Rescue Me

You know a movie's bad when you spend the bulk of it thinking of what title you're going to give your review. Hmmm ... "It's a Disaster?" "A New Low?" "Waterlogged?" "That Sinking Feeling?" Or maybe "Going Down." Well, whatever you call it — and I like what I chose — Poseidon is a pretty bad movie. It starts with the first shot of the boat, which looks totally fake and unbelievable. And it really only gets worse from there, with lame dialogue, forced acting, and a character whose actual name in the credits is "Lucky Larry" (I'll give you one guess if he makes it out alive). Perhaps the best part about the movie is how efficient it is; it takes just 5 or 10 minutes for the wave to hit and turn the ship upside down. Why get held up with all that pesky plot and character development, right? Hell, there's not even an impending sense of doom or a warning or anything. The wave just appears, hit the boat, and the movie gets underway with these characters you don't know and don't care about — and really, don't even like — trying to find a way out. But anyway, no need to belabour the point. The original Poseidon Adventure was no Shakespearean classic or anything, and I haven't seen it in years, but it was infinitely better than this waste of time remake. It's not even ridiculously funny bad, it's just bad. So, Poseidon gets a C– on the Martin Meter.