Poseidon, a lame remake of The Poseidon Adventure of 1972, is frustrating to watch. Like its predecessor, this film is adapted from the Paul Gallico book, but director Wolfgang Peterson seems concerned mostly with the destruction of the luxurious ocean liner rather than with performances here. 

As New Years Eve celebrations begin aboard the Poseidon, little do passengers know their evening is about to turn tragic. They find out something is wrong when Captain Bradford  (Andre Braugher) grabs a microphone and makes a startling statement during the dancing and mingling prior to midnight. Bradford tells them about First Officer Chapman (Gabriel Jarret) discoving a 100-foot wave that could destroy the Poseidon. This wave slammed hard against the ship, causing it to swing back and forth violently. Bradford encourages passengers to stay in the ballroom for safety reasons. He explains it will take hours for rescuers to arrive.   

Jennifer (Emmy Rossum) and Christian (Mike Vogel) are passengers who are in love but weary of Jennifer's  father Robert (Kurt Russell) who travels with them. Robert simply refuses to acknowledge his daughter is grown up and no longer requires him to make important decisions for her. Christian recently proposed to Jennifer, but she has hid the ring from her dad, not having the guts to tell him despite Christian's constant prodding.

Another passenger, Richard (Richard Dreyfuss), is an architect who's very depressed and lonely. He uses his  cell phone to plead with his ex-boyfriend to call him at midnight for old times sake. When it sinks in that he's never going to receive a response from his former lover, he decides to drown his sorrows with a bottle of wine that costs him several thousand dollars.

Maggie (Jacinda Barrett) and her 10-year-old son Connor (Jimmy Bennett) are also onboard as is Marco (Freddy Rodriguez), who's anxious because he has smuggled Elena (Mia Maestro) onboard. She refuses to follow repeated instructions not to roam freely or mingle with passengers and crew. Getting fired from his job on the cruise ship is the least of Marco's concerns should Elena be discovered when they reach port.

Finally, there's Dylan (Josh Lucas), a man used to taking gambles at the poker table but not with his life. When he sees the glass shattering and the massive flooding, he knows it's every man for himself as the ship is tossed upside down. However, he agrees to take Connor, Maggie, Richard, and Robert -- who is hunting for his daughter -- along with him on his escape search, provided they do not impede his progress.

Filmmaker Petersen obviously wanted to create a realistic disaster movie with Poseidon, so performances of the ensemble cast take a back seat to computerized sequences. Still, Dreyfuss manages to take what's written by Akiva Goldsman and Paul Attanasio and improve upon it with his natural, polished, believable performance.  

Unfortunately, I simply did not care about the  Poseidon characters and their peril. I ended up wishing I'd rented A Night To Remember or Titanic instead. 

( Released by Warner Home Video and rated "PG-13" for intense prolonged sequences of disaster and peril.)