The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Near Cape Farewell, Greenland December 1942 Paul Gallico, the highest paid magazine writer in the United States, may have been a passenger on the 'Mary' when she was struck by the rogue wave. Cosmopolitan magazine had sent him off to Europe to be their war correspondent. Years later he wrote a best-selling book about a luxury liner that turned turtle in mid-ocean. Hollywood bought the film rights and it became a blockbuster movie called 'The Poseidon Adventure'. The 'Queen Mary' had just 5" before it would have capsized with 11,339 passengers and crew perishing in the frigid waters. It could have been the worst trajedy of our lifetime - the greatest sea disaster of all time.

The "awe" has gone from this film. Shelly Winters in unintentionally funny as she bravely swims underwater. The ending is anticlimactic as we are only shown the stern of the ship near the propellers. (Yes, they do show the smokestacks when it first capsizes.) So did they run out-of-budget for the special effects and miniatures in the finale? It should have been subtitled "Who Dies Next?" Dreadfully out-of-date since 1972. Watch "Titanic " instead and ignore the few "cuss" words and very brief nudity.

This film is full of drama and tension.We meet many people, who take a New Year's voyage to Greece that may be their last.The Captain (Gene Hackman) tries to sail his ship,but meets with danger and peril. We meet many passengers like The Rosens ( Jack Albertson and Shelley Winters) or Mike and Linda Rogo (Ernest Borgnine and Stella Stevens). It happens that the ship comes upon a tidal wave that may mark the end of everyone.In the struggle,the ship capsizes and things get risky; We find that the passengers must climb deeper through the boat to reach safety.True courage is knowing how to face what comes in front of you.Wisdom helps you to understand how to face reality head on.

From that time in movie history where our desire to build bigger and better things led us to make films that devoted their entire time do destroying those big and better things, and the Poseidon Adventure has gone down in history as one of the greatest disaster movies of all time. For me personally, it's a very good film, but there are some things that drag it down (pun possibly intended).What's the cauliflower? The film follows the passengers and crew of the SS Poseidon, sailing through the Mediterranean on its final voyage before decommissioning. On New Year's Eve the ship is at full sail, but in order to meet schedule the representative of the Shipping Line insists that the ship continues on course without taking on ballast, to the unsuccessful protest of the Captain. As night falls the passengers gather in the ballroom for their New Year's Party, but reports come in of an undersea earthquake that has triggered a massive Tsunami, which strikes the ship causing it to capsize because it's too top-heavy, leaving the entire vessel floating but upside down. The film follows a handful of survivors as they attempt to make their way to the thinnest part of the ship's hull in the hope that they can be rescued, dodging death on their slowly sinking vessel every step of the way!To me, the film is very very good at building the tension, the fact that these people are trapped inside a giant metal coffin with no way out. They have no idea whether going to their destination will result in the rescue, but that thin slither of hope keeps them going through all odds, and that's what keeps you gripped. You want to see these people escape, and you find it genuinely tragic when many of them die, some more suddenly than others.I do however have some peeves. One is the whole idea of the ship being stuck upside down like that. I somehow get the feeling that the vessel would still sink, with what air is trapped in the hull just finding a weakness and bursting through to let more water in. But that's technical shipbuilding babble that nags me.The other problem is that some of the acting does get a little corny at times, with some of the performances going a little over-the-top. Indeed a romantic relationship between two of the characters is a bit hard to comprehend as well, and ultimately leads to nothing.But other than that, the rest of the film is a very intense, very gripping thriller about escaping what can be some people's interpretation of hell. The sets and locations built to replicate the inner workings of the vessel are done perfectly, making you truly believe that you're actually in the bowels of an upturned ship. The action scenes are also quite poignant, keeping you on the edge of your seat as they dodge death at every turn, from boiling vats of water, to bursting bulkheads and collapsing pieces of the ship's interior.On the whole, as a survival thriller movie I'd say definitely give it a watch!