On the radio this morning I heard a film reviewer make an interesting observation about the new Poseidon movie. Apparently it’s almost identical to 1972‘s The Poseidon Adventure, except for two seemingly minor details. The first is that in the original, the luxury ocean liner (henceforth referred to as “the boat”) capsizes not only because it was hit by a huge tidal wave, but also because the boat was loaded so as to be top-heavy in an effort by it’s new owners to arrive at the destination sooner. In the new Poseidon, this detail is omitted.

The poor people didn’t do anything wrong. Evil nature just came out of nowhere and smacked them for no reason. How could they have seen it coming?

The second detail that’s changed? The main character now happens to be a former mayor of New York, who’s also a firefighter.