[5]
After the events of The Poseidon Adventure, this sequel picks up with two rival salvage crews entering the overturned ocean liner in search of treasure. Michael Caine, Sally Field, and Karl Malden comprise one team, looking to claim financial rewards to make up for the cargo they lost in the previous night’s storm. Telly Savalas leads the other team, a group of shady characters looking to steal a rare barrel of plutonium. Along the way, Caine’s crew pick up a few survivors played by Shirley Jones, Shirley Knight, Peter Boyle, Jack Warden, a young Mark Harmon, and Slim Pickens. Much like the previous film, the group faces one upside-down obstacle course after another before finally confronting Savalas’ gang in a gun battle. As in all disaster movies, some will live and some will die. The real question is: How many Oscar-winners signed onto this job for the paycheck alone? (Caine and Field have fessed up.)
While it’s certainly lacking in originality and fails to equal the thrills of the original film, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure benefits from its strong ensemble cast. The screenplay gives many of these actors just enough screen time and development to make a warm impression. Caine and Field are both very good in this movie, in ways that give a wink and a nod to how preposterous the scenario is. Jones is sweet as the nurse who comes to many people’s aid, and Slim Pickens is fun as a drunken oil baron protecting a rare, valuable bottle of wine.
The special effects aren’t as good (or plentiful) as they were in the original film, and the action is far less elaborate and compelling, but I think the actors and their characters are good enough to pull this movie’s butt out of the fire and safely into comfortable mediocrity. I might even watch this movie again some day.
With Veronica Hamel and Angela Cartwright. Directed by Irwin Allen.