The Poseidon Adventure is my favourite disaster movie ever, I even enjoyed the vastly inferior remake.
Movie comments, outbursts, quips and general chatter
- Thread starter Alphableat
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Wait, is this the one with Fergie singing right before everyone gets fucked over by boat tingz? Iconic movie.
The Poseidon Adventure is pretty much a perfect film. It was number 16 on My Top 20 Films in the Film Rate some time ago.
Gene Hackman is one of my favourite actors of all time. Such consistency. This is one of his best performances.
I love both The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. But I give the edge to The Poseidon Adventure because nobody is safe, whereas the star power in The Towering Inferno gives you some security in that the big four (Newman, McQueen, Dunaway, Holden) will survive.
Gene Hackman is one of my favourite actors of all time. Such consistency. This is one of his best performances.
I love both The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. But I give the edge to The Poseidon Adventure because nobody is safe, whereas the star power in The Towering Inferno gives you some security in that the big four (Newman, McQueen, Dunaway, Holden) will survive.
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I have a real desire to go watch some 70's disaster movies, even the "so bad it's good" Earthquake and Avalanche (Rock Hudson in the latter makes me even more curious).
I used to love one called When Time Ran Out when I was a kid; a volcano erupts on a Hawaiian (?) vacation island when a plush new hotel opens there and the rest rips off The Poseidon Adventure (with some of the same actors plus Paul Newman) as a gaggle of people try to escape. I was traumatised by a woman falling off a rickety bridge into a river of lava.
Apparently it tanked soooo hard at the box office Irwen Allen would never even speak of it.
Apparently it tanked soooo hard at the box office Irwen Allen would never even speak of it.
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Absoute guilty pleasure... yes the bridge/log scene is the highlight if I remember right.
I even love Airport 77 where they end up bashing an oil rig and under the sea.
That one frightened me as a kid - combination of a plane crash and drowning. The trauma.
Ooh, i LOVE Airport 77.
Lee Grant camping it up.
She won Supporting for Shampoo in '75 and was nominated again in 1976. She also should have been nominated for Airport '77 for her legendary performance.
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And her role in Damien: Omen 2
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I'm watching this right now and I am looooving it. Although I can't believe how in disasters there are always people who are "no we'll stay right here thank you" and end up croaking it. If Paul Newman told me to go, I'm going. Another thing I've noted in these 70's era disaster movies are plucky old couples who face danger head on.
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Okay so When Time Ran Out was really rather brilliant? Don't know how it bombed so hard. Paul Newman is such a charismatic actor and you really rooted for the small group of survivors who decided to not stay at the hotel. As for those who remained, I really didn't care when they all died, none of them were likable.
The entire segment with the wooden bridge over the lava river was a masterclass in suspenseful cinema. You knew you were at the climax of the movie so not all of them would make it and you never knew from one second to the next what would happen. Griping and utterly brilliant.
And then I went and watched Avalanche. What an awful, awful movie. I hate saying this because Rock Hudson is one of my all time faves, but not even he put the effort in to save this. Everyone seemed to either not act at all or over act to the point of ridiculousness. Mia Farrow looking totally blank as she sees a skier being swallowed by snow being just one of those moments. There wasn't really anyone who you could root for and like, except maybe Nick, Rock's characters Mum (a hoot) and the TV reporter.
The biggest issue was that, in a movie called AVALANCHE, there is nothing going on for the first 56 minutes except some badly acted melodrama between exes, cheaters and rivals. The actual avalanche doesn't come till an hour or so in and by then there is only a half hour or so left in the movie so it all feels rushed and unplanned. One redeeming feature was a short segment that swapped between a beautiful ice skater and the power of the snow falling which was a great combo. The special effects were really naff too but I can't be too harsh as this was made in the late 70's. The snow was clearly Styrofoam.
The entire segment with the wooden bridge over the lava river was a masterclass in suspenseful cinema. You knew you were at the climax of the movie so not all of them would make it and you never knew from one second to the next what would happen. Griping and utterly brilliant.
And then I went and watched Avalanche. What an awful, awful movie. I hate saying this because Rock Hudson is one of my all time faves, but not even he put the effort in to save this. Everyone seemed to either not act at all or over act to the point of ridiculousness. Mia Farrow looking totally blank as she sees a skier being swallowed by snow being just one of those moments. There wasn't really anyone who you could root for and like, except maybe Nick, Rock's characters Mum (a hoot) and the TV reporter.
The biggest issue was that, in a movie called AVALANCHE, there is nothing going on for the first 56 minutes except some badly acted melodrama between exes, cheaters and rivals. The actual avalanche doesn't come till an hour or so in and by then there is only a half hour or so left in the movie so it all feels rushed and unplanned. One redeeming feature was a short segment that swapped between a beautiful ice skater and the power of the snow falling which was a great combo. The special effects were really naff too but I can't be too harsh as this was made in the late 70's. The snow was clearly Styrofoam.
It came out in 1980, I think? Would guess the genre had had it's moment by then as it would've been up against things like Superman II, whatever the second Star Wars movie is, plus teen horror was on the rise - a lengthy, melodramatic disaster movie probably looked hugely out of date.
I need to re-watch it though, a lot of memories from seeing it as a kid. This is the one where a chopper lowers a weird little box into the volcano right? And there's a hole in the bottom or something death-invitingly dumb?
EDIT: Read it made a total of $3.7m against a $20m budget YEEEEE.
I need to re-watch it though, a lot of memories from seeing it as a kid. This is the one where a chopper lowers a weird little box into the volcano right? And there's a hole in the bottom or something death-invitingly dumb?
EDIT: Read it made a total of $3.7m against a $20m budget YEEEEE.
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I'm now watching the 2005 TV movie version of The Poseidon Adventure and it's....okay. I really hate the tsunami being replaced by a terrorist attack, but I guess at that time it was a more interesting idea. It does a decent job of staying true to the original despite that.
EDIT: Okay now I have finished it and actually think it is a damn good remake. The only major change is how the ship capsizes and it actually works fairly well as it ties into the sub plot of the NAVY rescue mission that is going on.
They kept the main plot of the mission to escape out the hull the same, some scenes were almost shot for shot redone and I'm do glad they did that. It gives some heart to the story and suspense. Most importantly it retains the sequence with Belle swimming with the rope and sadly dying. A really emotional gut punch in both versions and superbly acted. All the actors did a good job, you felt like they were a real group forging real bonds.
Not up there with the original but leagues ahead of Poseidon. It's hard to believe the latter came out only a year or so later.
EDIT: Okay now I have finished it and actually think it is a damn good remake. The only major change is how the ship capsizes and it actually works fairly well as it ties into the sub plot of the NAVY rescue mission that is going on.
They kept the main plot of the mission to escape out the hull the same, some scenes were almost shot for shot redone and I'm do glad they did that. It gives some heart to the story and suspense. Most importantly it retains the sequence with Belle swimming with the rope and sadly dying. A really emotional gut punch in both versions and superbly acted. All the actors did a good job, you felt like they were a real group forging real bonds.
Not up there with the original but leagues ahead of Poseidon. It's hard to believe the latter came out only a year or so later.
There's a lab thing by the volcano with a lift type thing that lowers into the crater.
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I re-watched it - it was pretty hilarious, FX wise. Some good scenes though and what an amazing cast! Red Buttons doing exactly the same speed walking thing he did in The Poseidon Adventure.
The trivia for the film was also interesting; all the actors from the previous big disaster movies were contracted to be in sequels and such, but as those fell through*, they were ported over to When Time Ran Out... and only agreed in order to void the contracts to keep appearing in Irwin Allen films!
Well that was a career.
*it lead me on to the proposed sequel for The Poseidon Adventure (before we got what we got), where the survivors were going to be on a train to an inquest that gets stuck in a tunnel during an avalanche. It never came to be, but the script was revised into the 1995 movie Daylight!
The trivia for the film was also interesting; all the actors from the previous big disaster movies were contracted to be in sequels and such, but as those fell through*, they were ported over to When Time Ran Out... and only agreed in order to void the contracts to keep appearing in Irwin Allen films!
Well that was a career.
*it lead me on to the proposed sequel for The Poseidon Adventure (before we got what we got), where the survivors were going to be on a train to an inquest that gets stuck in a tunnel during an avalanche. It never came to be, but the script was revised into the 1995 movie Daylight!
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I remember hearing about that Poseidon Adventure sequel and it sounded just as awful as the sequel it actually got.
Been on a disaster movie marathon and watched Poseidon last night. While it is the weakest of the 3 adaptions of the book it is still really good. Josh Lucas is a fab hero and I enjoyed the whole cast of characters too.
Also watched Into The Storm which I loved. The combo of normal and found footage filming was well done and I thought it was a solid story. Plus it had Richard Armitage.
Been on a disaster movie marathon and watched Poseidon last night. While it is the weakest of the 3 adaptions of the book it is still really good. Josh Lucas is a fab hero and I enjoyed the whole cast of characters too.
Also watched Into The Storm which I loved. The combo of normal and found footage filming was well done and I thought it was a solid story. Plus it had Richard Armitage.
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I thought the only one with no depth was the gambler played by Matt Dillons brother, and he got a case of the dead pretty early on.
You had the single mother with her son, the young couple and the overprotective Dad (a former firefighter and heroic mayor), the sad architect who has been dumped, the stowaway with the sick brother and the former Navy who now handles for a living who is the typical hero archetype.
The special effects were pretty amazing I agree. Especially considering it was made in the early 00’s.
