside down. The maps were upside down, but all conveniently at eye-level.

18

I just saw it this afternoon. Now, take a boat full of people, half of them are women. The women, are all dressed up for New Year’s Eve. Turn the boat upside down. Now one may expect to see some underpants here. Physics demands it. But now, we are denied this except for one shot much later. It is the Peggy Sue Martin character, sort of. The little boy, not that annoying btw, has a young hot mother, instead of a sister.
I really missed the best scene with the boy in the first movie. The one where he has to go to the bathroom. That is one of the best bits in a disaster film as people never have to go the john. All this water rushing about, it’s New Year’s Eve so you’ve been drinking and yet…
And the song is utterly forgettable. The Morning After is actually a better song.

19

Is this the utter crapfest of a song at the beginning that seemed to be in the movie only to give “Fergie” from the Black Eyed Peaas a crappy cameo? Then yeah, I agree.
And oh, what a suprise, the lead singer is banging the captain.

20

Can’t really argue with too much of anything you said, but these stick out.

I maybe mistaken, but those rafts may have that auto-inflate thingy when they hit water (or is it salt water?). The Captain was sure that the auto distress beacon was launched as soon as the ship capsized, so depending on where they were on their journey, it’s not inconceivable that help was relatively close at hand.

I saw it on IMAX, and other than the sound, the really huge screen was a waste; most of the movie is in tight, cramped corridors. The few shots that benefited from the really big screen was the opening shot (gives the size/scale of the ship) and the wave/capsizing.