A glossy, efficient disaster thriller with strong set-piece suspense and a simple, crowd-pleasing survival premise. It’s best approached as a big, dumb, high-anxiety ride rather than a character-driven drama; the spectacle works better than the dialogue.
9% ☆☆☆☆☆ (177,019)
Poseidon
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Adventure · Action · PG-13
2006 · 1h 38m · ★ 9% (177K)
Mayday
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Starring: Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Jacinda Barrett
Overview
A packed cruise ship traveling the Atlantic is hit and overturned by a massive wave, compelling the passengers to begin a dramatic fight for their lives.
Director
Wolfgang Petersen
Production
Virtual Studios, Radiant Productions, Next Entertainment, Irwin Allen Productions, Synthesis Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures
Cast
Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Jacinda Barrett, Richard Dreyfuss, Emmy Rossum, Mía Maestro, Mike Vogel, Kevin Dillon, Freddy Rodríguez, Jimmy Bennett, Fergie, Andre Braugher, Kirk B.R. Woller, Kelly McNair, Gabriel Jarret, David Reivers, Gordon Thomson, Jan Munroe, Caroline Lagerfelt, Jesse Henecke
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, efficient disaster thriller with strong set-piece suspense and a simple, crowd-pleasing survival premise. It’s best approached as a big, dumb, high-anxiety ride rather than a character-driven drama; the spectacle works better than the dialogue.
Best for
disaster-movie fans
viewers who want fast-paced survival suspense
people in the mood for a late-night popcorn movie
fans of claustrophobic action set pieces
Skip if
you want deep character development
you dislike implausible disaster premises
you prefer practical, grounded realism
you’re looking for a prestige-level thriller
Overview
Poseidon is the kind of disaster movie that knows exactly what it is: a sleek, expensive pressure cooker built around one huge premise and a series of escalating escape attempts. Once the ship flips, the movie becomes a race through flooded corridors, collapsing structures, and increasingly nasty ways to die, and it does a solid job of sustaining momentum.
Worth noting
The appeal is less in the human drama than in the pure mechanics of survival. The cast is serviceable, the emotional beats are thin, and the script leans hard on archetypes, but the movie delivers a steady stream of tension and visual spectacle. If you can accept the absurdity of the setup, it plays like a very effective theme-park disaster ride.
Bottom line
It’s also a good example of a remake that trades the original’s slower, ensemble-heavy approach for a cleaner, more modern action-thriller rhythm. That makes it less memorable as drama, but easier to recommend as an efficient, high-stakes watch when you want something tense and uncomplicated.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Erik 🎼 (3★) · 733 likes
what if there was no wave and the boat just did that
Ellie ✨ (1.5★) · 632 likes
holt from brooklyn nine-nine shares screentime with fergie
daniela (3★) · 448 likes
my toxic trait is thinking i’d be able to survive
Michele (4★) · 425 likes
I love disaster movies and I won’t apologize for it.
Tony the Terror (4.5★) · 352 likes
I. WAS. SHOOK. I’m fully aware that this epic disaster movie about a cruise ship that flips upside down is ENTIRELY unrealistic, but damn it was a fun ride ok! For some reason, the idea of drowning is quite scary to me. Not as scary as falling from some ridiculous height, but still pretty scary and this movie manages to feature both of those highly undesirable exit strategies so yeah I was screaming at the TV during certain parts and… more