Poseidon (2006)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Robert Ramsey	Kurt Russell
Dylan Johns	Josh Lucas	½
Richard Nelson	Richard Dreyfuss
Maggie James	Jacinda Barrett
Jennifer Ramsey	Emmy Rossum
Christian	Mike Vogel	½
Elena	Mía Maestro
Conor James	Jimmy Bennett
Captain Bradford	Andre Braugher
Lucky Larry	Kevin Dillon

Review

In the midst of the golden age of the disaster genre, director Ronald Neame made The Poseidon Adventure with a fine ensemble cast of well-known and less well-known actors and actresses in 1972. Some 34 years later, German director Wolfgang Petersen - arguably a long-time admirer of the Greek sea god himself (Das Boot, The Perfect Storm) delivers a fine and suspenseful remake of the classic Paul Gallico story. The film is delightfully tributing the original, without ever threatening to carbon copy it; it builds its own, exciting, adequately paced universe. Sure, the film never intends to aim for the Academy Awards, and it obviously didn't attract the most selective actors. However, the special effects are impressively top shelf; they don't go over the top and are even quite tasty, which makes the film look good. Petersen's characters are far from as layered or well-written (or well-acted for that matter, although Richard Dreyfuss would have stood a chance had he been given the opportunity) as they were in the original, but they manage to stay on the right side of ridicule. That goes even for Josh Lucas, whereas Kevin Dillon gives the movie a welcomed comic relief with his delightful character mockery.