Poseidon

The first question that needs answering is, "Why ?" Which Hollywood wise guy decided we needed a remake of this classic Seventies disaster epic?

Its not even like they can argue that there's a whole new generation of cinemagoers who won't remember the 34-year-old original. The film's on TV at least once a year.

The second question is, "Is it any good ?" Well, for starters, it's directed by Wolfgang Petersen. His previous films have included Air Force One, Das Boot and The Perfect Storm. That means he's got an impressive track record with blockbusters set aboard multiple people carriers in peril.

Then there's a story. The 1972 original was genuine edge-of-the-seat stuff, and Petersen has wisely chosen not to tinker with a winning formula. The characters have changed but the premise is the same - which of a small group of survivors will reach safety via the bottom of an upturned cruise ship and get to breathe fresh air again?

The first 20 minutes introduces us to the various characters that are inevitably going to make up that group. Kurt Russell's a man with mysterious issues in his past, now trying unsuccessfully to stop his over-age daughter making out with her boyfriend in their stateroom.

Josh Lucas is a gambler and ladies man with an equally mysterious past, while Richard Dreyfuss is a gay architect who's just been dumped by his partner (we know he's gay because he's wearing a huge diamond stud earring).

There's also a beautiful young female stowaway, a somewhat less alluring young mum and her young son, and Kevin Dillon as an appalling caricature of a sleazy, misogynistic hustler.

Introductions complete, the ship is hit side-on by an enormous wave, rolling her over with an enormous amount of very spectacular destruction and the gruesome deaths of most of the passengers and crew.

Miraculously, everyone we've just met survives with little more than a scratch, find each other in the chaos, and decide that waiting for help in an upturned and slowly sinking ship isn't the best idea.

And so the battle to reach the hull of the ship begins, with the plucky group dodging falling machinery, flash fires, explosions and flooded corridors.

It's the action that's the star of this film, not the decidedly B-list cast or their very one-dimensional characters.

What's impressive is the way director Petersen maintains the tension, and creates genuine fear for the characters' lives - despite us not really caring about any of them in the way we did for Shelley Winters and Gene Hackman all those years ago.

Predictable yet exciting, Poseidon's definitely an adventure - but unlike the original, this one will linger in the memory for minutes, not decades.