Classic Movie Review: 'Into the Blue' Starring Paul Walker

Into the Blue (2005)

Directed by John Stockwell

Written by Matt Johnson

Starring Jessica Alba, Paul Walker, Scott Caan, Ashley Scott

Release Date September 30th, 2005

Published May 24th, 2024

1977's The Deep was a crowd pleasing beach thriller that evoked enough of the Jaws vibe from one year earlier to become a hit in its own right. With of-the-moment stars Nick Nolte and Jaqueline Bisset, the film captured the temporary zeitgeist of its time. In 2005, director John Stockwell remade The Deep as Into The Blue with an equally hot, of the moment, 2005, star, Jessica Alba, but none of the culture-capturing zeitgeist of the original, unless you count the uncomfortable evocations of the. at the time. very recent disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Leaving out such unintentional issues, Into The Blue was merely a dimwitted babes-in-bikinis thriller.

While it's clear that Jessica Alba is the real draw of Into The Blue, the star according to billing and screen time, is the late Paul Walker. Walker plays Jared, a part time scuba instructor with ambitions to get into the salvage business. Living in Jamaica with his girlfriend, Sam (Alba), Jared searches fruitlessly for sunken wrecks that could be worth millions.

Arriving just in time to help Jared and Sam with a particularly big score is Jared's little brother Bryce (Scott Caan) and his girlfriend of about five minutes, Amanda (Ashley Scott). The four set out in a borrowed boat and discover a wreck that may be the remains of a famous ship called the Zephyr that was believed to have sank carrying millions in gold bars. All that our crew has to do is set the claim, identify the wreck, and the salvage is theirs. If only it were that easy.

Unfortunately, just less than 100 feet away from the prized ship, is the wreck of an airplane filled with millions of dollars worth of cocaine that our crew has now stumbled over. If they call the cops it's guaranteed to cost them their wreck site when it becomes a crime scene. Thus, if our less than virtuous protagonists want their million dollar salvage, only option is to try to claim the salvage before the cops arrive, or worse, the drug dealers searching for their lost product. Josh Brolin plays the film's big bad, Bates.

My description is slightly more straightforward than what is actually in the film. Director John Stockwell and writer Matt Johnston unfortunately muck up the relatively simple thriller set up with scenes in which our main characters make dimwitted mistakes that lead to them being found out by the baddies. The movie needs our main characters to make these dimwitted mistakes to further the plot and that is demonstrable of bad, lazy, screenwriting.

Director John Stockwell has a pattern of working with women in bikinis, as he showed in 2002's Blue Crush and 2001's Crazy/Beautiful, and he sticks to that pattern in in Into The Blue. Jessica Alba is electric even as she plays the put-upon girlfriend forced to carry Paul Walker's bland, banal, lead performance. Much of the focus on her work is on her amazing physical assets, but you cannot deny that she can act as well as fill out a bikini. She's doing the hard work of overcoming the dumb, lazy script, and her reward is mostly men talking about how great she looks in a bikini.

Paul Walker does not exactly set the screen on fire with his charisma, but his frat boy charms are a good fit for the goofy plot. Walker and Scott Caan work well together in the way two good buddies on a fishing trip work together. The brotherly connection is unforced and easygoing, but both performances stretch credulity when the plot requires a melodramatic confrontation. Both Walker and Caan melt in front of Josh Brolin who has a genuine actorly presence. The easy menace he brings to Bates is wasted in a movie that is more intereted in cool underwater photography, babes in bikinis, and boy with all of the available abs.

The most impressive thing about Into The Blue is the gorgeous underwater photography. The cool blue Jamaican waters are inviting even with the large number of sharks swimming by. Peter Zuccharini handled the underwater shooting for Into The Blue and he does some astonishing work. Some of the underwater shots are so pristine, especially the loving underwater closeups of Jessica Alba, that you can forget about the ridiculousness of the plot and the terrible, no good, downright atrocious dialogue.

Another critic, I believe it was James Berardinelli, said if you could turn the sound down and simply observe Into The Blue it would be a far better experience. He's not wrong.

From the looks of his resume one might wonder if director John Stockwell directs simply for the vacation he receives during shooting. Consider his Crazy/Beautiful, shot and set in Malibu, and Blue Crush in Hawaii. In Into the Blue Stockwell gets to go to Jamaica and his follow up picture, 2006's Turistas, is literally about tourists' in Brazil who also happen to be targeted by killers but not before they enjoy crystal blue waters, pristine beaches, and coves so incredibly beautiful that human beings shouldn't be able to visit them for fear of how we might destroy them. Stockwell should direct travlogues not thrillers, he doesn't have a knack for thrillers. But he knows a great location when he sees one.

So just who was the audience for Into The Blue? Teenage boys, to be sure, and anyone who enjoys watching beautiful people frolic in crystal blue waters of exotic locations. It's not, however, for movie fans of a more discerning taste. The film is not smart and its rote plot grates on the intellect. If you can turn down the sound in your own mind and shut off your brain for ninety minutes, though, you may just find a kitschy thrill in Into The Blue.

Capelight Pictures is reissuing Into the Blue on Blu-Ray on May 27th, 2024 with some new special features:

Audio commentary with director John Stockwell

Deleted scenes with optional audio commentary from the director

Screen Tests for Paul Walker and Jessica Alba

Making-of Featurette: Diving Deeper Into The Blue

And the original Theatrical Trailer.

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