Movie Review for Poseidon

Summary: When a rogue wave capsizes a luxury cruise ship in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, a small group of survivors find themselves unlikely allies in a battle for their lives. Preferring to test the odds alone, career gambler Dylan Johns ignores captain's orders to wait below for possible rescue and sets out to find his own way to safety. What begins as a solo mission soon draws others, as Dylan is followed by a desperate father searching for his daughter and her fiancee--a young couple who hours before couldn't summon the courage to tell him they were engaged and now face much graver challenges. Along the way they are joined by a single mother and her wise-beyond-his-years son, an anxious stowaway and a despondent fellow passenger who boarded the ship not sure he wanted to live but now knows he doesn't want to die. Determined to fight their way to the surface, the group sets off through the disorienting maze of twisted steel in the upside-down wreckage. As the unstable vessel rapidly fills with water each must draw on skills and strengths they didn't even know they possessed, fighting against time for their own survival and for each other.

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By John Wirt of Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) (7/0)
            This Poseidon Adventure remake capsizes.

By Mike McGranaghan of Aisle Seat (7/0)
            The film is concerned only with getting to the action, with no intention of exploring the horror ...

By Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6/1)
            At heart, Poseidon is just a string of neat-o special effects in search of something that pas...

By Paul Arendt of BBC (7/0)
            A gripping, pacy remake of Irwin Allen's 1972 classic disaster movie.

By Ty Burr of Boston Globe (6/1)
            Maybe it's the era we're living in, but the new film is as much fun as a shroud.

By Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            ...noisy, occasionally exciting...

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Peter Rainer of Christian Science Monitor (7/0)
            The relative briskness of Poseidon ensures that things won't get bogged down. If a sequence is du...

By Jules Brenner of Cinema Signals (7/0)
            If a simple idea floats enough boats, it won't scuttle a perfectly respectable recovery of the bo...

By David Edwards of Daily Mirror [UK] (7/0)
            Sure, some of the acting's excruciating and the dialogue is dire. But heck, as a big dumb action ...

By Lisa Schwarzbaum of E! Online (7/0)
            ...a buoyant, old-wave disaster pic for a generation of well-conditioned thrill seekers...

By David Foucher of EDGE Boston (7/0)
            'Titanic' went down to the tune of $600 million, so it's no surprise that 'Poseidon' is now risin...

By Collin Souter of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            Short, sweet, tight, to-the-point and able to fully satisfy anyone craving a silly disaster film.

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Scott Weinberg of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            For all its narrative road-blocks, pot-holes, and speed-bumps, when Poseidon sticks to its checkl...

By Emanuel Levy of EmanuelLevy.Com (7/0)
            The main pleasure of watching a disaster film like Poseidon is guessing which of the passengers w...

By Anton Bitel of Eye for Film (7/0)
            A handful of the passengers may eventually get out of the ship alive, but nothing, it seems, can ...

By Eugene Novikov of Film Blather (7/0)
            But for a couple of expensive shots, Wolfgang Petersen's film plays like a particularly well-made...

By Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central (7/0)
            A waste of life, a waste of cash, and a step backwards somehow from the original waste of life up...

By Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat (7/0)
            In the plus column, Poseidon is a tightly-paced action movie that doesn’t depend too much on spec...

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By David Thomas of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            Our guides on this route, while not as cheesy as their antecedents, certainly seem more soulless.

By David Thomas of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            In spite of some true moments of real tension and pizzazz, this version of Extreme Love Boat ...

By Joe Utichi of FilmFocus (7/0)
            It is just so miraculously funny that you find yourself being swept up in the ludicrously of it a...

By Brian Orndorf of FilmJerk.com (7/0)
            The director knows how to hammer tension out of the moment, and when Poseidon concentrates on bei...

By Brett Buckalew of FilmStew.com (7/0)
            As quick, character-defining sketches go, Richard Dreyfuss' recently dumped gay architect hits th...

By MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher (7/0)
            [J]ust wants to be Hollywood brainless and old-fashioned about putting gorgeous people in danger ...

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Rob Vaux of Flipside Movie Emporium (7/0)
            Is this what we've been reduced to? A film whose noise and explosions are separated from the seas...

By Bill Clark of FromTheBalcony (7/0)
            While the film is successful in building tension and dread in several scenes, this is a largely p...

By Jeffrey Lyles of Gazette (MD) (7/0)
            one of the more engaging films of the disaster genre.

By Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews (7/0)
            There's camp, and there's just plain lousy writing.

By Sheri Linden of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            A disaster thrill ride that's technically dazzling but emotionally uninvolving.

By Kit Bowen of Hollywood.com (7/0)
            Relatively low on the cheese meter and high on realistic visual effects, Poseidon is just plain g...

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Steve Rhodes of Internet Reviews (7/0)
            Is Poseidon hilariously ridiculous or merely ridiculous? It's just absolutely ridiculous and not...

By Bruce Kirkland of Jam! Movies (7/0)
            The audience drowns in a tidal wave of special effects, sentimentality and bad acting.

By Ella Taylor of L.A. Weekly (7/0)
            If the prospect of expiring horribly strikes you as a rather extreme way of growing backbone and ...

By Paul Doro of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            That you don't care about any of these people doesn't help. When a main character dies, it is a b...

By A. O. Scott of New York Times (7/0)
            ...a reasonably well-executed throwaway...

By Michael A. Smith of Nolan's Pop Culture Review (7/0)
            I left the film with one burning question: if I can't get a cell phone signal when I stand in a c...

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Jeffrey Westhoff of Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) (7/0)
            'Adventure' no longer describes what the survivors endure, and an accurate alternative such as Th...

By Scott Tobias of Onion AV Club (7/0)
            Titanic without the metaphors, the class-consciousness, the love story, or anything resembling a ...

By Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel (7/0)
            So what if it's not United 93? It's about the spectacularly perilous journey, not the people maki...

By Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly (7/0)
            Easier to forgive the sodden clichés and jump on board the nautical roller coaster ride.

By Jon Popick of Planet Sick-Boy (7/0)
            Puts the 'less' in 'mindless.'

By Gary Goldstein of Reel.com (7/0)
            Despite solid visual effects and a few impressive, if incredulous action sequences (Josh Lucas's ...

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (7/0)
            It may be cheese, but Poseidon lays out a mighty fine spread.

By James O'Ehley of SA Movie & DVD Magazine (7/0)
            Poseidon is all rather well-done and suspenseful - think Titanic, but without the boring romantic...

By Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            An experience that's exciting and nerve-racking in the moment, but that, in the end, leaves audie...

By Sean McBride of Sean the Movie Guy (7/0)
            It’s generally exciting stuff, but there’s nothing truly satisfying about the film.

By William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            ...works as a thrill ride...

By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
            The filmmakers know what they're doing, and have fun taking us along for the ride.

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            Poseidon recognizes and encourages belief in the popular popcorn-movie theory of The Survival of ...

By Nick Rogers of State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) (7/0)
            Wave hits. Boat flips. Survivors climb. Short movie. Smart move. Good time. None of the problems ...

By John Venable of Supercala.com (7/0)
            If a ship flips over and it's full of people that nobody cares about, does it matter if anyone ma...

By Andrew Wright of The Stranger (Seattle, WA) (7/0)
            [The] queasy nods toward realism ... ultimately scuttle any lingering hopes of escapism. The gen...

By Nick Funnell of Time Out (7/0)
            Petersen’s expert direction ensures it remains gripping, keeping the tension ratcheted right up a...

By Brian Tallerico of UGO (7/0)
            It swims but it's one of those sloppy dog paddles your kid brother does more than an Olympic free...

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Claudia Puig of USA Today (7/0)
            ...a sodden saga, with a script that is awash in clichés. It nearly drowns under the weight of i...

By Steve Crum of Video-Reviewmaster.com (7/0)
            The real stars are the stunts and special effects, particularly the 90 thousand gallons of H20.

By Matthew Turner of ViewLondon (7/0)
            Boasting impressive special effects and a decent cast, this isn't a patch on the original movie b...

By Willie Waffle of WaffleMovies.com (7/0)
            this is not an actors' movie. All they have to do is look breathless, scared, and wet.

By Phil Villarreal of Arizona Daily Star (3/4) No reference
            you start to realize that the capsized cruise liner onscreen isn't the only sinking ship.

By Ray Greene of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
            We get a parade of ciphers so thinly scripted that it's impossible to work up much anxiety about ...

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Staci Layne Wilson of Buzzine Magazine (3/4) No reference
            A watertight actioner.

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (3/4) No reference
            ...Petersen's heart isn't in it. He is too wise a director to think this is first-rate material.....

By Devin Faraci of CHUD (6/1) No reference
            By the end of Poseidon the eponymous cruise ship lies on the bottom of the ocean, and so, I hope,...

By Pablo Villaca of Cinema em Cena (3/4) No reference
            Eficiente dentro de suas limitações, só não se iguala ao original por não ter tanta paciência em ...

By Randy Myers of Contra Costa Times (3/4) No reference
            Poseidon traps us in an upside-down ship of fools, where the risk of sinking fails to matter beca...

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (6/1) No reference
            As far as disaster movies and remakes are concerned, Poseidon is, well, a disaster.

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Brian Juergens of Freeze Dried Movies (6/1) No reference
            A one-way, all-inclusive ticket to the port of Achingly Earnest on the sunny shores of Dullsville...

By James Sanford of Kalamazoo Gazette (6/1) No reference
            'Poseidon' does allow viewers to indulge in the same morbidly funny routine inspired by most disa...

By Kyle Smith of New York Post (3/4) No reference
            ...audiences at Poseidon are facing only a slightly better time than passengers on "Poseidon.

By M.E. Russell of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
            You have a the movie that feels like a video game: Faceless characters walk into a room, solve a ...

By Gary Thompson of Philadelphia Daily News (3/4) No reference
            From the beginning, there's something furtive and morally dubious about this splinter group.

By Eric Melin of Scene-Stealers.com (3/4) No reference
            ...a suprisingly unmoving and pessimistic journey filled with forgettable character stereotypes a...

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Fred Topel of Suite101.com (3/4) No reference
            The most pure action/adventure romp since Batman Begins... makes Titanic look like a sailboat.

By Josh Larsen of Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) (3/4) No reference
            ...an homage to the disaster movies of the 1970s that captures the genre's awfulness all too well...

By Lawrence Toppman of Charlotte Observer (6/1) Not Reachable
            The special effects, with one painful exception, hold up beautifully. But the people have no pers...

By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (6/1) Not Reachable
            Banal dialogue sinks this one.

By Steve Schneider of Orlando Weekly (6/1) Not Reachable
            Petersen opts for a 'straight, updated' approach that’s actually more ludicrous.

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (6/1) Not Reachable
            Although the premise and basic setup are the same, the characters and their specific situations a...

                         Reviews of Poseidon
By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (3/4) Not Reachable
            The overturned-ocean-liner remake, Poseidon, is long on 'wows' but short on 'aws.'

Movie Distributors
Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
Warner Bros. Pictures International

Production Companies
Irwin Allen Productions
Virtual Studios
Radiant Productions
Synthesis Entertainment
Next Entertainment

Movie Studios
Warner Bros. Pictures