The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 20

I’ve never read the 1969 novel, The Poseidon Adventure but it must be pretty good because it has been adapted three times for the screen. Although up until 2005 there was only one adaptation, which was the 1972 movie of the same name. I’ve never seen that either, but I’d have thought one adaptation of a novel about a capsizing ocean liner would have been enough. Especially as it had a pretty stellar cast and is generally regarded as a pretty good exemplar of the disaster movie genre.

But in 2005, someone felt the need to make a small-screen adaptation. I haven’t seen that either. The version I have seen is the one that came just one year later, in 2006. I chose to watch this version, out of all of the versions available, because that was the one that was available on one of the many streaming services I subscribe to.

2006’s Poseidon is not only a disaster movie, it’s also a disaster of a movie. I can’t imagine that this could possibly be the best iteration of the three available, and I do hope it’s the worst. Boasting what can only be described as a ‘mixed ability’ cast (some decent, most not), playing characters that it’s fairly hard to care about, it mostly seems like a pointless endeavour.

The special effects are pretty good though.

Score for Christmasishness

It is set on New Year’s Eve, which plants it firmly in the realms of ‘the season’. Although clearly the people who run the ship don’t associate New Year with Christmas as there is not a Christmas tree in sight. We do spot a bit of tinsel in amongst the corpses of dead crew and passengers towards the end of the film, but otherwise there isn’t much to mark the time of year. Apart from the big party that gets ruined by most of the participants meeting a horrific watery end.