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Poseidon
Warner Bros.


5.6

based on 36 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 73 votes
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FILM:

TV:

The Poseidon Adventure (NBC)

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense prolonged sequences of disaster and peril

Starring Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Jacinda Barrett, Richard Dreyfuss, Jimmy Bennett, Emmy Rossum, Mike Vogel, Mía Maestro, Andre Braugher, and Kevin Dillon

Master storyteller Wolfgang Peterson (Das Boot, The Perfect Storm) returns to the sea with Poseidon to focus not only on the power of a massive rogue wave that overturns a luxury cruise ship in open water, but on the intense dramas that play out among a small group of people fighting to survive in its aftermath. (Warner Bros.)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Adventure \| Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Mark Protosevich Paul Gallico (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Wolfgang Petersen
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 22, 2006 Theatrical: May 12, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	97 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's a buoyant, old-wave disaster pic for a generation of well-conditioned thrill seekers charmed by the revelation that Richard Dreyfuss really is the Red Buttons of our day.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Beyond being a showplace for crash-and-burn effects, Poseidon seems to be stumping for togetherness.

Empire Simon Braund

A shot in the arm for the classic disaster movie: awesome effects, nail-biting tension and a cast of characters we don’t want dead after half an hour - even, amazingly, the cute kid.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

You'll end up entertained if you forgive the cliches and let Petersen grab you with the visuals.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

As clumsy as the movie is in many ways, it strings together maybe a dozen situations in which we are absolutely, excruciatingly, on the edge of our seats -- which is to say that the new Poseidon essentially does its job.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The new cast is no match for the star-clustered original, but Lucas, who looks much like a young Paul Newman (you may think you're watching "The Towering Inferno"), has a strong, matinee-idol presence, and Russell is a reliable old hand at this sort of thing.

The New Yorker David Denby

An extremely well-crafted exercise in physical invention and fear. Yet within those limits--the limits of a pop-digital survival drama--Poseidon is an exciting show.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Petersen leaves out, largely, character, back story, anecdote and warm personal relations. Poseidon isn't cute, funny, warm, nice, inspirational or uplifting. It's about the incredible labor of survival in a world turned totally sociopathic in an instant.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

Among the willing cast, only Jacinda Barrett and topliners Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell and Richard Dreyfuss manage, just barely, to suggest a third dimension to the script's cursory character sketches. But that won't matter to audiences craving a disaster thrill ride.

Variety Brian Lowry

Thanks to its simple construction, Wolfgang Petersen's large-scale liner moves reasonably well, though anyone with the faintest memory of its 1972 predecessor will wonder where most of the plot went.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Poseidon is devoid of anything that might conjure up memories of the Winslet/DiCaprio coupling. Its straightforward action/adventure approach is both a strength and a weakness.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

By stripping the genre down to its essentials, long on the serial disasters but thankfully light on the stupid dialogue, [Petersen] not only maintains an acceptable modicum of suspense but -- here's the major bonus -- also manages to set a blissful speed record in the process, bringing his pricey blockbuster home to port in under 100 minutes.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

In the plus column, Poseidon is a tightly-paced action movie that doesn’t depend too much on special effects for its thrills.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

The effects are terrific, from the two-and-a-half-minute opening sequence that tracks around the brilliantly lit liner from below, above and round about, to some amazing exterior shots of the groaning vessel rolling around in the churning sea like a giant, wounded whale.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

"Titanic" without the metaphors, the class-consciousness, the love story, or anything resembling a theme, Poseidon invests so little in its screenplay that it might as well be an episode of "The Love Boat" gone horribly awry.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Overall it's slick, brainless entertainment.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The movie is, in all senses, a big downer.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

An acceptably entertaining picture. At just 100 minutes long, it feels tight and trim, and unlike so many contemporary action pictures, it boasts only one ending, instead of three false ones. What's more, it's just as dumb as the original.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

After 9/11 and Katrina, this megabudget remake by Wolfgang Petersen benefits from a similar cultural oomph, though it's just as enjoyably silly as the original.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Exciting and nerve-racking in the moment, but empty.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Aside from a disturbingly graphic depiction of a drowning, there is also death by fire, electrocution and giant falling objects.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The special effects, with one painful exception, hold up beautifully. But the people have no personalities, the story is unconvincing, and the whole movie is as shallow as the puddle left on a flat roof by a 20-minute shower.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

There's nothing hip or ironic about Poseidon, which makes Russell and Lucas the perfect leading men.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Maybe it's the era we're living in, but the new film is as much fun as a shroud.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Pretty much pure boilerplate: a reasonably well-executed throwaway that, when you finally get around to seeing it in its proper setting, will make you glad you decided to travel by air instead of by sea.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

More than characters, dialogue and lighting, here Petersen is interested exclusively in suspense of the will-he-or-won't-he-be-crushed-by-that-falling-flaming-elevator variety.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There is nothing wrong with the performances. All of the actors are professionals, although none have as much fun as Shelley Winters, who is the actor everyone remembers from the 1972 movie.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

At least Poseidon takes care to dispatch the Black Eyed Peas' Stacy Ferguson who, as the shipboard entertainer, sings what may be the worst song ever written, reprised over the end credits.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Poseidon '06 is spectacularly noisy, uninteresting and character-free.

Premiere Jessica Letkemann

Isn't quite self-aware enough to be really funny, and certainly isn't serious or genuinely exciting enough to be thrilling because of it's action.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Poseidon is a sodden saga, with a script that is awash in clichés. It nearly drowns under the weight of its own soggy tedium.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

An utterly empty-skulled genre mechanism and nothing more.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

If this version had been called The Poseidon Adventure, audiences could have sued for truth in packaging.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A deeply dreadful movie -- no, a shallowly dreadful movie -- that's too unpleasant and repetitive to be entertaining, even as camp.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's all so much blood and brine signifying nothing, not even a good time. Now somebody do us all a favor and cut that albatross from around Petersen's neck already.

New York Post Kyle Smith

It's "Das Bomb." It's "The Perfunctory Storm."

The average user rating for this movie is 5.6 (out of 10) based on 73 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Brad B. gave it a7:
Petersen gets a lot out of his actors, atleast it felt like they all could be close to death at any time. For some reason, and maybe because of the disaster film label that started with the first one in'72, I think the movie got a bit of a bad rap. I noticed that Dreyfus had nothing to do with the special feature interviews. Better than the original, and without the campy dialogue.

Bethan S gave it a10:
This film is great it has nail biting moments and great actors like Josh Lucas. I don't know how any one could not like this film people have worked really hard on this film putting a lot of effort in and they sure pulled it off. One of the best moments in the film is when they are climbing through the vent it is so realistic. Characters Dylan, Eleana and Nelson make that a great scene. I could watch it again and again and never get tired of it.

Stephanie G. gave it a10:
I loved this movie so much! I thought that the "edge of your seat moments" were awesome, especially when Richard Nelson was almost crushed by the elevator or Dylan Johns was almost sucked into the propeller tube trying to shove the tank of gas into it. I know everyone has their own opinion but I can't see how you could possibly not like the movie! I never have seen the original but I heard that the special affects are a lot more advanced and realistic. I really enjoyed the movie and I hope my comment was helpful.

Peter J. gave it a5:
The beginning of the movie was great, but the rest of it was predictably boring at best. I actually left the room a few times without pausing it. I was expecting a better story line. You knew exactly what was going to happen.

Alex C. gave it a7:
I liked the movie very much. It was so thrilling that i was shaking for most of it. But I noticed that the actors were like swimming in water the whole time which was kind of weird because, if you think about, the boat had lots of electricity. When you were a child, didn't you ever hear the saying "Water and Electricity don't mix." In other words, nobody should had been alive at the end of the movie. The instant they dived in the water they should have died. John B. was right. This actually did look like a Fear Factor show. Especially when they were in the tanks when they were flooding.

Jessica W. gave it a10:
Ok. I understand everyone has different opinions, thats fine. Personally, I thought the movie was one of the best I've ever seen and am now completely obsessed with it. Plus, Fergie was great. But, to those of you saying, "It was nothing like the original Poseidon," let me ay this. If this movie were like the original, it would be boring. It's so much more modern and the ship is more beautiful. I thought the effects were great, Woldgang spent so much money on the effects and if anyone watched the special features, his intentions were to make this Poseidon completely different from the original. He wanted the main idea of a ship sinking from a rogue wave with a few people trying to survive. I found the movie very interesting and I just wanted to let all of you negative reviewers know of his intentions. :)

Robo B. gave it a0:
Absolutely terrible. A degrading role for Richard Dreyfus.... I'd rather sit through a New Years morning hangover listening to someone drag their fingernails across a chalkboard than sit through this abortion of a film again.

Poseidon Warner Bros.

Poseidon
Warner Bros.