Poseidon

There was probably no point in remaking The Poseidon Adventure now that Shelley Winters is dead but that didn’t stop Warner from commissioning this box office disaster of this past summer. As it turns out, it’s not as bad as its critical drubbing would suggest, but it’s neither genuinely good nor worth giving a second thought to. Once again, the doomed ocean liner is smacked by a giant wave and spends the rest of the movie upside down, with the ragtag band of Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss, Emmy Rossum and a couple others left to crawl out of the sinking wreckage to safety. Unfortunately, the movie falls between two stools: it’s neither the great, big, star-studded gimmick fest that was the original nor an actual film in its own right. It’s just mediocre, an expensive series of special effects and minor, desperate acts done to people without iconic resonance. Really, what’s the point? To be sure, the production is lavish and expensive, with the proper ear-jamming 5.1 audio to prove it, and it’s not especially unpleasant, as the work of various dedicated professionals washes over you. But the minute it’s over, you’ll know you’ve been had and the sting you’ll feel is more powerful than anything in the film proper. Extras on the two-disc special edition include a reasonably informative "making of” doc, a brief but in-depth clip on the set design that’ll surprise you with its scope, a cutesy intern diary that deals with several names below the title and an okay History Channel program on "rogue waves” that’s obviously been commissioned by the studio (and somehow doesn’t belong on the History Channel). (Warner)