The advances in special effects during the last 34 years make the new Poseidon a more realistic spectacular disaster flick.

As with any disaster film, the corny dialog is delivered at the most inopportune times, and you never get to know any of the characters--but really there's no need anyway.

Poseidon is a strong and sturdy visual experience--but the ship and the sea are the real stars.

The only fun this movie offers is the giant wave that knocks the ship over.

After that, it's pure hokum as big-name stars (and a few not so) cavort about inside the belly of this capsized behemoth.

With upside-down sets starring as a backdrop, one by one the cast is whittled down to the glorious few who will emerge "bottoms up."

A kind scissors sideways.

This film is a remake of the 1972 disaster classic feature, The Poseidon Adventure, that also involves a 150-foot-high rogue tidal wave that capsizes the super-size ocean liner and becomes another mission impossible for a small group of survivors who struggle to escape from the overturned ship before it sinks.

The biggest different between this updated action version and the original is that the movie has been replaced by a more realistic depiction of the victims' struggle to survive & escape alive.