'RV' pokes fun at camping; 'Poseidon' rises again revival of disaster flicks
By Bruce R. Miller Journal staff writer | Posted: Sunday, August 20, 2006
Kurt Russell, left, and Josh Lucas help Richard Dreyfuss make it through the elevator shaft in "Poseidon," a remake of "The Poseidon Adventure," out on DVD Tuesday.
If you just finished the Living cover on recreational vehicles, you might want to look at "RV" before taking the big plunge.
Juiced with cute bits (Stallone as a sock puppet, a seatbelt that won't work), it gives Robin Williams ample opportunity to riff as a corporate drone who must abandon a Hawaiian vacation to appear in Colorado for a sales pitch. To appease his family, he suggests an RV trek. They don't have any road experience (or desire) but they head out in a huge rental that seems like the Hindenburg.
Immediately, there's trouble. Williams can't maneuver his wheeled submarine; his wife and children don't want to help. It's a miserable experience from the minute they head out. When they get to an RV park, things get worse. They meet an obnoxious family (Jeff Daniels and Kristin Chenoweth in inspired performances as the Gornickes) who want to sing songs and do makeovers. They're more than anyone should have to bear (but better than a clogged toiled and a sad miniature golf course on a plot of dirt).
Williams and family (Cheryl Hines, JoJo Levesque and Josh Hutcherson) do everything they can to avoid them but the Gornickes are like flies on a windshield -- you can't escape 'em.
When a hitchhiker steals Williams' laptop, he thinks his presentation is doomed. The Gornickes, however, find it and they're hot on the miserable vacationers' trail.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld must have been on one of these treks to fully hate it. He gives the world plenty of contempt and Williams lots of fodder for comedy. Interestingly, Williams only reverts to his usual shtick once or twice. Otherwise, he's driving over new turf. Trying to get the RV off a peak offers plenty of opportunity to make like Buster Keaton. He handles the moment well, gets the necessary laughs and heads for the next crisis.
While Hines and kids could be a bit more generous, they fuel Williams' misery -- and comedy. When they discover what he's actually doing, "RV" hits a reality patch "National Lampoon's Vacation" never found.
What's new
More TV stuff gluts the market this week but a horror film ("Silent Hill") and a disaster remake ("Poseidon"), keep the feature business popping.
The former depends on your love for things that go bump in the night. The latter requires a short memory.
Based on the '70s disaster film, "The Poseidon Adventure," "Poseidon" has some great special effects but some pretty low-rent stars.
Sure, Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss and Josh Lucas have some decent credits to their names, but they're hardly the Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Tom Hanks trio you'd expect.
This is second-rate cruising (think: "Love Boat") that doesn't give you reason to care. An anonymous waiter is kicked down an elevator shaft? So what. His equally forgettable girlfriend gets it in an air shaft? Yeah, so? One by one, you could ditch the stars and we, the audience, wouldn't care.
That's what separates "Poseidon" from "Poseidon Adventure." Otherwise, it's pretty much a wash.
When a "rogue" wave hits a huge cruise ship, it's turned upside down and Lucas and Russell appoint themselves to lead an expedition to the bottom. The motley crew includes a single mom (and her whining kid), an architect, a greasy gambler, Russell's daughter and her boyfriend and a castaway. They deal with lots of rushing water, live wires and burning engines.
The effects (and editing) are pretty believable and a couple of songs by the Black Eyed Pea's Fergie seem fairly classy.
But then you get to Russell and Lucas. The former doesn't have the heft to engender confidence; the latter flares his eyes and nose so often you think he's part of a cult.
Director Wolfgang Petersen, who knows a bit about water works from "Das Boot" and "The Perfect Storm," gets the tension going with several claustrophobic scenes, but doesn't know what to do with two-bit actors.
Jacinda Barrett (the "Real World" grad who's getting work as an actress) and Jimmy Bennett (as her son) are real dead weights. She cries, he whines. They'd be the first voted off the island if this were a reality show. Instead, it's a water-logged "Ten Little Indians."
People die, but there is a morning after.
Who lives? That's not important. What matters is a genre has been revived.
Also this week
TV: "Blue Thunder," the complete series; "Conviction," the complete series; "Elizabeth I"; "House," season two; "Invasion," the complete series; "Renegade," seasons two and three; "The Robinsons," the complete series; "Space Sentinels and the Freedom Force," the complete series; "Threshold," the complete series; "Veronica Mars," season two; "The Worst Week of My Life."
Film: "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure"; "Just My Luck"; "Phat Girlz"; "State of the Union"; "When Do We Eat?"
Juiced with cute bits (Stallone as a sock puppet, a seatbelt that won't work), it gives Robin Williams ample opportunity to riff as a corporate drone who must abandon a Hawaiian vacation to appear in Colorado for a sales pitch. To appease his family, he suggests an RV trek. They don't have any road experience (or desire) but they head out in a huge rental that seems like the Hindenburg.
Immediately, there's trouble. Williams can't maneuver his wheeled submarine; his wife and children don't want to help. It's a miserable experience from the minute they head out. When they get to an RV park, things get worse. They meet an obnoxious family (Jeff Daniels and Kristin Chenoweth in inspired performances as the Gornickes) who want to sing songs and do makeovers. They're more than anyone should have to bear (but better than a clogged toiled and a sad miniature golf course on a plot of dirt).
Williams and family (Cheryl Hines, JoJo Levesque and Josh Hutcherson) do everything they can to avoid them but the Gornickes are like flies on a windshield -- you can't escape 'em.
When a hitchhiker steals Williams' laptop, he thinks his presentation is doomed. The Gornickes, however, find it and they're hot on the miserable vacationers' trail.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld must have been on one of these treks to fully hate it. He gives the world plenty of contempt and Williams lots of fodder for comedy. Interestingly, Williams only reverts to his usual shtick once or twice. Otherwise, he's driving over new turf. Trying to get the RV off a peak offers plenty of opportunity to make like Buster Keaton. He handles the moment well, gets the necessary laughs and heads for the next crisis.
While Hines and kids could be a bit more generous, they fuel Williams' misery -- and comedy. When they discover what he's actually doing, "RV" hits a reality patch "National Lampoon's Vacation" never found.
What's new
More TV stuff gluts the market this week but a horror film ("Silent Hill") and a disaster remake ("Poseidon"), keep the feature business popping.
The former depends on your love for things that go bump in the night. The latter requires a short memory.
Based on the '70s disaster film, "The Poseidon Adventure," "Poseidon" has some great special effects but some pretty low-rent stars.
Sure, Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss and Josh Lucas have some decent credits to their names, but they're hardly the Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Tom Hanks trio you'd expect.
This is second-rate cruising (think: "Love Boat") that doesn't give you reason to care. An anonymous waiter is kicked down an elevator shaft? So what. His equally forgettable girlfriend gets it in an air shaft? Yeah, so? One by one, you could ditch the stars and we, the audience, wouldn't care.
That's what separates "Poseidon" from "Poseidon Adventure." Otherwise, it's pretty much a wash.
When a "rogue" wave hits a huge cruise ship, it's turned upside down and Lucas and Russell appoint themselves to lead an expedition to the bottom. The motley crew includes a single mom (and her whining kid), an architect, a greasy gambler, Russell's daughter and her boyfriend and a castaway. They deal with lots of rushing water, live wires and burning engines.
The effects (and editing) are pretty believable and a couple of songs by the Black Eyed Pea's Fergie seem fairly classy.
But then you get to Russell and Lucas. The former doesn't have the heft to engender confidence; the latter flares his eyes and nose so often you think he's part of a cult.
Director Wolfgang Petersen, who knows a bit about water works from "Das Boot" and "The Perfect Storm," gets the tension going with several claustrophobic scenes, but doesn't know what to do with two-bit actors.
Jacinda Barrett (the "Real World" grad who's getting work as an actress) and Jimmy Bennett (as her son) are real dead weights. She cries, he whines. They'd be the first voted off the island if this were a reality show. Instead, it's a water-logged "Ten Little Indians."
People die, but there is a morning after.
Who lives? That's not important. What matters is a genre has been revived.
Also this week
TV: "Blue Thunder," the complete series; "Conviction," the complete series; "Elizabeth I"; "House," season two; "Invasion," the complete series; "Renegade," seasons two and three; "The Robinsons," the complete series; "Space Sentinels and the Freedom Force," the complete series; "Threshold," the complete series; "Veronica Mars," season two; "The Worst Week of My Life."
Film: "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure"; "Just My Luck"; "Phat Girlz"; "State of the Union"; "When Do We Eat?"
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