Author
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Topic: Poseidon Adventure
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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator
Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted May 21, 2006 07:41 PM
Graham,
Shortly after I saw the new "Poseidon" I had a strong desire to watch the Ken Films digest again, which I had always liked. Ken did a great job with the set up, the wave hitting, the Poseidon turning over and the decision to go up to the "bottom" of the ship. Unfortunately there was hardly any time left so all they could fit in was Roddy McDowell falling off a ladder and Gene Hackman being covered by water. Then they cut straight to the rescue. My print, darn it, has warmed up quite a bit.
As for the new version, there's a jaw dropping opening shot, an uninterrupted long take where the camera starts underwater, surfaces to a wide shot of the ship, flies in close to the ship to see Josh Lucas jogging, follows him overhead through a passageway, pulls back to a wider shot and flies around to the other side of the ship where we rejoin Mr. Lucas on the top deck as he jogs up to a rail. Then we come in for a tight close-up! Amazing. And it's also the best part of the film. "Poseidon" isn't awful, the CGI effects are ok (I think the old school effects from the original are better) but the cast has a lousy script to work with and it's hard to care who will survive.
Doug
-------------------- I think there's room for just one more film.....
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