Into the Blue Review
by [email protected] (johnny_betts AT hotmail DOT com)October 3rd, 2005
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Into the Blue
http://www.themoviemark.com/moviereviews/intotheblue.asp
PLOT
Josh Brolin stars as the main bad guy (Bates) who acts as Paul Walker's rival treasure hunter. I'm sorry, make that "treasure finder." Brolin, in his limited screen time, proceeds to act circles around everybody else, while Paul Walker and his friends find some hidden treasure. Unfortunately for Paul and the gang, they also find a crashed plane under the water that contains a bunch of drugs that belong to Brolin. Knowing that they could be in trouble with uber stud Brolin, everybody shakes in fear while trying to figure out what to do. Jessica Alba and Ashley Scott proceed to show the audience how exactly bathing suits should be worn. Brolin ensues.
JOHNNY'S TAKE
Starring Paul Walker and Jessica Alba. I'll let that sink in for a moment...
Got it? Good. Now I don't want to hear any whining about how you paid to go see this and it was just Alba and Walker running around in bathing suits. DUH!
A more apt title would've been Into the Booty. Not only would it have been a clever play on the fact that these kids have found the hidden treasure from the merchant ship Zephyr, but it would also accurately describe how the camera manages to find every single angle to depict a day in the life of Jessica Alba's wedgie. If it's Ms. Alba's tan, toned booty you want then that is exactly what you'll get. The ladies get a shirtless Josh Brolin. Oh, and I guess the wimpier Paul Walker runs around shirtless most of the time also, if you like scrawnier guys.
People are bound to make fun of Walker's acting (and rightfully so), but the guy's fairly harmless. When you need a graduate from the Keanu Reeves School of Acting to play a dive bum, who else are you going to call? Strength in acting isn't exactly what director John Stockwell was going for. Scott Caan provides comic relief, and Ms. Alba and Ashley Scott deliver some mighty graceful swimming, and that's about all that was required of them. And hey, the underwater photography is fantastic!
I have to say that I'm a little disappointed that Josh didn't have more screen time. His character is introduced at the beginning, then he disappears for about 45 minutes, then he comes back again briefly until he finally settles in as the main bad guy for about the last 15 - 20 minutes and proceeds to be the most interesting (and most important, in my unbiased opinion) character of the movie. Despite how good Jessica Alba looks, it's Brolin that decides to actually bring some acting chops to the film. Get this guy in a Clint Eastwood Western quick!
Everybody I talked to agreed that he was a great bad guy, very intense. The fact that I threatened bodily harm on anybody who said otherwise had nothing to do with it.
Anyway, Into the Blue is aimed directly at the 15-30 age demographic. Anybody expecting much more than eye candy and some fast and furious water action should probably enroll in a "Movie Expectations 101" class. If you can ignore the cheesy "love over treasure" quotes, Jessica's attempts at emoting, the unbelievability of characters holding their breath under water for about 5 minutes, and Walker's use of outdated terminology like "bro" and "gnarly" then you might realize the fun quotient here is about the equivalent of a day at the beach.
THE GIST
Into the Blue is about a group of tan, toned kids diving for treasure. It stars Jessica Alba and Paul Walker. Let that be your guide. If you're a Josh Brolin fan then you should definitely go see it because you never know when he'll be on the big screen again. If you're not, well, you should be.
Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)
Johnny Betts
The Movie Mark
http://www.themoviemark.com
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
