Poseidon

It's that time of year again, said Kyle Smith in the New York Post. Poseidon is this year's big-budget mega-flop, a movie whose purported $150 million price tag can't save it from utter blandness. 'œAudiences at Poseidon are facing only a slightly better time than passengers on Poseidon,' who are drowned, crushed, impaled, and ground up while our sexy heroes improbably rush to safety. Hardly any character development takes place before the 150-foot 'œrogue wave' hits the ship and turns it upside down, giving us no reason to root for Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, and Richard Dreyfuss as they crawl through the bowels of the ship. This remake can't hold a candle to the cheesy 1972 original, The Poseidon Adventure, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. Watching a digitized wall of water hit a computerized vessel isn't half as entertaining as seeing Shelley Winters' fat bottom bobbing under the sea. And thanks to director Wolfgang Petersen's humorless approach, this movie is 'œtoo unpleasant and repetitive to be entertaining, even as camp.' Come on, it's just a summer disaster flick, said Lisa Schwarzbaum in Entertainment Weekly. We all know what we're getting into when we walk into the theater: 'œA few characters will perish and others will look good wet,' and that's fine with us.

Rating: PG-13

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