Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)

The greatest movie ever!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Pointless sequel to "The Poseidon Adventure" that came out 7 YEARS after the original! It opens shortly after the survivors of the original are rescued and flown away. Then a small salvage crew (Michael Caine, Karl Malden and Sally Field) arrives to get what jewels and money they can get from the boat before it totally sinks. Then ANOTHER boat shows up headed by a doctor (Telly Savalas) to find and help any more survivors. So they all head into the ship. They find MORE survivors but their way out is blocked off and they have to find a way out.Pointless and stupid full of HUGE plot holes (it is never explained what Savalas wants and why) and stock characters. The puzzling thing is they got talented actors to play these one-dimensional roles. There's Peter Boyle (with hair) playing a angry father, his young daughter (Angela Cartwright) and a man who saved her (Mark Harmon). Then there's a married couple (Shirley Knight and Jack Weston) who needs help...but he's blind. Then there's Shirley Jones as a nurse. Next up is a "humorous" drunk played by Slim Pickens. Last is Veronica Hammel who barely figures in this.Field plays the "comic" relief but some of her lines are downright painful. The situations are dull and the action sequences are just rehashes from the first film. There's a HUGE amount of things that make little sense (good luck trying to figure out what happened between Hammil and Savalas) and it gets frustrating. The acting varies. The whole cast tries but the characters are drab and the dialogue is terrible. Savalas is easily the worst actor here. Caine is the best. But, all in all, a dull pointless movie. Avoid.

Not a good movie for me. Had great actors in it…and it was rated PG…so I thought that they wouldn't actually show the ship underwater, or show it sinking into the ocean…I WAS WRONG. I don't actually understand why large ships sinking actually scares me to death...but it does. I can't explain to you the feeling I get when I see titanic and the ship sinking into the dark deep abyss. Seeing a cruise ship upside-down in the ocean is not my favorite either. Though the movie did seem to have its perks, and seem to have a good story and thrilling moments...I was completely focused the whole time at the ship being inches away from sinking. That, and the scene at the beginning of the movie where they're standing on top of the upside-down cruise ship. That image still haunts me.For daily movie reviews visit: kimsmoak.com now!

Beyond the Poseidon Adventure starts in a ferocious storm as Captain Mike Turner (Michael Caine) sails the open Ocean on his way to Marseille in France in his tug boat Jenny, however his cargo falls overboard & is lost. The next day Turner sees a French coast guard helicopter & decide to investigate, Turner finds the capsized upside down luxury cruise liner the S. S. Poseidon. Captain Turner now has the salvage rights to the Poseidon & together with his friend Wilbur (Karl Malden) & plucky young lady Celeste (Sally Field) decide to board her, while doing so a yacht with several doctor's show up & Captain Stefan Svevo (Telly Salavas) claims they can help any injured passengers. Together they all venture inside the Poseidon but soon become trapped themselves as the ship continues to sink while certain people aren't who they seem & have ulterior motives for being on the Poseidon & will kill to keep the secret...Produced & directed by Irwin Allen this is the silly sequel to the classic disaster flick The Poseidon Adventure (1972) that has a very bad reputation but I will freely admit that I did actually quite enjoy Beyond the Poseidon Adventure despite it's absurdities. In a way Beyond the Poseidon Adventure is the opposite of the original, it's silly with bad dialogue & bland character's unlike the original which was a terrific piece of action drama with people you cared about & related to. At almost two hours long I was never bored by it, it entertained me & I was always interested in what was going to happen so at least I had fun with it. However the script is silly, the idea that Captain Turner (or anyone for that matter) would board a sinking ship & get trapped inside like the Poseidon is ridiculous & two people follow him aboard as well like they are going to the cinema or something mundane (& safe) like that. The script throws in the usual disaster film clichés like blocked doors, lots of bad luck which traps a group of people in a dangerous situation, fires, explosions & lots of water. While the character's in the original were great here they are bland, from a blind man to a guy & his daughter to some comedy relief woman who remains surprisingly cheerful despite the situation she finds herself in. Character exposition & background is bad with some really strange timing, while looking for a way out in a metal shaft Celeste decides to cry her eye's out while when people die there's no great emotional impact & none of the other character's seem that bothered so why should we be? The plot about terrorist Svevo doesn't really go anywhere & the murder mystery angle could have been played a little better but at least it's another odd part of a silly film. By the way, how long does it take three guy's to stack some boxes on a yacht? Overall I liked this film, it's silly & overblown & a bit camp & doesn't make much sense but it entertained me & that's all that matters really. The novel by Paul Gallico who gets a credit is actually completely different than the filmed version, in Gallico's novel the original survivors go back to the sinking Poseidon at gunpoint.Released theatrically in 1979 running nearly two hours (the British cinema version was slightly cut for bloody gunshot wounds) the US network TV version that premiered in 1981 contained an extra twenty two minutes of footage which i would have loved to have seen but only the theatrical version is available on DVD. The widescreen cinematography is great & I can't imagine how bad Beyond the Poseidon Adventure would have looked pan and scanned, the whole film has a lavish if slightly over produced look & I loved the upside down sets. There's some nice action & set-pieces too, from shoot-outs to flooded rooms to fiery dangers to underwater scuba diving. Some of the special effects are poor, the opening scene in the storm looks terrible as buckets of water are randomly thrown against the boat prop while the Poseidon exploding at the end also looks awful but would CGI been any better?Shot in California the production values are nice & Irwin Allen always knew how to put on a show even if he didn't know much about storytelling. The original The Poseidon Adventure started the whole disaster flick craze while Beyond the Poseidon Adventure arguably ended it. There's a fun cast here, Michael Caine is slumming it, Sally Field is a bit annoying, Slim Pickens is annoying while Telly Savalas is fun as the villain even though he puts in his James Bond bad guy performance.Beyond the Poseidon Adventure is a guilty pleasure, it's not a good film & when compared to how great the original is it's a bit insulting but I had a lot of fun with it & liked it. Make sure you get hold of the widescreen DVD, despite not having those deleted scenes on it the disc looks great.

it took awhile for me to get into this movie.but somewhere along the line,i actually started to enjoy myself.once you get around the wafer thin plot,it's not half bad.the trick with this movie is to not take it too seriously.for instance,as soon as the bad guys show up,you know they're bad long before they reveal their intentions.the only other thing they could have done to telegraph they were bad would have been to have been for them each to have a neon sign over their heads saying villain.it's that absurd.and there's some cringe worthy dialogue.however,the are some very witty one liners mostly courtesy of Sally Field,and their was an interesting,and(mostly)likable mix of characters.there were actually even a few exciting moments.of course,there are endless explosions.this movie doesn't hold a candle to the original Poseidon Adventure.it was actually fairly pointless,when you think about.but it was fun,and actually quite entertaining.for me,Beyond the Poseidon adventure is a solid 5/10