www.kajatm.com It has been said that the imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However when it comes to remakes in Hollywood imitation often result in movies that are far worst than the original. The remakes that have actually turned out to be good, while limited, have had some success in recent years. Such movies as the Thomas Crown Affair, Ocean's 11, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Grudge and The Italian Job we very well done and have become some of my favorites. Poseidon, my friends, is not one of these movies.
Just like the original, Poseidon is the story about a new cruise ship that has been struck by a rogue wave which results in the ship flipping over and trapping the guest within the sinking ship. The main characters of the original have been replaced by Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss* and Jimmy Bennett. Again just like the original, a group of passengers realize that if they stay where the captain wants them to stay they are in certain doom and will end up drowning. And this is where Poseidon lost me. Where is the compelling speech from Josh Lucas, just like Gene Hackman before him, to try and convince the passengers to follow him out of the ship? The whole scene is lost without this speech. Why is it that from that point forward it seems like the whole new version of Poseidon is on fast forward? There is no plot development, no character development and basically it just seems like Wolfgang Peterson had something better to do while making this movie. I understand that the ship is sinking and they have to get off as soon as possible but I distinctly remember the original having the same story line and I didn't feel like the characters were running some obstacle course that they needed to get through in 2 minutes. I think that if he would have taken the time to watch the original he would have come to the realization that he could have put 30 more minutes in the movie and it probably would have turned out better.
The only positive thing that I saw about this movie was the scenes that showed the ship getting hit by the rogue wave. I would like to take the time to thank whoever created CGI. People flying everywhere, people dying, water taking over the boat and just the realistic destruction that they can create using a computer is really amazing. This is the only category that tops the original. But outside of that this movie left me very unsatisfied.
Some classic movies such as The Great Escape, The Dirty Dozen, Empire Strikes Back, The Magnificent Seven, The Wizard of OZ, Caddy Shack, Airplane, Jaws, Raging Bull, Cool Hand Luke, The Sting and Rear Window should automatically go on the "These Movies Reached Perfection the First Time so we are Never Ever Remaking Them!" list. Poseidon Adventure should have been one of these movies. I hate the fact that nothing is sacred in Hollywood.
Give me Gene Hackman, give me Ernest Borgnine, give me Red Buttons, give me Roddy McDowell and give me the original Poseidon Adventure. Don't give me Josh Lucas, don't give me Kurt Russell, don't give me Kevin Dillion and don't give me the new Poseidon. If you have never seen the original Poseidon Adventure I fully expect you to enjoy this movie but unfortunately I have and that ruined my movie experience. But then again, what do I know? *Why didn't someone tell me that Richard Dreyfuss now looks like he is 101 years old. What happened? Did he enter some sort of aging machine that took him from his 50's to senior citizenship?
