A handsome group of American diving treasure-hunter wannabees finds a potential score in the Bahamas, but simultaneously run into amuck of ruthless drug-runners.

CRITIQUE

Combine the year’s best-looking cast (not a frog in the bunch), a beautiful tropical locale, some gorgeous underwater photography, and a reasonably taut thriller script, and you get a mildly entertaining film. Paul Walker (The Fast and The Furious and its sequel) and Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four, Sin City) star as Jared and Sam, a devoted couple living and making ends meet in the Bahamas. They play vacation host to Jared’s longtime friend Bryce (Scott Caan) and his girlfriend of the moment Amanda (Jessica Scott). While they are all out free diving, they happen upon some buried treasure, but also wander onto a submerged plane wreck stuffed with drugs. Josh Brolin is Bates, a much more successful treasure hunter who has the resources, and the desire, to plunder the treasure. Throughout the rest of the movie the four friends encounter sharks, drug lords, corrupt officials, and moral dilemmas.

This is definitely not stuff that academy awards are made of, but then it doesn’t pretend to be. The underwater filming is beautiful to watch, the intrigue is engaging, and the cast is pinup quality. I found that I had to force myself to endure the acting in order to get to the plot’s resolution.

THE VIDEO

Into The Blue was probably beautiful to see on the big screen. The Bahamian aqua water, aquatic life and underwater lighting are gorgeous on the DVD. And Jessica Alba in a bikini doesn’t hurt.

THE AUDIO

English and French, with English and French subtitles available. Some of the underwater sound effects are exaggerated (as the must be to make them evident), but the overall surround quality of the aircraft, speedboats, and scuba sound is well done.

THE EXTRAS

Diving Deeper: Into The Blue (20 minutes) is one of the better “making-of” featurettes. It’s nicely shot and edited, including commentary by Paul Walker, John Stockwell, Jessica Alba, Scott Caan, Ashley Scott, and Josh Brolin.

The audio commentary with director John Stockwell (Crazy/Beautiful, Blue Crush) adds some real-world film context to the movie, explaining how difficult it is to shoot underwater, with sharks, and melding the outdoor lighting during editing.

The disc also includes Deleted Scenes and three Screen Tests (two by Scott Caan).

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is a moderately entertaining movie to catch on DVD. Don’t be too critical of the acting or the plot holes, and you might just find it enjoyable.