Yet another of my bed rest viewings, The Poseidon Adventure was actually a lot more tense and better than I had expected it to be, since all I ever heard about was Shelley Winters' performance. Gene Hackman is great as he leads a small group of people towards safety after a giant cruise ship is rolled upside-down by a giant earthquake-induced wave.

The cast is a diverse and enjoyable one. From an elderly couple to a small kid to women who scream a lot, the people we follow through the movie all have their faults but are likeable. Lots of great actors.

Hackman's character is a priest who doesn't seem all that priestly, but still relies on God to help him move the people throughout the ship. The irritating part for me was when the priest gives up on God and basically says (paraphrased), "What more do you want? We're doing this on our own without you." Maybe his fate is a result of that. Haha.

Anyway, the crash scene and the many tense action sequences (including the infamous underwater scenes) make it very worthwhile, and the characters make it even better. Good movie!

I have a quota for giant rolling item sequences. It's one per movie. Either have the prisoners in a giant rolling ball, or have the sword scene on the wheel. But both was a bit overkill. :)

Overall I thought the movie was amusing and fun, but it didn't have the charm of the first and the characters were a bit less endearing the second time around. I'm not sure how they managed to make Keira quite so useless and unattractive for a full 2+ hours, but they did it. Still, Jack Sparrow made me laugh many times, and the two sidekicks (you know, the one with the fake eye) cracked me up. Davy Jones was a great villain too. I did feel that the movie smacked of sequel, but it was still entertaining enough for me to enjoy it.