Review: Into the Blue

Rated PG-13 | 110 mins

IMDB Info

Yes, indeed, it’s true: Jessica Alba looks as good in a bikini as you thought she would. But that’s about the only thing that Into the Blue really has going for it. For awhile, the movie manages to be pleasant—Alba wears her swimsuit and Paul Walker lays low amidst beautiful tropical scenery—but when the actual plot comes into play, it loses most of its interest. Things take off when Jared (Walker), Sam (Alba), Jared’s brother Bryce (Scott Caan), and Bryce’s girlfriend Amanda (Ashley Scott) are searching for treasure in the ocean and stumble upon a sunken boat of full of cocaine. Bryce wants to sell it, but the others disagree. That is, until matters complicate and they find the Zephyr, an ancient ship full of treasure, almost right next to it. In order to properly lay a claim on the Zephyr, they’ll need to avoid any possible connection with the drug-boat that the authorities might pin on them. However, doing this becomes instantly less important to them when the dangerous drug-lord who owned the loot on that ship hunts them down and threatens them because he believes that they have stolen some of his illegal goods.

The movie is an unabashed mess, as it might seem from that mere plot-description. This is really a shame, too, considering the fact that it had a lot of potential, as far as Fall-Blockbusters are concerned. Had screenwriter Matt Johnson ditched the whole story-thread regarding the drug-boat, Into the Blue could’ve been a lot more interesting and a lot less lame. Why didn’t he simply make this an adventure about four characters on a quest to find sunken treasure and stopped there? It could’ve been perfectly entertaining, considering the fact that Stockton has a knack for beautiful photography and breezy montages featuring likable stars. I suppose Johnson was overcome by the same need that too many screenwriters are these days: to make one’s plot far more earth-shattering than it needs to be. He never stopped to think that Into the Blue’s generic action-sequences would be its most boring. In the end, this is just another big-budget caper movie with nothing more than pretty visuals to offer.