Sandra and her wanna-be fiancé go on a Caribbean cruise which is hijacked by a computer genius. Not only is the genius a madman (a seemingly common Hollywood viewpoint of geniuses) but it just so happens he has designed the computer system running the ship. We are asked to believe that the computer has god-like control of the ship and cannot be bypassed or turned off. In fact, apparently, nothing on the ship can be turned off or even sabotaged including the ship's engines.

The highlight of the movie comes when the madman sets the ship on a collision course with an oil tanker anchored in a harbor. Fortunately, our heroes turn the cruise ship just in the nick of time by using one of the ship's forward thrusters. This creates a water jet which shoots out the side of the cruise ship near the front thereby turning the ship away from the tanker. We could argue that the turn was impossibly tight but maybe it was just the camera angle. While we never see the good guys turn off the thruster, the cruise ship somehow straightens itself out. Unfortunately, it then heads directly toward a dock.

Our minds whirl and our calculator fingers virtually twitch at the possibility of analyzing a high momentum collision between the ship and the dock. Momentum is equal to mass times velocity and is a measure of how hard it is to stop an object. Although the boat's velocity is a mere 5 m/s as compared to highway speeds of about 30 m/s, the boat's roughly 50,000,000 kg of mass mean it would have one gigantic collision. The Hollywood special effects guys truly deliver. The cruise ship wipes out the dock and several waterside condos to boot. What's more, the movie provides us with periodic digital speed indications during the collision to assist in making our calculations. At this point, we could have forgiven many of the movie's flaws if the Hollywood guys had just left well enough alone. However, they have the heroes thrown through the boat's windshield for dramatic effect. By our calculations, the heroes are slowing down with an acceleration of less than 0.01 g's at the time they are violently pitched through the window. With such an acceleration the movie's heroes could easily have sat in deck chairs sipping cold drinks during the collision with no risk of spilling.

We like Sandra but think her career is going to lose momentum along with her cruise ship if she doesn't find a better vehicle for her talents. Maybe next time she should try Acceleration.