“The miniature work” in Ronald Neame and Irwin Allen‘s The Poseidon Adventure (1972) “as the ship is overturned by a 50-foot tidal wave is magnificent,” says N.Y. Times columnist Dave Kehr in his review of the just-released double-disc DVD. Magnificent isn’t the word for the footage of a slow-mo, Nixon-era bullshit “wave” as it engulfs a an obviously modest-sized ocean liner that was about 21 feet long in actuality. (I wonder if Kehr believes that footage of this rowboat-sized craft puttering along the surface of a studio tank during the opening credits is magnificent also? If you don’t believe me, check out this fansite and look at the stills of the 21-foot long ship inside the tank.) “It will be interesting to see how it stacks up to the computer-generated special effects of Friday’s remake,” says Kehr. You would expect, naturally, that 34 years of technical advancement in visual effects would make the effects in Wolfgang Petersen’s Poseidon way more sophisticated. And they are that.