REVIEW: Poseidon
Poseidon
Dir Wolfgang Petersen
Wolfgang Petersen really likes big waves. The director of The Perfect Storm goes back to the ominous ocean in an attempt to stay on the crest of box office success. Nothing like its notoriously terrible predecessor, the 1972 cult classic The Poseidon Adventure, this film is just below the surface of being a great one. It is New Year’s Eve, and a party is underway aboard the liner in the middle of the ocean.
Something has to break it up and in this film the baddy is a giant rogue wave not on the guest list. As in any major disaster movie, after the initial character introductions you will find yourself constructing the who-will-die-next list. In a Petersen film, it could be anyone or maybe even all of the characters. On board for the ride is a range of talent: Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss, and The Phantom of the Opera’s Emmy Rossum.
Poseidon is a ninety minute cocktail of gripping and suspenseful action mixed with hints of funny dialogue, strong secondary characters, and with a added zing of intertextual Backdraft and Jaws references. This is fun on a titanic scale.
1st Jun 2006