The 2005 TV Version of the Poseidon Adventure was Pretty Good

Having never seen the theater release of “Poseidon” (2006), nor the 1972 original “The Poseidon Adventure”, I was very curious when I saw “The Poseidon Adventure” TV movie was going to be on the Sci-Fi channel. It was listed as 4 hours… so I watched it and taped it because I knew there was no way I could sit still for 4 hours! It turned out that there were sooooo many commercials that the actual movie length was only 156 minutes. After watching the movie on and off for 4 hours, than watching it straight through for 156 minutes, I decided – it’s pretty good! I am surprised at the low ratings this version has on imdb.com, so I must assume those people have seen the actual theater makes of the film and cannot understand that this is a TV movie and should not be judged to the same standards. After watching this film, I’m even more excited to watch the 2006 version, and even the 1972 version.
Here’s why I think you should catch it next time it’s on!

Minor Plot Details
Let’s keep it simple because there’s a lot going on. Basically the Poseidon is a cruise ship with lots of family and friends on board preparing for a Christmas vacation. The trouble is that there are also terrorist on board! I don’t think I’m ruining anything if I tell you that within an hour of the movie (an hour TV time, but only about 30 minutes if you skip the commercials) there is an explosion and the ship turns completely upside down! Now the rest of the movie is in the escape – can all these people escape off of an upside down ship? And in the meantime, other stuff may go down… sit back and relax and watch to find out what happens!

Characters
The movie has many characters, but Steve Guttenberg from the various Police Academies was the only recognizable actor. The main focus is on the following:

There is a family aboard the ship with a Mom (Alexa Hamilton) and Dad (Steve Guttenberg) who are on the verge of divorce, a daughter (Amber Sainsbury) who’s studying to be a nurse, and a son (Rory Copus) who’s an aspiring film maker. This family seems to be the center of the story because they are involved in almost everything. The dad and mom’s problems really come out at the start, but will this bombing make them reevaluate their relationship? Will the daughter be able to prove her nursing skills in this time of need? And will their son make the best movie ever? You’ll have to see.

An undercover cop (Mike Rogo) is also on board to make sure nothing fishy happens… obviously he was unable to prevent the bombing, but he is determined to get to the root of this and find out why the terrorist did this and what else (if anything) they may be planning. This did lead to one of the more irritating parts of the movie – he was putting everyone’s life at stake by keeping this stupid terrorist alive! I didn’t think it was worth the trouble just to get information from the guy.

A minister (Rutger Hauer) also becomes a key character as he leads a few people as they try to find a path out of the ship. It was interesting to have a religious character in this part – taking the bull by the horns and trying to solve the problem. At the same time, he remained pretty religious and was also working to keep people calm and together.

An older widow (Sylvia Syms) was a fun addition to the cast. She was very friendly with the minister when she met him and she added a few laughs to the story with her honest statements and reactions to the situations.

Finally, there was a kitchen manager (Andrew Brent) who kind of becomes the young sons baby sitter and the star of his little movie. He also added some laughs because of his upbeat and comical personality.

Many more characters come into play, but they can be discovered as you watch.

The Titanic?
I was one of those people that saw a commercial for the 2006 Poseidon and thought – that looks like the Titanic. Well after watching I can tell you it is nothing like the Titanic. Besides the fact that there are terrorists and bombs, the ship completely turns over! The ship is in one piece, just upside down. It’s insane to even imagine being on a ship that’s in this condition. There are only a few similarities to the Titanic – such as at first no one really is panicking. Just like in the Titanic, at first, people think everything will be ok… but will it? I don’t know how realistic it is to NOT PANIC. I would! I’d say let’s do something now! Let’s get off this thing now! But maybe that’s just me.

The Special Effects
I am sure that a real in theater movie would have even better effects, but for a TV movie I thought they did a really good job. Every time they zoomed out on the upside down ship I was just amazed at how real it looked. It’s possible they really did place a ship upside down in the water, but I doubt a TV movie would put that much money into something like that.

The effect of the ship flipping, and seeing the passengers flip as well, was pretty cool. I watched that part a few times (that’s the bonus of having it on tape). I just couldn’t possibly imagine what could be going through a person’s head at that point.

Genre
I’m usually into Humor, but this Action/Adventure type film is my second favorite. It starts out merely as a drama as the family boards the ship and we see the problems they have – followed by some drama when we find out there is an undercover agent on board. In the beginning, it really looks like a family drama about a cruise ship. I think they did this so that when the action/adventure did pick up (and the ship flipped) it seemed so much more realistic. You had ample time before the flip to get to know the characters, not just the ones I named above, but some others that go along for the ride.

As for suspense, well there were a few surprises but the film is kind of slow so every now and then you start to lose the adrenaline. When some surprise does happen, it’s pretty exciting and the effects made me jump … but shortly after it would slow down again. This doesn’t make it a bad movie, just not as good as the theater version probably is. I read a review of this movie that said it doesn’t compare to the 1972 version as far as suspense goes. I am excited to see the 1972 version, but I still liked this for what it was.

For Who?
This isn’t rated according to my TV guide, but I see no reason why your older kids can’t watch it. Younger kids may get scared, but kids 13 and up should be fine. There’s a few violent scenes, and even more action/scary scenes, but I didn’t notice any swearing or overly violent images. Just remember, this is shown on TV so it can’t be all that bad. This may be another motivation to watch this instead of going to the theater – your kids can watch it too!

Conclusion
Don’t even try sitting and watching this for 4 hours. Not only will the phone ring at least a dozen times… but you’ll get hungry! and you’ll get tired! I couldn’t make it the whole 4 hours without taking a shower in between to wake myself up. So what should you do? Record it! and 4 hours later or the next day you can watch it. When I watched it straight through I thought it was great, even though I had already seen most of it while it was on TV, it was still worth watching again. For a TV movie this is one of the best I’ve seen, but I know a real-theater movie would have been better. No need to rent the 2006 version, you can catch a pretty decent version on TV for free. I believe that it is possible to like three very different versions of the same movie – as long as you go into it pretending that there are no other versions! Enjoy.

Reference:

• www.imdb.com/title/tt0419358/