Amazing in a not-so-amazing kind of way
Courtney Kaminski
Issue date: 10/4/05 Section: Arts & Entertainment
With a name like Into The Blue, there are instantly tons of preconceptions of typical shark attack movies, a la Deep Blue Sea, Jaws, and Open Water, starring teen idols with hot bodies.
Into The Blue, featuring the abtastic Paul Walker and the bootylicious Jessica Alba, has plenty of shark attacks, but they are merely background noise for the master plotline involving sunken planes and drug deals gone bad.
Jared (Walker) and Sam (Alba) are lovebirds working menial jobs in the Bahamas, living in a trailer and dreaming of days when diving will pay off for them in the form of sunken treasure.
However, on one treasure hunting dive, their ship doesn't come in so much as their plane does.
The pair find a sunken plane, filled to the brim with packages of cocaine. So begins the ultimate dilemma: become a one-time drug dealer and make millions or report the wreck and continue teaching tourists about marine life?
In all honesty, the movie surpassed my expectations. Scott Caan provides some excellent comic relief as Bryce, and Josh Brolin is extremely convincing as the villainous Bates. Although Walker has Keanu-esque acting talents, he really doesn't ruin the movie and makes up for what he is lacking by being just lovely to look at.
While Alba's acting talents are more noteworthy (as we saw in Sin City) the camera spends too much time focusing on her rear-end than her face, which makes it tough to communicate anything via facial expression.
Her character is also plagued with cheesy lines like "I think you need to take a look around and see what you're missing in your life," followed by her asking Walker's character, "Would you choose love over treasure?"
Aside from the beautiful people, the film features some awe-inspiring underwater filmography and amazing views of pristine beaches. It also had some very surprising twists and shocking occurances that made me gasp at an embarrasing volume.
Some highlights for me included Cann's character Bryce getting harpooned in the stomach and being fully recovered six weeks later, a drug lord played by James Frain, who appeared to have elf ears (which he doesn't in real life), and lastly Walker and Alba constantly making out in inappropriate places.
All in all, I think that the film had a great plot that could have made a great film, had Director John Stockwell not sacrificed key elements for the film in order to show off the actors toned bodies.
Walking away from the film, I definitely wasn't dissapointed, but rather pleasantly surprised. Still, all I could think was that after seeing Twister I really wanted to grow up and be a storm chaser. Seeing Into The Blue didn't make me want to be treasure hunter or even a drug dealer, it just really made me miss my killer summer tan.
Into The Blue, featuring the abtastic Paul Walker and the bootylicious Jessica Alba, has plenty of shark attacks, but they are merely background noise for the master plotline involving sunken planes and drug deals gone bad.
Jared (Walker) and Sam (Alba) are lovebirds working menial jobs in the Bahamas, living in a trailer and dreaming of days when diving will pay off for them in the form of sunken treasure.
However, on one treasure hunting dive, their ship doesn't come in so much as their plane does.
The pair find a sunken plane, filled to the brim with packages of cocaine. So begins the ultimate dilemma: become a one-time drug dealer and make millions or report the wreck and continue teaching tourists about marine life?
In all honesty, the movie surpassed my expectations. Scott Caan provides some excellent comic relief as Bryce, and Josh Brolin is extremely convincing as the villainous Bates. Although Walker has Keanu-esque acting talents, he really doesn't ruin the movie and makes up for what he is lacking by being just lovely to look at.
While Alba's acting talents are more noteworthy (as we saw in Sin City) the camera spends too much time focusing on her rear-end than her face, which makes it tough to communicate anything via facial expression.
Her character is also plagued with cheesy lines like "I think you need to take a look around and see what you're missing in your life," followed by her asking Walker's character, "Would you choose love over treasure?"
Aside from the beautiful people, the film features some awe-inspiring underwater filmography and amazing views of pristine beaches. It also had some very surprising twists and shocking occurances that made me gasp at an embarrasing volume.
Some highlights for me included Cann's character Bryce getting harpooned in the stomach and being fully recovered six weeks later, a drug lord played by James Frain, who appeared to have elf ears (which he doesn't in real life), and lastly Walker and Alba constantly making out in inappropriate places.
All in all, I think that the film had a great plot that could have made a great film, had Director John Stockwell not sacrificed key elements for the film in order to show off the actors toned bodies.
Walking away from the film, I definitely wasn't dissapointed, but rather pleasantly surprised. Still, all I could think was that after seeing Twister I really wanted to grow up and be a storm chaser. Seeing Into The Blue didn't make me want to be treasure hunter or even a drug dealer, it just really made me miss my killer summer tan.
