Poseidon (2006) - Petersen's disastrous disaster flick

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+ Career Killer of the Year: Wolfgang Petersen + Costliest Flop of the Year: 87.36 mil. $ range

 

An upside-down cruise ship underwater makes up this disaster-teasing poster for Wolfgang Petersen's Poseidon

 

The giant cruise ship the Poseidon gets hit on new year's night by a 'rogue wave', which turns it upside down. Chaos ensues inside, as a group of survivors fight their way to the surface!

 

Poseidon is written by Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend (2007)), adapting The Poseidon Adventure (1969) by Paul Gallico (Miracle in the Wilderness (1975)), and co-produced and directed by German-born American master filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (Ich Werde Dich Töten, Wolf (1971)). The novel has previously been adapted as The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979).

Really handsome visual effects, especially in the beginning of the film and around the impact of the freak wave, keeps Poseidon above water for a while as a more good-looking, appropriately silly update of the well-known, silly, tiring 1970s movie. We are introduced to plentiful characters, but the encounters become very superficial one and all, and more than once outright laughable in their corniness. Popstar Fergie (Nine (2009)), the black and the latino characters all die relatively quickly, and so the film lives up to the old Hollywood race-profile cliché of letting the white characters outlive other races.

Despite controlled length the film develops sort of like the original Poseidon movie with many long, thrill-less scenes with wet stars, flames and screaming. Petersen fails to elevate this shipwreck.

 

Related posts:

 

Wolfgang Petersen: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

The Boat/Das Boot (1981) - Petersen's awe-inspiring WWII epic 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 160 mil. $

Box office: 181.6 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.13 times its cost)

[Poseidon was released May 10 (Philippines, Thailand) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place from June - October 2005 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #2, behind Mission: Impossible III, to a 22.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#4-#5), grossing 60.6 mil. $ (33.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were South Korea with 14 mil. $ (7.7 %) and Japan with 9.9 mil. $ (5.5 %). The film was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, lost to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. The film additionally made in excess of 27.1 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Petersen returned with Vier Gegen die Bank (2016). Kurt Russell (Vanilla Sky (2001)) returned in Death Proof (2007). Poseidon is rotten at 33 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Poseidon?

Hostel (2005) - Roth resurrects sexploitation for terrific horror trip

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 + Best Horror of the Year + Best Mega-hit Movie of the Year + Best Sexploitation of the Year

 

'What is that...?' The inevitable question raised by this effectively chilling, hooking poster for Eli Roth's Hostel

Two young American males and an Icelandic are on a European interrail trip and decide to head to Slovakia, where local prostitutes lure them to a place where businessmen pay to torture and kill such unlucky tourists.

 

Hostel is written and directed by great Massachusettsans filmmaker Eli Roth (Cabin Fever (2002)).

I'm crazy about Roth's reinvigoration of the lurid sexploitation subgenre and the pricelessly grim effects in his early films. Hostel is based on a dark web phenomenon Roth had read about, based in the real world in Thailand, which should be just fiction but, regrettably, may well be horrific reality. His story runs wild with this dark gem of an idea and makes up an exaggerated, entertaining 'American's-nightmare-in-Europe' type horror story.

Hostel is a sadistic cornucopia with a menacing villain in Jan Vlasák's (Zdivocelá zeme (2008-12)) Dutch businessman. 

 

Related posts:

Eli Roth: The Green Inferno (2015) - Roth - of course - exhumes cannibal horror 

The Last Exorcism Part 2 (2013) or, The Not So Last Chicken Exorcism (co-producer)
Aftershock (2012) - Extreme tastelessness in one of 2012's worst films (co-writer/co-producer/co-star) 
Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject)
Inglourious Basterds (2009) - The Movies take revenge on Nazi scum (co-star)
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

2007 in films - according to Film Excess 

Hostel: Part II (2007) - Roth's return to Eastern Europe is a wicked horror blast 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Cabin Fever (2002) - Eli Roth's awesome skin-rash-inspired breakthrough (co-writer/co-producer/director)

 

 

Roth and others are interviewed about the movie here

 

Cost: 4.8 mil. $

Box office: 81.9 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 17.06 times its cost)

[Hostel premiered 17 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 94 minutes. Quentin Tarantino was a fan of Roth's debut Cabin Fever (2002) and encouraged him to write and direct Hostel, instead of the many offers to direct horror remakes that Roth was getting. Tarantino executive-produced the film and lend his name to its posters. Shooting took place from March - May 2005 in Germany and the Czech Republic, including in Prague in a hospital that had reportedly been abandoned for more than 80 years. The film opened #1 to a 19.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5), grossing 47.3 mil. $ (57.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 7.7 mil. $ (9.4 %) and Germany with 3.6 mil. $ (4.4 %). Roth returned with Thanksgiving (2007, short) and theatrically with Hostel: Part II (2007). Jay Hernandez (Gang Related (2014, TV-series)) returned in Carlito's Way: Rise to Power (2005, video) and theatrically in World Trade Center (2006); Derek Richardson (Men in Trees (2006-08)) in 11 TV and short credits prior to his theatrical return in The Power of Few (2013); and Vlasák in Stríbrná vune mrazu (2005, TV movie) and theatrically in Vratné lahve (2007). Hostel is fresh at 61 % with a 6.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Hostel?