akshay shah

POSEIDON: Wolfgang Petersen is a director whose movies on the whole always provide blockbuster entertainment. I haven’t seen his German films however films like SHATTERED, IN THE LINE OF FIRE, OUTBREAK, AIR FORCE ONE, THE PERFECT STORM are all entertaining action packed thrillers. I have yet to see TROY’s uncut version though I didn’t much of it in my first watch. This brings me to his latest film-POSEIDON-a remake of the 1072 film THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE of the same name with Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine. The update is true to the orignal as far as a story is concerned though the Special FX and set pieces are no doubt far more advanced. The movie is based on a novel and revolves around a huge luxury cruise liner which capsizes on New YearS Ever after a “rogue wave” hits it. The survivors which include Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, Josh Lucas, Jacinda Barrett, Emmy Rossum and others are left to fight for survival as they make an attempt to escape the sinking ship. No this is no TITANTIC, however the movie does make up for 90 minutes of action packed thrilling adventure. Given my weak spot for the “disaster” genre I was looking forward to POSEIDON and the movie kept me enthralled and entertained for the entire duration. The movie starts out well as it sets the scene and introduces the viewer to its characters. The character building is left to a minimum, but enough is revealed at the start so we know what we’re in for. Wolfgang Petersen knows how to build tension and he knows how to deliver on the action and thrills and the movie manages to grip the viewer right from the start to the finish. The performances in the movie too are likeable given they are all cliches. Kurt Russell is the pick of the lot in a rather “heroic” and likeable performance-Russell fans won’t be disappointed. Josh Lucas does well in his part. Richard Dreyfuss fails to leave a mark. Rest of the cast is apt in their respective roles, as the real “hero” of POSEIDON is no doubt Wolfgang Petersen.

7.5/10.0

EDISON: Cop movies are a dime a dozen in Hollywood-and EDISON frankly doesn’t add anything new to the genre. If you’ve seen movies like TRAINING DAY, NARC, DIRTY, DARK BLUE about crooked cops then EDISON comes across as a mere retread of these earlier and much much better films. The movie stars heavyweights like Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey-but don’t be fooled as most of the footage has gone to Justin Timberlake, LL Cool J, Dylan McDermott, and John Heard. Given the movie came out in 2005-and has just released on DVD here now, indicates that it had been lying in the cans for a while and did not get a theatrical release-rightly so. The story? F.R.A.T is a crooked cop unit in the city of Edison. Encounter killings, stealing, extortion..you name it they do it. They are the citys biggest criminals except they are cops. A honest newsreporter(Justin Timberlake) and his mentor Moses(Morgan Freeman) decide to bring down the F.R.A.T Department headed by John Heard and his gun-friendly killing machine Dylan McDermott and LL Cool J. How the crooked cops are bought to justice forms the crux of the story. The direction is simply flat and extremely cliched just like the story. The movie doesn’t offer anything new at all to a story that has been witnessed a dozen times before not just in movies but also in TV Serials. The story and screenplay are relatively flat and one would’ve atleast hoped they could’ve added more action and “crowd pleasing” scenes to make up for the lack of story and originality. Does it get worse? YES! With names like Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey-one would atleast expect some histronics, dialogue-baazi etc however this is nothing more than sleepwalk for the two actors. Morgan Freeman as the honest mentor is good-yet the role doens’t demant him to do anything at all except mouth a few lines and smile a few times. Kevin Spacey has a cameo like appearence and it is shocking they would actually bill his name on the cover like they have given his screentime all together adds upto 20 minutes if that. Justin Timberlake makes his debut and he is good-but has a long way to go. The actor looks like a kid, and looks WAY too young to be playing the character he is with conviction though he does try hard. In saying that he is camerafriendly and has good delivery. LL Cool J is aptly cast in his part. The two best performances come from Dylan McDermott and John Heard as the corrupt and extremely bad cops. McDermotts performance has shades of Denzels TRAINING DAY (though not a patch on his act ofcourse) and he simply shines. Heard is menacing as the H.O.D. The action sequences lack originality though the shootout at the end is well canned, one just wishes there was more of them! All up—SKIP EDISON unless you’re a huge Dylan McDermott fan or love cop movies!

5/10