Amy's Robot

Poseidon reviews

My favorite part of A.O. Scott's funny and dismissive review of Poseidon, the probably pointless Kurt Russell remake of The Poseidon Adventure, is this:

"Kevin Dillon, plays a creep who goes by the name of Lucky Larry. 'You don't just get the nickname Lucky Larry,' this fellow observes, swigging booze from a hip flask as he prepares to cross a narrow catwalk over a pool of flaming oil. 'You gotta be lucky!' Gee, I wonder if he'll make it back to dry land, or even across that burning fuel. I also wonder if the black and Hispanic characters will outlive their white counterparts, or if the winner of an Oscar for best actor will give his life to save a mere SAG award winner for a supporting role on television."

Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post liked it even better than the original, though. After all, it's shorter! And doesn't have Red Buttons in it! And, I might add, Wolfgang "Das Boot" Petersen directed it, and that man knows from claustrophobic oceanic disaster movies.

Here's why Stephen Hunter likes it:

"The movie is not about being, it's about doing. It's basically an ordeal by ordeal. It's one damn thing after another, and the personalities emerge from the action, they aren't imposed on it. There's no intra-squad politicking, no coups or revolutions. The movie, unlike the quasi-religious gimmickry of the first, is utterly uninterested in metaphor. The movie isn't about anything except seven people trying to survive a disaster, and some make it and some don't."

Predictability I can deal with. Poseidon, you got a date, baby.

categories: Movies
posted by amy at 4:40 PM | #