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Beyond the Poseidon Adventure: 1979
Not too long after the rescue of the previous film’s six survivors, a pair of rivaling ships come across the capsized ocean liner in search of a fortune that is said to be hidden on board.
Starring: Michael Caine, Sally Field, Telly Savalas, Peter Boyle, Jack Warden, Shirley Knight, Shirley Jones, Karl Malden, Slim Pickens, Veronica Hamel, Angela Cartwright, Mark Harmon, Paul Picerni, Patrick Culliton, and Dean Raphael Ferrandini.
Directed by: Irwin Allen.
Story:
Not too long after the rescue of the previous film’s six survivors, a pair of rivaling ships come across the capsized ocean liner in search of a fortune that is said to be hidden on board.
Characters:
*Captain Mike Turner (Michael Caine): A tugboat captain and the hero this time around. He leads the first band of thieves.
*Wilbur Hubbard (Karl Malden): Mike’s ill second team mate.
*Celeste Whitman (Sally Field): Another one of Mike’s passengers.
*Captain Stefan Svevo (Telly Savalas): The main villain and leader of the second group. He’s in complete Blofeld mode here.
*Kurt (Paul Picerni): One of Stefan’s men.
*Doyle (Patrick Culliton): Another one of Stefan’s men.
*Castrop (Dean Raphael Ferrandini): Another one of Stefan’s men.
*Frank Mazzetti (Peter Boyle): One of the survivors, also a war vet who is in search of his missing daughter.
*Dewey “Tex” Hopkins (Slim Pickens): Another survivor, a wine cellar clerk.
*Gine Rowe (Shirley Jones): Survivor, one of the ship’s nurses.
*Larry Simpson (Mark Harmon): A ship elevator operator.
*Harold Meredith (Jack Warden): A blind man.
*Hannah Meredith (Shirley Knight): Harold’s wife.
Overall:
Why a sequel was needed for “The Poseidon Adventure” is a very good question other than to milk it for all that it’s got. Instead, why not continue making more disaster films of different variety and settings? I mean, hey, it’s not like they weren’t doing that in the first place. There was, in fact, an alternative sequel idea which Irwin Allen originally purposed – A railroad train containing the survivors, who are testifying in a hearing about the disaster while on board, gets stuck beneath a collapsed mountain tunnel. Now, that would have made for a much better sequel than this silly and redundant idea here. However, that alternate plot line went to the movie “Daylight” instead.
Here we have the same setting reused all over again. Same boat, same ocean, yet even more trapped survivors, and this time, two rivaling bands of thieves and hidden treasure on board the ship. The two bands of thieves spend their time climbing down to the top in search of this fortune while the extra survivors are want to climb up to the bottom to get out from where the thieves entered from. This sequel offers nothing new at all, just another excuse to flood more decks, waste more money on special effects, and to milk a blockbuster of a film before it fully sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
Rating: *
