Film Reviews

Poseidon

• Rating:
• Director: Wolfgang Peterson
• Starring: Josh Lucas
• Details: US, 99mins, 12A.

It's New Year's Eve and the majestic cruiser Poseidon glides across the sea carrying, among others, former New York Mayor and over-protective father Robert Ramsey (Russell), his daughter Jennifer (Rossum), professional gambler Dylan Johns (Lucas) and lovelorn Richard Nelson (Dreyfus).Just as the party kicks off, a rogue wave smashes into the ship, flips Poseidon like a toy and turns it upside down - killing most of the passengers and crew in its death roll. Trapped in the ballroom, Ramsey disobeys the captain's orders to stay put and decides to find his daughter who went dancing in the club a few decks below. With him come Johns, Nelson and some others and together they brave the hazardous journey through the dilapidated wreck in the hope of somehow finding a way out before the ship sinks.
Peterson fooled us all when he burst onto the mainstream with Das Boat way back in the 80s but hasn't come near such acclaim since. Treading water with In The Line Of Fire and Outbreak, The Perfect Storm hinted at a return to form but was sandwiched by two turkeys - Air Force One and Troy. In Poseidon, a remake of the 1972 disaster hit The Poseidon Adventure, Peterson returns to what he knows best and where he seems the most comfortable - the sea. Unfortunately for him, as he was concentrating on the sets and getting the look of the film just right, the terrible script passed unnoticed. Even though we are rarely granted a breather, the formulaic story plods along in a series of high-octane action scenes followed by heart-rending emotional lulls. It is in these emotional respites that the poor script really becomes noticeable and the clunky dialogue threatens to drag the survivors even deeper into the murky depths. The characters are poorly drawn cardboard caricatures (we are told at convenient points that they are either firemen, ex-navy officers or architects when the needed skill arises) and are just mouthpieces for the bad dialogue cobbled together by The Cell scribe Mark Protosevich. Peterson is a good director - he just directs a lot of bad films.

Review by Gavin Burke