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The Poseidon Adventure | 173557__pa_l
HACKMAN AND WINTERS IN 'ADVENTURE'
Poseidon Adventure: Kobal Collection

Credits

Rated: PG; DVD Release Date: May 09, 2006; Genre: Disaster; With: Ernest Borgnine and Gene Hackman
B+
By Clark Collis
Clark Collis
Clark Collis is a senior writer for EW

Wolfgang Petersen's Poseidon remake may have a vast budget and computer enhanced special effects. But does it have — to quote the opening credits of the 1972 version — ''Leslie Nielsen as The Captain''? It does not — and that's probably for the best given that the Airplane! star's intoning of lines like ''Damn it man, the Poseidon is too fine a lady to be rushed to the junkyard on her last voyage!'' retrospectively makes the disaster movie's first act seem like a spoof. But once the lady in question is overturned by a freak tidal wave the tone shifts from unintentionally comedic to undeniably exciting as ''renegade'' priest Gene Hackman leads a motley band of souls (including Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, and Roddy McDowall) on their upside down quest to escape from a watery grave.

Extras On his director's commentary, plummy-voiced Brit Ronald Neame confesses that the water-logged shoot found most of the principal actors ''getting cross'' roughly once every 10 days (''which was one a day for me''). On another track featuring actresses Pamela Sue Martin, Stella Stevens, and Carol Lynley, suggestions are made as to what roles they could have played in the remake — had anyone seen fit to request their involvement. Also included: a slew of featurettes — one entirely focusing on the film's Oscar-winning song ''The Morning After'' — an AMC documentary, storyboard comparisons, and a ''Follow the Escape'' option which allows viewers to do just that on a schematic of the ship.


Posted May 04, 2006
 

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