Le dernier secret du Poséidon

My Take: Formulaic disaster movie, but has its moments with its well-known cast. Otherwise, a pretty weak disaster movie.

This sequel is not as good as its hit predecessor "The Poseidon Adventure" was, but easily passable, depending on the yardstick you measure it with. I really like Irwin Allen's production films. They really show a great and realistic disaster and a great well-known cast. This elements would set the pattern to today's disaster hit films. Many bad things has been said about this failed sequel to the 1972 classic, so I guess this is quite a guilty pleasure to me. It's hardly a good movie, in fact its quite a mess upon further observation (plot holes, needless back stories, and one character is disposed of without explanation), but I did kinda enjoyed it on a "it wasn't the complete disaster" way.

The film resembles a little like the original disaster was. But I think it was meant to be that way. Anyway, most of the cast die heroically. Michael Caine gives a fine performance, but I really liked Sally Field here. She really gives a spunky performance. Field's character is the one Caine's character likes to call "monkey", but she turns out to be his love interest in the film. Telly Savalas makes a really good villain as Dr. Svevo. Jack Warden and Shirley Knight are fine as the couple who never seems to lose hope for each other. The other cast includes Karl Malden, Shirley Jones and Peter Boyle, do their best without being too embarrassing. But Slim Pickens is quite weird in his role as a Texan drunk, who never seems to let go of his priceless bottle through the entire film.

Overall, I kinda liked "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure", though I think a large amount of suspension of disbelief is required. Non-disaster buffs won't dig it, but for nostalgia, fans of the original may want to check it out. It wasn't as good as that film, but along with THE SWARM, it's kind of a guilty pleasure.

Rating: ** out of 5.

How many movies get the chance of being made by the extraordinary,proficient,astonishing Allen and/or having Caine,Mrs. Field,Savallas,Shirley Jones in the cast?

Caine's role,in itself,is a jewel;he just fits in.He is energetic, lucid,sharp, intelligent,manly,as fit as a fiddle.Caine knows how to make a super-action flick,without needing to be Willis or Ford.He should be very proud of his role in "Beyond ...".For me,this is one of the most cherished Caine shows.(Caine is himself a cinema,he did an incredible number of good flicks.)Mrs. Field is enchanting,natural, inventive, fresh, luminous, spontaneous,funny,resourceful.(How do I miss an actress like her when I see that imbecile girls in so many cheap-looking shows!With few exceptions,such as Miss Rachel Luttrell,Miss Torri Higginson,or Mrs. Blalock,did you notice how many imbecile-looking girls crowd to fill the sets of the shows?)

The action does not stagnate for a moment.

Savallas got his bigger/better roles elsewhere;but the villain he does here is,as such,memorable and a landmark for the genre.He coins a comic strip villain.(I mean,Nero in Die Hard 2 ,Alan Rickman in Die Hard ,are zero compared to Savallas in "Beyond ...".)

The colors of this movie are delightful.

And how many shows offer so much fun?For me,only the first two episodes of Stargate Atlantis (Rising (Part 1)&Rising (Part 2)).

Many people,who commented "Beyond ...",have expressed a lot of reserves and reticence,about various things;I think they were unjust,and way too exacting.

Between 56 and 64 years,Allen made (i.e,directed and/or produced) several disaster movies:the diptych The Poseidon Adventure ,1972,and The Towering Inferno ,1974—for the movie theaters;then, another diptych—for TV this time: Flood! ,1976,and Fire! ,1977;then a trilogy,for the big screen again: The Swarm ,1978, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure ,1979, When Time Ran Out... ,1980—an activity that was ambitious and often successful.In '80,Allen was 64 years old.In his disaster movies that he made during the '70s,Allen uses the entire palette of the genre.His main merit is,of course,that of creating a very pure form of adventure movies.During '72-'80, The Master of Disaster also found time for some important TV work.So,he was for disaster,he was for Sci-Fi,sometimes he was for both of them—and always for fancy,adventure and fun. Fortunately ,he had the opportunity to develop fully his thoughts and to express himself plenary.

Some fans complain that The Master of Disaster's work was uneven,unequal;anyway,his best films are matchless in their genre.The man made at least 9 remarkable feature movies (of which some 6 are very good—the 5 feature films made between '72 and '80,and also Five Weeks in a Balloon ,1962;but the movies from '59-'61 are worth watching as well …),several interesting TV movies (in the '70s and '80s),and also several TV series and/or miniseries.I do not know any other director to be able of such a continuity in a couple of genres (the disaster/adventures,and Sci-Fi).

This horrifyingly bad and automatically inferior sequel to "The Poseidon Adventure" came and went in theaters so quickly that one could be forgiven for not even realizing that it ever existed! The real victim here was Paul Gallico, the author of the original story. When "PA" was made into a film, the writers changed several things around (as often happens). When plans of a sequel came about, Gallico wrote the sequel to the novel based NOT on his own great little book, but on the FILM's storyline. Then the filmmakers discarded his novel "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" and went with the version found here. So he adjusted his characters and story to fit Hollywood's version, only to have it abandoned in favor of this rehash. In it, two disparate groups join up to either salvage loot from the overturned vessel or rescue any leftover survivors. Instantly they are trapped as the boat belches and rocks continuously, yet they stay inside to find salvage, linger over conversations with newly discovered passengers and finally run around shooting at each other! The inexplicable cleanliness of the sets and utter illogic of the storyline pale in comparison to the hilariously bad dialogue and the banal music score. Previous, greater disaster movies had majestic scores done by excellent composers. This music has no memorable opening theme and features inappropriate and discordant music during scenes (often a whimsical "Flight of the Bumblebee" type of thing is heard.) Some of the dialogue has to be heard to be believed. One classic scene is when Knight dislocates her shoulder after grappling to save her blind husband Warden. Award-magnet Knight does a terrific job of displaying her injury and is carried over to a corner and revived realistically with smelling salts. Then purportedly-kind nurse Jones reveals an utter lack of bedside manner. Does she resort to the standard "You'll only feel a slight prick" or "This won't hurt a bit"??? Nooooo She grabs Ms. Knight's arm and goes, "This is going to hurt a great deal Mrs. Meredith, I'm so sorry!" Apparently, the violence of this scene was so intense that it had to be filmed through debris (fully obscuring Jones' face!) so as not to shock the audience! The characters are unwaveringly pathetic and annoying (and in many cases, just thinly disguised versions of folks from the original film.) Boyle is mercilessly loud and obnoxious, taking Ernest Borgnine's "type" to a new level of irritation. Cartwright is a little old to be playing the little girl sort of role that Pamela Sue Martin already did. Her costume makes her look like a frump. Pickens is hilarious, drawling out lines like, "Who's Svevo? As a matter of fact, who's Suzanne?" in a thick Texas accent. Jones' character is a drippy nurse and has to dredge up her own long-ago award just like Shelley Winters' swimming medal, to no good effect. Warden and Malden vie for audience sympathy with their afflictions, but don't get any. Field rubs immediate tarnish on her Oscar for "Norma Rae" with her over-the-top, "Three's Company" - level comedic attempts and Caine should have known better, but this was his period of making bomb after bomb. Still, it's fun on a camp level to watch once and future Oscar-winners slumming badly. Hamel, for the brief time she is on screen, is both alluring and amusing. Sadly, this and "When Time Ran Out" would slam the lid on any hopes of a film career, but she rebounded on television. Knight adds some much needed class, desperately trying to underact and say her lines with dignity amidst all the squalid overacting and preposterous situations. She is done no favors for this. Sadly, the old VHS and now the newly released DVD shear 8 minutes off the film's running time, cutting a lot of Warden, Knight and Jones' scenes, even removing the fact that Warden and Knight are authors! These were sentimental moments between all three and must have been spliced out in order to keep the action, such as it is, moving. It's a pointless, grave-robbing hack job intended to wring more money out of the classic original, but which sank like a stone at the box office. At least now it can be enjoyed for the audacious mess that it is!

A lot of people don't like this picture, but, I think it works. It is helmed by a strong cast of principle performers and carried off by a unique twist on the sequel impetus. The idea is fairly original, as opposed to the usual: for this story, one would normally expect they'd just focus on another group of survivors and how they get out. Instead of dealing with people wanting to get out, the plot is spurred on by people wanting to get IN. Then, ironically, they become trapped and become the people who have to get out, along with some of those aforementioned survivors to keep with tradition. I also have to give the film credit for that little bits of continuity, like Linda's body is still lying near the entrance of the ship the crew uses, the same hole the original movie's survivors escaped from. In the end, the movie isn't as bad as it is often called.

I haven't seen a film try to be so serious, yet I mistook it for a comedy. The performances were hilarious, the dialogue was awful, and for the life of me, I don't remember the music, so THAT must have been really bad!! LOL. Another one of those great Irwin Allen films that are filled with hammy actors and bad special effects--but what a fun time to watch!!