I watched the 2006 film Poseidon the other night on the television. I shouldn't have done this : not because I spend a good deal of my spare time on cruise ships and it might prove upsetting, but because it was a lousy film. It is a long time since I last saw the original 1972 Poseidon Adventure film but my memory is that it was far superior to this cardboard-scripted remake.
I was sent upstairs to watch the film alone in my room : Isobel was at a loss to know how I could watch such things given that I will be back on a cruise ship in a few months time. The possible confluence of fictional interpretation and real fear has never been a particular problem for me. I remember the first time I ever went on a cruise I took along Walter Lord's splendid book "A Night To Remember" to read and I didn't spend all the holiday fearfully searching for icebergs.
By some strange coincidence the morning after my disappointing adventure with Poseidon I was flicking through a collection of photographs from the 1930s and came across this picture of the German battleship Prinz-Regent Luitpold which was taken in 1933. The ship saw action in the Battle of Jutland in World War I and in 1919 was scuttled with the rest of the German fleet in Scapa Flow. However she suffered a greater indignity fourteen years later when she was raised from the seabed and towed in this very unladylike fashion to Rosyth dockyard where she was broken up for scrap. Perhaps the re-made Poseidon should suffer the same fate.
Hah! Yeah, I'd have to agree... Poseidon lacked the heart of the original, even though Kurt Russell pulled as much weight as he could have possibly pulled.
ReplyDeleteI often ask the question: why doesn't Hollywood remake its bad movies?
I never watched the remake because I suspected that what you say here was true.
ReplyDeleteThe casting was so great in the earlier one, what could top that?
I'm not sure I understand the photo of the Prinz-Regent Luitpold. Is she upside down? And if so, who built the house on her bottom?
ReplyDeleteI tend to steer clear of remakes. Except for King Kong which I thought benefited from modern special effects (but even then, they strung it out for too long, just to show off I think!)
Alan, two things I abhor: pathetic remakes and Hollywood moguls that think the remakes are better( which most of us know is 99.99% bogus ). I've yet to actually enjoy a remake( save a few of the classics ). The calibre just isn't there anymore, wot? The stories are diluted in a CGI filled malestrom...
ReplyDeleteAnd your ship snap got me to thinking; if they ever tried to salvage the North Atlantic!!!!
Wow, I didn't even know they had done a re-make. Great photo!
ReplyDeleteJeffScape : Good question - and there are enough bad ones to choose from.
ReplyDeleteKabbalah : When it was salvaged it was brought to the surface upside down. It was then towed (slowly) to Rosyth which was a good few hundred miles away. The "house" was used by the salvage workers.
Thanks everyone for calling by.
You can add Clint Eastwood's "The Changeling" to that scrap heap.
ReplyDeleteThe Oceana's nothing like that, Alan.
ReplyDeleteI have stopped watching films altogether for reasons other than not liking them; when I did watch I always thought remakes were a waste of time. The original can never be recaptured... but I suppose that's not what the film makers are trying to do.
yeah, with you on the remake...great pic you have there though.
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