This movie has a lot of energy. Once it gets going, there's nonstop running around, desperate maneuvers, and narrow escapes, all accompanied by a tense, thunderous soundtrack. The problem is that it didn't sweep me up in any of it. This movie is a simple matter of routine -- not charismatic enough for me to want to care about it, not authentic enough for me to be able to.

An early scene sets the stage for what's to follow. A ship is being evacuated. All the lifeboats have gone, save one. The ship must not be moving for the lifeboat to be lowered safely, and, of course, the ship starts moving too soon, and equipment fails, and there's a death-defying rescue of the people still in the lifeboat. It looks like an amusement park ride where all the sets and props are rigged to blow apart, collapse, etc, then reset itself when the ride is over. It's literally as convincing as that.

The movie gets worse. Reality is conspicuously AWOL. Bad jokes abound. Worst of all, the movie wastes the presence of Sandra Bullock, who is relegated to watching disaster happen around her and looking panicked.