Last night I saw the remake of the "Poseidon Adventure", cleverly re-titled "Poseidon". This is a remake of the 70's disaster film in which a luxury cruise liner is turned upside down by a big wave, and well, creates "HELL, UPSIDE DOWN!". I can't remember the 70's film too clearly, but I did recently re-watch "The Towering Inferno" a couple of months back, another big-budget 70's disaster movie which was chock full o' stars of the 60's and 70's (Paul Newman, among them), so at least I can compare the 2006 disaster flick to the 70's disaster film template. All in all, "Poseidon" kicked major ass-the special fx were impressive, the action and danger stunningly REAL, and best of all....the dialogue was kept to a minimum, no goofy "one liners" or zingers, etc. People died, you had the sense that the danger was real, that not everyone was going to survive, and that the concept of the HELL, UPSIDE DOWN was actually great. So, what the hell...sometime ya gotta forsake the low key, slow moving Asian art film to check out a Hollywood summer popcorn flick. Generally, these films are god-awful ("The Day After Tomorrow", anyone?), but this one delivered. I mean, these type of movies inherently suck wind ("Pearl Harbor" anyone?), but somehow this was pulled off with some style, wit, and excitement. Plus, it was great to see Kurt Russel and Richard Dreyfuss in a big flick - (anyone remember a little movie called "Jaws"? Or "Escape from New York"?). So, hey its almost summer; turn off your brain for 2 hours and check it out. Any similarities you feel with real life disasters is merely conincidental. But I think it is worth thinking about how in the early 21st century that disaster flix and ultra-violent horror movies (The Hills Have Eyes, Devil's Rejects) are making some big $$$$ among the cineplex dwellers when we have disasters occurring on a large scale every few months on CNN for all to see. Hmmm, maybe someone with some time and some cultural studies knowledge can address this potential connection. You know, art reflects life, life reflects art, blah blah blah. Otherwise, remember, nothing is worse than HELL, UPSIDE DOWN.

By the way, here is a link for Poseidon, The Musical!!
http://www.poseidonmusical.com/