Disaster strikes again in ‘Poseidon’ misadventure

By Barry Garron

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Leonard Maltin, in his
one-volume encyclopedia on movies and videos, described “The
Poseidon Adventure,” released in 1972, as “mindless but
engrossing.” A lot has changed in this remake for TV from
Robert Halmi Jr. and Larry Levinson.

Instead of a tidal wave capsizing the luxurious cruise
vessel, the ship is flipped over by a terrorist’s bomb. The
rescue is accomplished with the help of the Internet and
satellite imagery. A boy who is a passenger records the entire
doomed voyage with a video camera. And instead of being
mindless but engrossing, as Maltin called the original, it’s
just mindless.

For all of its defects, the original film won a place in
cinematic history as the progenitor of disaster films (and for
the Oscar-winning song “The Morning After”). The TV remake,
though nearly 20 minutes longer after commercials are
subtracted, is bloated with special effects and stunts but
fails to produce an emotional connection. In the end, we care
almost as little about the few survivors as we do about the
thousands of others who are washed into oblivion by torrents of
water.

The formula for a disaster film requires there be smaller,
personal stories mixed in with the larger story of the fight
for survival. In Bryce Zabel’s script, most of those personal
stories involve Richard and Rachel Clarke (Steve Guttenberg and
Alexa Hamilton), their nursing student daughter (Amber
Sainsbury) and their precocious videographer son (Rory Copus).
Mom is an entrepreneur whose chief flaw, at least according to
Dad, is her success at establishing a retail empire. Dad is a
resentful novelist who quickly, conveniently and inexplicably
becomes the object of affect for the ship’s masseuse (Nathalie
Boltt), who turns out to be a surprisingly nice person for a
homewrecker.

Adam Baldwin stars as Mike Rogo, a Homeland Security agent
assigned to the holiday cruise on the basis of intercepted
chatter and a raid of a terrorist cell that takes place in the
film’s opening minutes. There’s also the elderly lady (Sylvia
Syms) still grieving her husband’s death, an obnoxious producer
(Bryan Brown) and his arm candy (Tinarie Van Wyk). Yet, for all
the character development that occurs, they might as well be a
movie star, a professor, a millionaire and his wife.

The toppled gigantic Christmas tree is in the remake. So is
the upside-down ballroom, even though modern cruise ships don’t
really have them. Nor is it commonplace for the ship’s officers
to grant children free run of the ship’s galley. No matter.
“The Poseidon Adventure” isn’t about reality any more than it
is about compelling drama or scintillating dialogue. It is
about calamity, well executed special effects and remarkable
stunts, all of which are capably presented by director John
Putch. This time, though, “The Morning After” isn’t a song but
the time period by which most of the movie will be forgotten.

A Hallmark Entertainment presentation of a Silverstar
Limited production in association with Larry Levinson Prods.

CAST:

Mike Rogo: Adam Baldwin

Kasim Badawi: Peter Butler

Richard Clarke: Steve Guttenberg

Rachel Clarke: Alexa Hamilton

Aimee Anderson: Tinarie Van Wyk

Shoshana: Nathalie Boltt

Jeffrey Eric Anderson: Bryan Brown

Bishop Schmidt: Rutger Hauer

Dr. Ballard: C. Thomas Howell

Shelby Clarke: Amber Sainsbury

Belle Rosen: Sylvia Syms

Dylan Clarke: Rory Copus

Suzanne Harrison: Alex Kingston

Executive producers: Robert Halmi Jr., Larry Levinson

Co-executive producer: David Wicht

Producer: Mary Church

Director: John Putch

Teleplay: Bryce Zabel

Director of photography: Ross Berryman

Production designer: Jonathan Carlson

Editor: Jennifer Jean Cacavas

Music: Joe Kraemer

Set designer: Jonathan Hutchinson

Art director: Tom Hannam

Casting: Matthew Lessall, Gillian Hawser, Janet Meintjes

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter