I figured this movie had its share of Sacrificial Negroes given the premise and the absence of Andre Braugher in any of the press junkets publicizing the movie, but I didn’t think it’d be as blatant as some of you-all make it sound. Cliche for Hollywood!
One thing I noticed is that, in almost all of the shots of the boat’s exterior, you can see a couple of inflatable rafts floating around the ship. They didn’t just come out of nowhere right when they were needed.
Anyway, I thought this was a gloriously awful movie. The entire car ride home, SolGrundy and I were busting up over the stupid crap we saw in it. Hell, we didn’t even wait until the ride home: we were making fun of it all through the show. (Quietly, to be sure. Neither of the other people in the theater with us heard anything.) Every time the kid narrowly escaped death, we’d groan in disappointment. Afterwards, we agreed that there were some crucial things missing from the film.
[spoiler]-They needed at least five more Matt Dillons to die in humorously gory, ironic ways. (Sol: “That’s the first time in history anyone has ever said a movie needed more Matt Dillon.”)
-Someone needed to be killed by a machinegun spray of exploding rivets.
-Just as he was pulling himself into the boat, Richard Dreyfuss needed to be eaten by a shark. (I think Dreyfuss’s character survived by dint of being a double minority. He was gay and Jewish, which I guess canceled each other out and made him Aryan by default.)
-The kid should have died right at the beginning, by missing his leap into the curtain Kurt Douglas was holding.[/spoiler]
Terrible movie. No redeeming qualities. Highly recommended to audiences of all ages.
Please, don’t forget Carol Lynley’s yellow shorts. And the absence of pants of any kind on Stella Stevens.
The best part of the original was Gene Hackman telling all the slim, trim women “You won’t be able to climb in that dress! You’ll have to take it off!” one after the other, then letting Shelley Winters go ahead and climb in her dress.
Thanks folks. While women in hot pants do nothing for me, I think I will try to see this movie this weekend. I’m with Miller and most of the rest of you. Bring on the cheap, trashy thrills!
Some of the odd things for me.
It is some sort of transatlantic cruise, right? Why was it only Americans on board?
Besides the one big wave, the ocean was always calm. No waves in the opening shot or any of the exterior shots of the boat. The life rafts do pop up when the boat first capsizes, but they didn’t drift at all during the escape.
Did you miss the part where they explained that it was a Rogue Wave? 
Very silly movie, but definitely worth seeing on the big screen. During a matinee, preferably.
one would think that a former firefighter (as played by kurt russel) would know how easy it is to release an elevator door from the shaft side, but this would make it unneccesary to add to the drama and tension by climbing to the next level.