Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
Director:
Director :
John Stockwell
Cast :
Paul Walker……….Jared
Jessica Alba……….Sam
Scott Caan……….Bryce
Ashley Scott……….Amanda
Josh Brolin……….Bates
James Frain……….Reyes
The Movie
Sitting down to watch Into the Blue, one key question keeps popping up. It isn’t some deep existential question, nor does it deal with any sort of life-altering choices. The key question in many people’s minds is “How on Earth does Paul Walker keep making movies?”
Besides The Fast and the Furious, Walker’s resume is a series of misfires and money-losing ventures that repeat themselves nearly every spring, summer and/or fall. Into the Blue grossed almost $40 million worldwide, making it another in the long line of commercial and critical flops for Walker, more noted for his looks than his “acting” talent.
Walker stars as Jared, an unemployed scuba diver who dreams of sunken treasure while residing in the Bahamas. Living in a trailer with his girlfriend Sam (Jessica Alba), Jared receives a visit from his old friend Bryce (Scott Caan) and his new girlfriend Amanda (Ashley Scott). Bryce is on vacation, and as an attorney who defends drug kingpins (and their associates) he has access to a spectacular boat on an even more spectacular estate. Spending one glorious day scuba diving, the four discover two important things: a plane filled with cocaine and buried treasure. Avoiding the former and concentrating on the latter, Jared and company wind up in a bad place with bad people over the cocaine. And what starts out with a relatively intriguing plot and potential to rise above the acting pool provided turns into a poorly written, poorly acted and overly long thriller.
One has to feel sorry for the situation John Stockwell must be in. On one hand he gets to direct a big-budgeted thriller with well known stars. On the other, he gets handed a terrible script and the vaunted acting talents of Jessica Alba and Paul Walker. No matter how well of a job Stockwell could do, the ingredients necessary for a great movie are missing substantially. What little intrigue that could’ve been provided with a much tighter and cleaner script is missing, as the plot twists and turns are predictable at best and laughable at worst. What truly is missing, though, would be some acting talent to rise above it.
Too bad Walker and Alba are handed the keys to this clunker. For all the exposure she has had in the past several years (nearly equal to Walker in an eerie way), Alba has demonstrated that being able to fill out a swimsuit is about the only thing she really does well on a consistent basis. She and Walker seem to be engaging in a contest to see who can be worse on a scene by scene basis. Caan and Scott don’t make anything better, as both seem to sleepwalk their way through throwaway roles that require them to do nothing more than look good.
Making matters worse is that the opportunity to at least create intrigue by cutting down on the total screen time is blown by the poor editing job. Running nearly two hours, Into the Blue could’ve used a much more judicious editor. Around 20-30 minutes of the movie is useless and takes away from an already lackluster plot. Points where the movie should be moving forward in a direction, any direction, seem to come and go at will. The movie gets stuck in neutral many times, killing any sort of drama or intrigue that could’ve been created.
Score : 2.5 / 10
The Video
Presented in a widescreen format with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, Into the Blue‘s DVD release takes full advantage of the scenery and looks fantastic.
The Audio
Presented in a Dolby Digital surround sound, the film sounds great.
The Extras
Diving Deeper into the Blue is a featurette giving an overview of the film and its production, as it delves into issues like filming with the sharks as well as the “character development” involved in the film. It’s interesting to hear the cast and crew talk about what it was like to work with real sharks, et al, as opposed to CGI ones that one would normally expect with the inherent danger level involved. Running around 20 minutes, it has a lot of decent moments and interesting insights to an otherwise awful film.
Deleted Scenes come with a Director’s Commentary that can be toggled on and off. Ten scenes in all, there’s nothing really of note that would’ve elevated Into the Blue into being a better movie.
Screen Tests featuring Caan, Walker and Beckford.
Audio Commentary with Director John Stockwell.
Score : 2.5 / 10
