'Poseidon' remake has a sinking feeling

One New Year's Eve, as the passengers of the luxury ocean liner Poseidon party with abandon in the ballroom, on the bridge the ship's chief officer cocks his head, listens to a far-off rumble and declares something is wrong.

Warner Bros. Pictures 'Poseidon' C- The verdict: A truncated remake of the ocean liner disaster yarn, with good effects but no characters worth caring about. Director: Wolfgang Petersen Starring: Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, Emmy Rossum, Andre Braugher, Mía Maestro, Mike Vogel, Dylan Johns Run time: 99 minutes Release date: May 12, 2006 Rating: PG-13 for intense prolonged sequences of disaster and peril. See showtimes Dive in! Preview the action in "Poseidon" with these stills from the movie. Ship shape Atlanta Journal-Constitution film critic Bob Longino compares the "Poseidon" movies side-by-side. On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Poseidon'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Maybe if his nautical career does not work out, he has a future as a film reviewer. For something is definitely wrong with Wolfgang Petersen's remake of the 1972 disaster movie, The Poseidon Adventure. While he improves on the special effects perils of a capsized cruise ship, this master of action-adventure at sea (Das Boot, The Perfect Storm) forgets to hook us into the characters before sending them scurrying in search of an escape hatch.

Impatient to bring on the mammoth "rogue wave," Petersen hastily introduces us to professional gambler Dylan Johns (Josh Lucas) and former New York City Mayor Robert Ramsey (Kurt Russell), locked in a high-stakes poker game. Ramsey's daughter (Emmy Rossum) and her boyfriend (Mike Vogel) also join the expedition, as do a generic mother (Jacinda Barrett) and young son, as well as a gay architect (Richard Dreyfuss) and a Hispanic stowaway (Mía Maestro). But all are mere supporting players to the film's star, the giant liner Poseidon, which gets introduced with a flourish as the camera adoringly circles it from bow to stern.

There is no denying that production designer William Sandell does a first-rate job with the ship's interiors, both right-side up and upside down. We gaze at the elegant ballroom, then watch in horror as it floods when its giant windows crack open. The water keeps rising, chasing the resourceful group to high ground, or at least high deck.

This is hardly a star-studded remake. Still, you can pretty easily project who will and will not survive by their place on the Hollywood pecking order.

Moviegoers who are in it strictly for the action sequences will probably get their money's worth, but even they will notice how Petersen could only sustain the tale for 97 minutes, compared with the original's 117 minutes. Quick, name another remake that was shorter than the version before it.

When you spend $160 million, as Petersen reportedly did, you can buy good visual effects. Improving on the story, or at least having involving characters, called for some inspiration from screenwriter Mark Protosevich. That is a commodity in short supply these days in Hollywood.

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