 Quite possibly, this was the worst sequel ever made. "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" was so bad that I'm sure 20th Century Fox denies the film was ever released. Irwin Allen should have called it quits after The Towering Inferno (leave alone The Swarm!). But what made it such a bad film, you ask? For starters, there's the plot. The original movie held the viewers in suspense as passengers raced against time to escape from a sinking ship. Here, salvagers go BACK IN to the sinking liner! And what are they going to retrieve? Gold, jewels, money from the purser's safe, and - of all things - a shipment of plutonium from the hold! A rather odd cargo for an ocean liner at the best of times, let alone on its final voyage en route to the scrap yard! And then, there are the plot inconsistencies from the original film ... In the original flim, Poseidon was presumably steaming at top speed to make up lost time due to the stormy weather in the opening sequence. The decision not to ballast the ship properly left her top-heavy and susceptible to capsizing, which, of course, happened when she met the big wave. In BTPA, we have the ship capsize in a "storm" which Michael Caine, Sally Field and Karl Malden seem to weather without much problem. Oddly, they are in a boat not unlike the Andrea Gale of "The Perfect Storm". One would think a wave large enough to flip and ocean liner would easily swamp smaller craft. But, no! They find the capsized Poseidon (whose underside doesn't look much larger than a cabin cruiser) just before Telly Savalas and his rival gang do. So, into the vessel they go to find the goodies, meeting still more stranded passengers with nurse Shirley Jones leading the troupe. Suffice to say, the good guys get out, the bad guys don't, and the Poseidon is blown out of the water by the plutonium, sparing us yet another sequel to this ship that seems to float better upside-down than right-side-up. The combination of a lame story, bad script and wooden peformances by Caine, Field, Malden, Savalas et al, makes you realize that you have lost a couple hours from your life and you'll never get them back. In a word, "GHASTLY". You may read another review, submit your own, or return home. |
