This 1972 film kicked off a spate of disaster epics prevalant in the 1970's, and is (in my opinion) one of the better ones.
Starring a ton of famous (or now-famous) actors and boasting a lot of special effects (both in miniature and on full-size sets), the film chronicles the struggles of a small group of people who survive the New Year's Eve capsizing of an old luxury liner. Their attempts to escape the slowly sinking ship, and to deal with their own often clashing personalities, are somewhat over-the-top by today's standards, and have even become so standard nowdays that they smack of cliche. But they do keep the action moving, and when viewed in the context of when the film was made, are bearable. (Again, in my opinion.)
CAST
Gene Hackman as Reverend Frank Scott
Ernest Borgnineas Mike Rogo
Red Buttons as James Martin
Carol Lynley as Nonnie Parry
Roddy McDowall as Acres
Stella Stevens as Linda Rogo
Shelley Wintersas Belle Rosen
Jack Albertson as Manny Rosen
Pamela Sue Martin as Susan Shelby
Eric Shea as Robin Shelby
Arthur O'Connell as The Chaplain (okay, I forgot his name... I think it was John... Something or other)
Leslie Nielsen as The Captain (Harrison, as he identifies himself onscreen)
An Irwin Allen production of a Ronald Neame film.

Some of us have posted a couple short comments on other boards about this film, and when I get a few minutes I'll copy those messages over to this board, so everyone else can have a common frame of reference without having to link or search.

A while back, in the Movie Sink, I created a board called "I knew I shouldn't...", or something like that, based on my experience with this film.

I was 9 or 10 when I saw this film, and it was my first "grown-up" film (I was going to say "adult", but that wouldn't come out right given the current meaning of "adult film" ).

It gave me nightmares as a kid. Looking back at the film, some of the acting and script was cheesy -- especially the genius kid -- but it holds up well. Definitely the best of the disaster films.

From the Lost in Space: The Irwin Allen Sink board...
Adam Bomb, Friday April 27 2001, 7:22pm. "Don't forget the S.S. Poseidon and the Glass Tower. "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno" were very good (and in "poseidon's" case, influential) disaster flicks, and deserved successes that still hold up almost thirty years later."
MarkN, Sunday, May 13 2001, 4:42am. "Adam, you think "The Poseidon Adventure" is a good movie? As if! I saw it a few months ago and thought how incredibly lame it is, at least by today's standards, especially when comparing it to the likes of "Titanic." The lamest part of "The Poseidon Adventure" was the pisspoor wave knocking the ship over. I know it was shocking to see at the time, but it's really such a weak wave that it wouldn't've knocked over anything more than a toy boat. What I hated most about the film was that one annoying kid. Why did they have to have that little smartass brat anyway? He couldn't talk, he shouted all of his lines. He should've drowned with all those other idiots who chosae not to follow the paty to safety. I saw the movie on AMC, after it followed a Making-of documentary of it, which was actually better than the movie.
"Anyway, I'm not ragging on ya. I've no problem if you like it. I just don't myself. It's a very lame film."
ScottN, Sunday, May 13 2001, 11:20am. how incredibly lame it is, at least by today's standards, especially when compared to the likes of "Titanic."
"Yes, FX technology has come a long way in thirty years, hasn't it? However, this is not a legitimate beef with the film, remember, it wasn't made today.
"Your thing about the annoying kid, however, is right."
Adam Bomb, Sunday, May 13 2001, 6:07pm. "The Poseidon Adventure" still holds up today due to the strong performances of its two leads- Gene Hackman (before he started treating almost every role as he did Lex Luthor) and Ernest Borgnine. The dialog was occasionally turgid adn the FX primitive by today's standards. But I still think it's a good movie and I stand by it. It was influential because every studio made disaster flicks when it became a monster hit. Allen went from Fox to Warners in 1975, where everything he did there (including an awful "Poseidon" sequel) tanked."
Anonymous, Saturday, June 16 2001, 7:46pm. "The REAL reason the Poseidon tipped over is because Shelley Winters fell on her duff after the wave struck, thereby capsizing the ship."
Will, Friday, June 22 2001, 11:28am. "That's a terrible lie, Anonymous! Everybody knows it was a Giant Lobster Man from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea that knocked it over!"
Adam Bomb, Sunday, July 08 2001, 5:59pm. "Don't forget Leslie Nielsen as the Captain of the Poseidon, eight years before his career-changing role as the Doctor in "Airplane" and a decade before his signature role as Det. Frank Drebin in "Police Squad."
From the Movies:Rick's Cafe Americain (Kitchen Sink):The Bar (Critiques, Critics and Ideas):I Knew I Shouldn't... board...
ScottN describes movies you begged your parents to see, but then regretted having done so once you saw them. He continues Monday, October 01 2001, 11:15am. "I was 10(?). The movie was "The Poseidon Adventure." (OK, so I was a bit of a wimp back then...)"
Craig Rohloff, Tuesday, April 30 2002, 8:10am. "Hey, ScottN, if you're still lurking around here... The Poseidon Adventure?! Did you live on a houseboat at the time? I was about six or seven when I first saw that film, and I always liked it. (It's certainly the best of the 1970's disaster flicks.) I even still have my ViewMaster set from this film. (As a kid, I would turn the viewer upside down so I could see what the capsized sets would look like "right side up"."
Back to the Irwin Allen Sink...
Craig 'CR' Rohloff, Monday, April 21 2003. "Re: The Poseidon Adventure I thought the sfx were pretty good, especially considering when they were made. The model of the SS Poseidon itself was huge (like 23 feet long or something) and looked pretty good in the film's opening shots. Even the tsunami scene isn't bad when the wave first hits; it's the next shot of the ship heeling over onto its side that looks more model-like. Just because other films have either used real ocean liners (1960's The Last Voyage) ar full-sized mock-ups (1998's Titanic) shouldn't relegate The Poseidon Adventure to the sfx dustbin. (FYI: In the film, the ship was top-heavy due to a lack of ballast, which contributed to its capsizing. In reality, a real ship may not have rolled over 180 degrees, but at least the writers were attempting to deal with the nit.)
"Sure, the film's a bit over-the-top in the melodrama department, but I've seen far worse. I still like it (it was one of the first "adult" movies I recall going to the cinema to see as a kid), and recently (a couple of years ago) watched it on an appropriate night: New Year's Eve."
ScottN, Monday, April 21 2003, 10:22pm. it was one of the first "adult" movies i recall going to the cinema to see as a kid
"Me, too. Of course, it was the basis of my "I knew I shouldn't have"... (see the board)"
CR, Tuesday, April 22 2003, 10:23am. "You know, Scott, you never did answer my questions about why this film did whatever it did to you that made you start up that board...
"That actually made sense to me, even though it's one of the most convoluted sentences I've ever written."
ScottN, Tuesday, April 22 2003, 10:32am. "I was 9. It gave me nightmares."
Will, Monday, April 28 2003, 8:36am. "Me, too. The man that's flung backwards a couple dozen feet to crash through the upside down ceiling, and the death of Shelley Winters' character were more graphic than I expected."
CR, Tuesday, April 29 2003, 8:36am. "How about the burned cook in the galley, with his eyes still open. I think that was the first time I'd ever seen death portrayed with open eyes. (I didn't have nightmares, but it was creepy.)"
ScottN, Tuesday, April 29 2003, 10:14am. "Maybe we should ask Jake to start up a Poseidon Adventure board over on Movies?"
CR, Tuesday, April 29 2003, 3:42pm. "Ooo! I second that! (This, coming from the guy who asked for a Mad Max board and posted there only once or twice...)
"Seriously, I think that would be a fun board, just to discuss the movie, and of course to pick its many nits. (For the record, I do like this film... Oh, wait, I already said that a few days ago.)"

And so here we are!

Good point, Scott, about "grown-up" versus "adult" films!

By the way, for those who hated Robin Shelby (the Annoying Genius Kid), in the Paul Galico novel upon which this movie is based, he dies! He gets lost in the ship and is never found when it sinks at the end.
That's another thing the film changes, in not showing the ship sink. (I've seen still photos of the capsized model from the air. It doesn't look very realistic like that... the filmmakers were wise to just stick with underwater shots of the ship, since it not only looked more realistic that way, it helped keep the sense of claustrophobia and tension throughout the film.)
Too bad Irwin Allen decided to use the non-sinking ending years later as an excuse to make a terrible sequel!

I first saw "The Poseidon Adventure" on TV back during the 70's (I think I was about 9 or 10), and I thought it was a cool movie. In the past year or so, it has turned up repeatedly on American Movie Classics (off-topic rant: You know, AMC used to show old, classic movies (mostly black & white) without commercial interruption. Now, they're showing movies like, well, The Poseidon Adventure, a lot, you hardly ever see b & w films, and they interrupt the movies they do show with a lot of commercials, mostly for other AMC movies. I might as well watch TNT. Anyway, back on topic -)
By all rights, the Poseidon Adventure ought to be a terrible movie: its a 70's disaster pic (not a good track record with that genre); its directed by Irwin Allen; it had an ensemble cast of not-quite-stars and stars-past-their-prime; it featured a bratty know-it-all kid; it had long sections with turgid dialogue.
But for some reason, the movie works. No, it will never be a "great" or even a "classic" movie. But for me, the test of a good movie is: do I care about what happens in this story to these characters? And while I am watching "The Poseidon Adventure", I do care. In particular, the scenes after the ship capsizes effectively create a sense of peril. Although the characters are drawn rather broadly, the actors give very effective performances within the confines of their roles. The plot is "goal-oriented", not adversarial; that is, the characters have to struggle to reach a goal rather than fight off some villian. And nothing is certain - the ship could sink before they reach the propeller shaft, there might be no way to get through the hull when they get there. And significant, even major characters die in the process. So despite its flaws, The Poseidon Adventure is a "good" movie.

I saw Irwin Allen on the Merv Griffin Show in 1979. Believe it or not, he was planning a third Poseidon film, which is why the sequel's ending was a bit vague as to whether or not the ship sank. In a cheap-jack move, the exterior shots of the ship exploding were re-used from the original.
Another problem I had with the sequel is that I didn't give a hoot about any of the characters there, whereas (I agree with Maquis here} I did care about the characters in the original, and I wanted all of them to make it.
Also in the novel, Susan Shelby (the Pamela Sue Martin character) is raped.

By whom? And when?

I think she was raped by a crew member of the Poseidon; when, I can't recall. I do remember the guy who raped her thought she was someone else. I read the book almost 30 years ago, and I don't know where my copy is. (Is it still in print?)

It's been about a quarter of a century since I've read it, too, Adam. It was a crewman who raped Susan and he did think she was someone else; his girlfriend, I think. It happened while she was looking for her brother, Robin, IIRC. One of these days, I ought to see about getting myself a new copy of the book.

I have no idea if it's still in print.

I doubt if it's still in print. I found my copy at a used bookstore.
The sequel novel was based on the movie, and involved some of the characters going back to the Poseidon before it sank. Some elements of this novel were used in the abyssmal sequel film, but most were not. I suspect that if a third film had been made, it may have followed the sequel novel a little more closely. (While that novel is somewhat interesting with it's situation and some new characters, I had a hard time getting past the idea that any of the original characters would go back to the doomed ship. Also, the ending was over-the-top. They do rescue the ship's nurse, though.)

That was a great point, Maquis Lawyer, about caring about the characters... it applies to any film (or book, for that matter).

What, you didn't like the tiger loose in the ship?

I just checked www.amazon.com and yep, The Posieden Adventure by Paul Gallico is indeed out of print, as is the sequel novel, Beyond the Posieden Adventure.

ScottN: Yeah, what did that poor tiger ever do to desereve such a terrible fate? (Don't tell PETA! )
Thanks to Benn's info, I recommend to anyone who wants those books to follow my lead and try to find them at a used bookstore. I suppose e-bay would work, but I doubt if there's a huge supply (or demand) there.

Dang it!
desereve+deserve

sigh That should be =, not +.

I just checked eBay for The Poseiden Adventure books. I looked under "The Poseiden Adventure", "The Posieden Adventure" and "Poseiden Adventure" and the only thing I found was an autographed photo of Stella Stevens. However, looking under "Paul Gallico" I found two auctions with The Poseiden Adventure up for bid:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3519394257&category=271

This one starts at $2.99 and it's the 1969 hardback edition. Shipping is $3.95.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3518695994&category=269

This is for a lot of five Paul Gallico novels. The Poseiden Adventure is one of them. The seller lives in Australia, so the opening bid is $15.00 in Australia money. That translates into about $9.47 in American dollars. There is already one bid on it. Shipping costs is not listed.

Another Australian has Beyond the Poseiden Adventure for sale:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3519412069&category=271

Opening bid is $4.00, Australian or approximately $2.52 in American dollars. No shipping fees are listed, so that'll be determined after the auction ends. The book, incidentally, is also a hardback copy.

What's strange is that the movie wasn't listed anywhere. Not on VHS or DVD.

There are a bunch of VHS and DVD copies under the correct spelling, though.

You know, I was going to point out the spelling thing, but I was having a hard enough time with my own posts, so I thought I'd best slink away and hide in a corner somewhere...

By the way, for all you Region 1 viewers, Wal Mart has dvd copies for around $5.88 US.

D'oh!

OK (or is it okay?)... I found a nit that escaped me all these years.
After the Poseidon capsizes, Reverend Scott procedes to lead a small group of people from the ballroom to the engine room in an attempt to get out through the ship's inverted bottom. Everyone in the ballroom is wearing formal wear, since it's New Year's Eve and all, including Linda Rogo in a slinky silver evening gown. Scott informs her she'll have to remove the gown to climb a makeshift ladder up out of the ballroom. Her husband Mike balks at the idea, since she has "nothing on under there." (Her matter-of-fact response "I have panties, what more do I need?" is hilarious, as is Mike's response: "What do you mean?!") Mike ends up giving her his large dress shirt to wear.
The nit is later, as the group crawls its way through a horizontal air shaft. They reach a large vertical shaft, and start to climb up a service ladder. As Linda is assisted onto the ladder by Scott, the neckline of her (Mike's) shirt is moved over, revealing a bra strap.
(OK, I realize there was a practical reason for Stella Stevens to wear support during the physically active filming of this movie, but it's still a nit.)

This is probably more of a nit for Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (which I have never seen), but the "non-sinking" of the Poseidon at the end of the movie has always bothered me. Even after the Poseidon capsizes, it still floats because of the air trapped in the hull. The flooding occurs because either the hull shifts, allowing air to escape, or because air is escaping through other places in the hull - ie broken portholes. The ship will remain afloat until the weight of the water and the ship exceeds the bouyancy of the air within the hull.
---This is all well and good. But near the end of the movie, the rescuers cut through the propeller shaft to reach the survivors. For a demonstration, take a kitchen funnel and turn it upside down. Place your thumb over the hole, and then submerge it in water. Most of the air will remain in the funnel. But then take your thumb off of the hole, and the funnel will quickly fill You might even get a little spout of water out of the hole. When the rescuers cut through the hull, wouldn't this have allowed the air trapped in the engine compartment to escape, and caused the ship to sink or at least settle rapidly?

IIRC, they sealed off the propeller shaft after they entered it.

Good catch re: Stella Stevens, Craig.
IMHO, the actors really earned their pay here. As you mentioned before, the shoot was a very physical one (not just for Ms. Stevens), with stunts galore like climbing the makeshift ladder, scaling the shaft, or the swim to the propellor shaft. For much of the shoot, the actors had to get wet down at the start of each shooting day and stay wet for the entire 12 to 14 hours of filming. Try spending a day in wet clothes after getting caught in a drenching rain; you'll know how disgusting that feels.

Re: the hole in the shaft housing... The end of the film has the rescue helicopter taking the survivors away, but the hole is not sealed. So yeah, the ship would likely sink a lot quicker. One could presume, though, that other aircraft and boats arrived on the scene, and perhaps took steps to prevent that in order to attempt further rescues. Or not.
In the novel, a second hole was cut near the bow, and some people were rescued from there as well. Of course, in the novel, the ship sank shortly thereafter, amid a flotilla of rescue craft.
The sequel film is really not worth seeing, although I have to admit that a network broadcast version was slightly better than the cinema release thanks to the addition of a few deleted scenes. Overall, though, a bad film and a terrible sequel, IMO. (And the model work that wasn't lifted from the first film really did look like models instead of a real ship.)
Adam, I recall reading about the workouts the cast (and crew) got during the making of this film. IMO, it's one of the things that makes the film believable; there aren't obvious stunt doubles in every other scene, but the actual actors.

By the way, during real-life rescue attempts aboard a capsized ship (USS Oklahoma) at Pearl Harbor (in 1941), some compartments flooded as rescue holes were cut. The only reason the ship didn't go under completely was that its upper works (masts & superstructure) were jammed into the harbor mud.

Back to The Poseidon Adventure, here's a link to a fan-made website. Enjoy! (I did.)

Anyone watching this flick tonight? (Happy New Year!)

I've thought about it. But I probably won't. We'll see (pardon the pun). I do have it on DVD, so...

"I like to watch." - Chance the Gardener

If Poseidon is one of the better disaster pics (and it is), then Allen's 1980 turkey When Time Ran Out is the worst of the lot. Shot on a budget of $20 million, the pic contains acting and effects that belie the cost. The cast is composed of A-list stars of the time (Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bissett, William Holden) and lesser, but just as recognizable faces (Burgess Meredith, Barbara Carrera, Ernest Borgnine, James Franciscus.) If you've seen any of the '70's disaster pics, the script is just a paint-by-numbers rehash of all of their cliches. The plot concerns the attempt to escape from a ready-to-explode volcano. The main set piece, where Newman leads the cast on a rickety bridge (shades of The Wages Of Fear and Sorcerer) over a river of flowing lava, is so unconvincing it's pathetic. I remember seeing this in a theater in March, 1980. There were less than a handful of patrons in a 1200-seat screening room for a Saturday night show. This pic spelled an end to that cycle of disaster pics. This was also shown in an expanded (!) version on commercial TV as Earth's Final Fury. So, let the viewer beware.

The ending of "When Time Ran Out" was also truely dumb: the volcano spews out a huge chunk of lava (somewhat like a meterorite) that destroys the resort. The failure of 1979s' "Meteor" probably also led to the descision to make fewer disaster movies. Since 1996's "Independence Day", disaster flicks are definately back!

The first thing that always comes to mind when I think of "The Poseidon Adventure" are those upside down sets (the ballroom in particular) and the tidal wave hitting the ship.
It's also interesting to see Leslie Neilson in a serious type of role he would later spoof in films such as "Airplane".

The current crop of "disaster" pics also have some sci-fi elements attached, though. I specifically refer to Deep Impact, Armageddon, and the upcoming The Day After Tomorrow. Also, disaster pics have become hugely expensive. Armageddon was the most expensive film made by Disney.

Don't forget The Core. On second thought, try to forget The Core!

...not to mention the earthquake disaster miniseries "10.5" on NBC (see Seattle's Space Needle topple over! see the Golden Gate Bridge collapse!).
The disaster formula seems to have unending appeal!

HEAR the writers say they did the scientific research for the movie on the internet!


Seriously, I'm going to be avoiding that one.

What?
You don't want to sit through four hours of padding to see a couple of minutes worth of special effects?

Well.... when you put it that way.......


No

There's no freaking originality left in Hollywood (but you know that already, don't you?) They're doing not one, but two remakes of The Poseidon Adventure. One for television airing in 2005, and one for theatrical release in 2006.

Groan!
I know I shouldn't pre-judge, but... well, groan!
At least the new theatrical release seems to be more of a remake than the tv version. Of course, maybe they'll add elements from the the sequel novel (with the tiger!), which was nothing like the sequel film (without the tiger!).
As for IMBd claiming that the tv version is based upon the original novel, rather than the original film... well, the novel didn't have terrorists planting a bomb to capsize the ship. How lame. And if the tv show is just straight made-for-tv American adventure with Homeland Security "good guys" against terrorist baddies, are we going to lose the interesting religious ideas/questions of faith? One of the things that made the original sequel so bad was the good guys versus bad guys fighting that went on. (Ooo, I'll bet the terrorists in the new tv one will even desecrate a US flag or something, just to show how bad they are.)
I doubt that I'll watch the tv one. And I rarely go to the cinema anymore, since waiting just half a year or so allows me to watch the dvd release (usually with loads of extras) at my leisure, so if I watch the new theatrical one, it'll be on dvd.

The TV remake airs on NBC November 20. The shot of the guy in the tux falling down to the ballroom's inverted ceiling (prominent in the TV ads) seems to be almost exactly duplicated for this version.

TV Guide, in its latest issue, calls Gene Hackman's character Rev. Frank Scott. Rev. Scott was given no first name in the film, although IMDB lists the character's first name as "Frank." It also rips the TV remake for taking us outside the "Poseidon", to see the rescue efforts. One of the things that made the original so effective was that the focus was on the characters trying to escape. Anything else would have been a distraction, maybe even an annoyance.

The REAL reason the Poseidon tipped over is because Shelley Winters tripped and capsized the boat.

Now now Lang that was not polite or called for. Not everyone can be a ugly stick girl fencepost.

Oh well if they had someone like callista flockheart they could hav eused her to pick the lock on some of the doors.

Shelley Winters was considered quite the dame in her heyday. Check her out in "Night of the Hunter". Kirstie Alley is going through a bit of the same right now. People change.

Yes she was and still didn't look too bad as she aged.

I believe Winters actually intentionally gained weight for her role in TPA.

Don't bother with the (second) remake (which opens this Friday, and which runs a skimpy 99 minutes.) Instead, spend your money on this two disc special edition DVD.

Also, the original novel is back in print, in tie-ins to both the original film and the remake.

Have you seen it? Is it better or worse than the one they did on tv? I liked the original so thats cool about the DVD.

There was a screening tonight at the AMC (Loews) Lincoln Square. I was outside giving out passes for other screenings on Wedensday and Thursday, but a coworker got in, and later told me it was "Eh."

But at least I get to staff the screening tomorrow of Hannibal: Behind the Mask, which depicts Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs/Red Dragon as a child and a young man, and which doesn't come out until next February.

No, I haven't seen the remake. But, I don't have a lot of faith in it. To me, a running time of 99 minutes is a bit short. The result, IMHO, is that the emphasis is on action, rather than character development. I've already spent my money on the 2-disc set, so Poseidon is probably one for HBO.

Ah I see. I'm not betting on it either. But there is always hope.

It is still possible it might be an ok movie as a movie on its own. But as a remake of the original it will probably let too much down if it goes action over character. Or the traditional new cliches of action movies.

Reviews of the remake say it's dreadful. Check it out here.

Saw it. Yeah, it was dreadful. Strictly an action flick, with a lame effort to develop the characters. Spoilers ahead, not that anyone else will see this piece of puss...


The most glaring nit- the ship is a modern cruise vessel, with hundreds of glass windows. And somehow that glass was able to withstand the force of the water when the ship flipped over. But not all of it- the bridge window gave way early on, so that anyone able to help these suckers was killed right away.

Speaking of crew, most cruise ships have 1 crewman for every 3 or 4 passengers. But not on this ship- only a handful of crew survived, and only one worked his way to freedom with the heroes.

When the ship rolls over, a small group of passengers is trapped in a disco lounge. The fellow playing Kurt Russel's daughter's boyfriend is pinned under a metal beam, and it takes several passengers to move it and free him. He is carried away, limping badly, when Russel and his group find them. In the subsuquent scenes the boyfriend has no leg injury and doesn't limp. In fact, he carries a child on his back as they swim underwater.

In the most intense scene of the movie, the studly loner hero dives over a balcony into water covered in a layer of flammable liquid. He drops about 50', and trails a fire hose behind him, which he later uses as a line to allow other passengers to climb aross the flaming pit below. Big chance he took diving into that water, there could have been some debris, such as the very large steel girder/support that had just dropped into the water, sitting beneath him when he hit the water. I guess he was too cool to lower the hose and slide down carefully.

There is a small boy with the survivors, and his mother spends this entire movie calling his name, making sure he's OK, etc. He survives 4 incidents that could have easily killed him. But toward the end of the movie, when the path out is blocked and they're all taking a rest, nobody keeps an eye on him, allowing him to wander off. Sure enough, he gets into trouble and is almost killed.

The end scene of the film shows 2 helicopters and 4 ships converging on the raft carrying the survivors. It's really odd that these ships would all be about the same distance from the Poseidon.

The Poseidon remake will be on DVD August 22. More here. American box office was poor; only $60 million, for a film with a $160 million pricetag.

I guess because it did so poorly at the box office, Poseidon will premiere on HBO this March 3. A scant ten months from theaters to DVD to pay cable. Maybe it won't be long before it gets late-night runs on TBS.

The end scene of the film shows 2 helicopters and 4 ships converging on the raft carrying the survivors.

Yeah, (Spoiler) there just happened to be a raft within swimming distance of the ship. Already inflated, no less.

Bloody thing's all over HBO land now. Obi-Juan said it all above; there's not much more I can add. As a follow-up to my comment about the skimpy running time, it's 89 minutes without the end credits. And Fergie as the band vocalist?? Give me Carol Lynley or Maureen McGovern any time.

CR posted, on the "Irwin Allen Sink,"

---

quote:

How about the burned cook in the galley, with his eyes still open. I think that was the first time I'd ever seen death portrayed with open eyes. (I didn't have nightmares, but it was creepy.)

---

Another remake that no one wanted or asked for.