This film has all the ingredients to make a ’’disaster’’ movie and I’m not talking about the plot line. Start with a bad script full of one liners. Add sketchy characters, who have no notion of a history or anything that the audience can connect with or care about. Mix in a healthy does of mediocre to bad acting and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a disaster at the box office. ’’Poseidon’’ opens with a 360 view of the doomed ship, and closes on our hero Dylan Johns (Josh Lucas). Other characters are introduced and by 15 minutes into the film, you know it was a mistake buying that ticket! Kurt Russell plays Robert Ramsey a heroic leader and father to Jennifer played by Emmy Rossum. We have the same situation in ’’Armageddon’’ and countless other movies, where the father disapproves with the daughter’s boyfriend. Kevin Dillon wastes his talents on playing the obnoxious Lucky Larry, who is quickly killed off. This film might have worked Ten years ago. There are no twists, turns or surprises, we have seen everything before. After the ship is capsized, the main characters quickly and conveniently gather and hatch a plan to escape. The scene ends with a line delivered by Richard Nelson ( Richard Dreyfuss).’’I’m an architect and I’m telling you this ship isn’t designed to stay afloat upside down’’, while the audience is thinking, ’’duh, I could’ve told you that!’’ The rest of the film is a like a game, going from one room to the next trying to figure out how to get out. An attempt is made to show emotional conflicts among few of the characters but Petersen is ultimately unsuccessful. For example, in the father and daughter relationship we wonder why this girl is making an effort to convince her father to be with this guy. There is nothing worthwhile about him. Josh Lucas and Emmy Rossum offer us some good moments but the best character is the little boy played by Jimmy Bennett. Old Veterans like Kurt Russell and Richard Dreyfuss almost seems unsure about their acting choices. If you are still intrigued by the previews I suggest you rent Petersen’s other films such as ’’In the Line of Fire’’ or ’’The Perfect Storm’’. You will get it for half the price and receive twice the satisfaction. Despite a few good scenes and some cool special effects, ’’Poseidon’’ is a film that’s doomed to sink quickly. By the time the rescue choppers arrive finally! We are relieved not because our main cast is being rescued but we are elated at the fact that we are seconds away from the closing credits -copyright kalel 2006