Boris Godunov
Prince
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2002
- Messages
- 401
Due out soon is the Wolfgang Peterson's remake of the 1972 classic "The Poseidon Adventure."
For those that don't know it, the 1972 film was the first (and some say greatest) of the "Disaster Movies" of the 1970s. The premise was straightfoward and simple: On New Year's Eve, an enormous passenger liner carrying thousands of celebrants is suddenly capsized by a rogue tsunami wave. While many are killed in the initial capsizing, a small band of survivors (led by a renegade priest) realize that they need to work their way to the bottom (now top) of the doomed ship to have any hope of escape. The film depicts the perilous journey through claustrophic passages where there is flooding and fires and explosions in a world that is literally upside-down.
The film--which was a huge commercial success--starred Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelly Winters, Red Buttons, Roddy McDowell and a host of other B-list 1970s celebrities. It's a pretty entertaining yarn, albeit marred by silly dialogue and some intense over-acting by the cast. At the time, the special effects were spectacular, especially the famous scene where the ship's grand ballroom turns upside down at the stroke of midnight, sending passengers in evening dress tumbling end-over-end and culminating with a poor guy dropping into a huge light fixture and getting zapped.
The remake is, IMO, long overdue. The premise of the film remains the same, although the Poseidon is now a modern cruise liner and the individual characters have been greatly changed. The cast looks decent: Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfus, and Andre Braugher are present. Furthermore, given Peterson's reputation for spectacle, I've no doubt the production values will be astonishing. We'll see if the script is an improvement over the 1972 version (it would have to be, though).
Anyone else waiting for this movie? I admit to being a sucker for a good disaster yarn which features lots of wanton destruction.
For those that don't know it, the 1972 film was the first (and some say greatest) of the "Disaster Movies" of the 1970s. The premise was straightfoward and simple: On New Year's Eve, an enormous passenger liner carrying thousands of celebrants is suddenly capsized by a rogue tsunami wave. While many are killed in the initial capsizing, a small band of survivors (led by a renegade priest) realize that they need to work their way to the bottom (now top) of the doomed ship to have any hope of escape. The film depicts the perilous journey through claustrophic passages where there is flooding and fires and explosions in a world that is literally upside-down.
The film--which was a huge commercial success--starred Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelly Winters, Red Buttons, Roddy McDowell and a host of other B-list 1970s celebrities. It's a pretty entertaining yarn, albeit marred by silly dialogue and some intense over-acting by the cast. At the time, the special effects were spectacular, especially the famous scene where the ship's grand ballroom turns upside down at the stroke of midnight, sending passengers in evening dress tumbling end-over-end and culminating with a poor guy dropping into a huge light fixture and getting zapped.
The remake is, IMO, long overdue. The premise of the film remains the same, although the Poseidon is now a modern cruise liner and the individual characters have been greatly changed. The cast looks decent: Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfus, and Andre Braugher are present. Furthermore, given Peterson's reputation for spectacle, I've no doubt the production values will be astonishing. We'll see if the script is an improvement over the 1972 version (it would have to be, though).
Anyone else waiting for this movie? I admit to being a sucker for a good disaster yarn which features lots of wanton destruction.
