Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)

Scientific genius Admiral Harriman Nelson's Seaview super-sub is conducting trials in the frozen Arctic when an Irwin Allen disaster situation rears its movie-plot head, forcing the admiral to change his plans. In a reversal of expectations the sub becomes one of the few places that isn't under great threat. Furthermore, it may be the one thing that's capable of saving the day!
At its best it has a jolly Saturday morning TV adventure feeling about it, but it's one that's stretched a little thin, and besides Walter Pidgeon and Peter Lorre the movie doesn't have the same calibre of actors to keep things interesting that some of Irwin's other disaster flicks have. There's a clever lure that may keep a viewer seated until the story's end, but don't get your hopes up for anything tremendously memorable, because it really isn't there.

2½ temperature readings out of 5

The Towering Inferno (1974)

Previously it was a watery death that an ensemble star cast had to run from, now it's a fiery one. They're opposing elements, but the end result is a similar kind of disaster movie, again produced by Irwin Allen (Dir. John Guillermin).
With a story adapted from two different novels (The Tower by R.M. Stern; The Glass Inferno by T.N. Scortia and F.M. Robinson), the script doesn't rush to the big event, but nor does it dally. An epic establishing scene effectively gets us to where the (hot) shit goes down. Thereafter the two male leads, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, are cleverly kept apart for the longest time but are dependent on each other's skills at crucial moments throughout.
The villains of the piece are hobnobbing rich folks who feel that their life is somehow worth more than that of the average Joe.

3½ corners cut out of 5

The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

Revellers on board the luxury liner Poseidon enjoy their New Year's Eve party oblivious to the giant wave that's thundering toward them... until it hits!
Produced by master of disaster flicks Irwin Allen, Poseidon is a thoroughly enjoyable but admittedly pretty awful journey from the bowels of hell to the light of day for a small and varied collection of individuals who realise that they must band together if they're to have any hope of escape.
With plenty of rationalising and moralising along the way the ensemble cast do their best with the material, and by the end we know exactly why each character was included and what basic emotion they were required to appeal to, a task that most of them do rather well, I'm happy to say. I know that it's basically trash given the big screen treatment, but damn me, I love it.

3½ tables turned (literally) out of 5