| Poseidon |
| By Alexis Gentry |
| After reading review after review of Poseidon which slammed the film and compared it to Mission Impossible III, I decided to write my own review which would do the same thing. The film, which stars Josh Lucas and Kurt Russell, is a remake of the campy 1972 original, The Poseidon Adventure, which starred Gene Hackman. In this version, our large cast includes Phantom of the Opera’s Emmy Rossum, Real World: London cast member Jacinda Barrett, Entourage’s Kevin Dillon, a cameo by Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, and even Richard Dreyfuss. The characters are defined as quickly as possible in rather 2D ways so we can move on and get to the giant wave. The action packed sequence of the ship turning upside-down is elaborate and surprisingly good. Though way over the top in some places, the CG effects are pretty realistic and there seems to be a lot of attention paid to tiny details like deck chairs. I couldn’t help but feel like Ronald Neame, director of The Poseidon Adventure, would have watched it and said, “See, that’s what I was trying to do! We just didn’t have a gigantic budget and computers!” As I was watching this sequence, I kept thinking, “you know, this is probably what it would be like if you turned a cruise ship upside-down as opposed to the peaceful upside down set in the original.” Fans of the original will be pleasantly surprised at some quick shot-for-shot matches. For example, as the escapees have to navigate their way through the flame-filled kitchen, some of the shots exactly match shots of Hackman walking through the flame-filled room. And who could forget Shelley Winters’ Olympic swim as things fall apart in the water around her? I won’t give away who, but one of the characters takes on the self-sacrificing Winters swim. There is a story at the heart of Poseidon, but the real highlight of the film is the special effects. It was such a summer action movie. If the actors had been marionettes, you could have called it Team America II: Terror on the High Seas. Aside from the giant wave turning the ship upside-down, this movie also has all sorts of other special effects that teenage boys tend to love. It has dozens of explosions, dead bodies everywhere, people being electrocuted, and, the mother of all over-the-top digital creations, a flame waterfall! I had to use an exclamation point at the end of that sentence because I just don’t see how you could follow the words “flame waterfall” with a regular old period. I went and saw this movie because I was in the mood for a big budget summer action movie and I couldn’t have allowed myself to fork out $9 for MI:III. If you find yourself sitting around thinking about seeing an action movie this summer, please, don’t pick one with Tom Cruise! Josh Lucas is so much better! |
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