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.

it took awhile for me to get into this movie.but somewhere along the line,i actually started to enjoy myself.once you get around the wafer thin plot,it's not half bad.the trick with this movie is to not take it too seriously.for instance,as soon as the bad guys show up,you know they're bad long before they reveal their intentions.the only other thing they could have done to telegraph they were bad would have been to have been for them each to have a neon sign over their heads saying villain.it's that absurd.and there's some cringe worthy dialogue.however,the are some very witty one liners mostly courtesy of Sally Field,and their was an interesting,and(mostly)likable mix of characters.there were actually even a few exciting moments.of course,there are endless explosions.this movie doesn't hold a candle to the original Poseidon Adventure.it was actually fairly pointless,when you think about.but it was fun,and actually quite entertaining.for me,Beyond the Poseidon adventure is a solid 5/10

If you liked the original "Poseidon Adventure" then you can not find one redeeming feature of this lamebrained "sequel" that represents exploitation for a quick buck at it's worst. Paul Gallico's novel, while not stellar, at least brought back Rogo, Martin and Manny Rosen while this time out the orignal cast and characters is gone completely apart from an obscure reference to the helicopter that picks them up.

I won't bother dissecting the horrible performances by the actors in their uninteresting roles. I would like to gleefully note the absurdities of the entire plot when compared to it's predecessor. As two others have noted, it is impossible to believe that there could be no other rescue ships out to the scene at this point. And did anyone else notice how the ship seems strangely much more intact than it did in the original? Fred Koenekamp's cinematography in the original was dark, grimy, realistic and effective. This time out, this search crew ends up back in a spotless looking kitchen which in the original was devastated by a flash fire and then submerged only moments later! The photography is much too bright, the settings too spotless, and the story just plain stupid. The bigger mystery is why, after being humiliated in "The Swarm" did Michael Cain ever agree to work with Allen again?

Pretend this film never happened and just stick to the original, which is far more intelligent.

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!!

Sequel to The Poseidon Adventure.

Every Single Cast Member Is Outstanding. How often can one say that about a Disaster movie, or any movie?

I have watched the 1979 film about 25 times on video. The way the characters/actors react to each other and the very memorable lines they come out with are all wonderful. Sally Field brings incredible humour to simple every day terms like, "Oh brother", or "are you going to kiss me now?", and despite her public comments on how much she hated the movie and disliked Irwin Allen, this stands out as the best of Sally Field, to me.

Michael Caine recently said on a British talk show that, "Irwin Allen's The Swarm was the worst movie I have done". So I guess Beyond/Poseidon is not too high on his list. I don't care. The way his character takes command of this disaster movie and his encounters with Telly Savalas (this was also my favourite Savalas show) and Sally Field are nothing short of great entertainment.

I could do another 20 quotes from the other players. This movie had an okay musical score which picked up in the end credits.

Note: 25 minutes was edited out and I have seen all the deleted footage. A lot of it concerned a tedious subplot with the blind guy and there was a bad effects scene of the Poseidon on the surface. I walked away from the 25 minutes saying - I am so glad they cut this stuff out!

Great movie!