Poseidon

In our post-9/11, post-Hurricane Katrina world, disasters have lost most of their entertainment value. | Gene Edward Veith

Back in the 1970s, disaster movies were all the rage. Airport (1970) was about a bomb on a plane. Earthquake (1974) imagined "the big one" that would destroy Los Angeles. Towering Inferno (1974) was about a deadly fire in the world's tallest building. But the defining example of the genre was The Poseidon Adventure (1972), in which an ocean liner capsized and a small band of survivors struggled to make their way through the upside-down vessel.

But now, in our post-9/11, post-Hurricane Katrina world, disasters have lost most of their entertainment value. Nevertheless, we have a remake of The Poseidon Adventure simply called Poseidon (rated PG-13), perhaps because the word "adventure" has too many fun connotations for a movie about the deaths of thousands of people.