The Poseidon Adventure: Rating: 3.5 stars

A big ship goes alley-oop.

The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
1972 · UR · Action
Reviewed May 21, 2006

A cruise ship is struck by a gigantic wave and capsizes, leaving a handful of survivors trapped in the bowels of the ship and struggling to make their way up toward the top — er, bottom. Watch as families are torn apart! Thrill to the acts of heroism and bravery! See Leslie Nielsen try not to be funny!

Setting the style for every disaster movie to come, this movie spares no dramatic twist or special effect — and it doesn’t spare the characters, either. You may be able to predict who’ll go under next, but that doesn’t mean it’s not shocking when they do. For once, I liked most of the characters enough to actually root for them to survive — the exception being the precocious little boy and his hysterical teenaged sister, a prototypical (and typically annoying) duo that has been replicated in almost every disaster movie since. This film’s not quite an A+, but it’s certainly well above C-level.