"Into the Blue" is a spry, gorgeous adventure movie without a brain. That's okay though: not everything has to be art. In fact, in a season of heavy films, the unabashed goofiness of "Into the Blue" feels like a breath of fresh air. This movie may be trash, but dammit, it's good trash. It has hot locations, hard bodies and some blistering action scenes. What more could anyone want?
Never before has a film seemed less ashamed of its B-movie roots than "Into the Blue." In an era when it seems as if most exploitation movies are dressed up with A-list stars and big-time directors in an attempt to lend class to movies that are fundamentally not classy, the movie's lack of pretension is startling and refreshing. This movie exists for no purpose other than to entertain and titillate — and that's fine by me.
While the movie purports to be a tale of treasure hunters, the real subject is that oft-debated question among modern-day philosophers: would you rather have Jessica Alba or a billion dollars? Personally, I would go with the $1 billion, on the assumption I could use it to clone three Jessica Albas (and maybe a Jennifer Garner) — but that's just me. The man faced with this question is Jared, a boat bum played by Paul Walker ("2 Fast 2 Furious"), sporting the rarely seen 10-pack abs. Walker has a consistent look of bewilderment on his face, making it seem as if he may or may not have read the entire script. That's funny: everybody knows Paul Walker can't read. Anyway, Jared is a failed treasure hunter who lives on a broken down old boat in the Bahamas with his loving wife Sam, played by Alba ("Sin City"). It was a stroke of brilliance to cast Walker as a failed treasure hunter; his believability in any role increases exponentially when he plays a character that is an unmitigated failure.
Jared spends a lot of time enjoying his life with the most beautiful woman in the world, until his successful buddy Bryce (Scott Caan, "Ready to Rumble") shows up from the mainland, along with coked-out party-girl Amanda (Ashley Scott, "Walking Tall"). Experienced moviegoers will know right away that Amanda is going to be trouble because she's blonde and has a lower-back tattoo. Within five minutes of landing, Bryce is pawing at Sam's ass and Jared is laughing about it, which speaks volumes about the closeness of their relationship. Caan is so good at playing greasy, abrasive, testosterone-charged louts, I would be tempted to praise him if everything I've ever heard about the man didn't seem to indicate that he is basically playing himself. Remember, this is the man whom Steve Martin, one of the nicest and classiest guys in Hollywood, nearly beat to a pulp on the set of "Novacaine." Still, Caan's overacting nicely juxtaposes Walker's non-acting, creating a nice chemistry.
Before you can say "Look at dem peligins fly," Jared, Sam, Bryce and Amanda discover a downed plane full of cocaine and $1 billion worth of treasure in an old pirate ship that Jared inadvertently drops his watch on while snorkeling — thus making "Into the Blue" the first movie in memory to set up a major plot point with a character forgetting to remove jewelry before swimming. Bryce and Amanda want to bring up the drugs and sell them, but Sam and Jared hold their ground and say that they should bring up the ship instead. Muddled chaos ensues, but Sam and Jared eventually win out because they're the main characters. Still things go wrong, mainly due to the fact that the group mistakenly puts their trust in a character played by Paul Walker, and eventually these four industrious folks find themselves in big trouble with the island kingpin (James Frain, "The Count of Monte Cristo") who wants his drugs back. Watching over all of this is a scruffy treasure-hunter named Bates, played by Josh Brolin ("Hollow Man"), made up to look like Willem Dafoe's redneck twin. Bates' motives are unclear until the final act, although anybody familiar with Roger Ebert's "Law of Economy Characters" will guess pretty quickly what his role is in all of this. In just five years Brolin has made a quick transition from "Future Action Hero in a $100 million movie" (in "Hollow Man") to "Disgraced Wife-Beater Forced to Take a Supporting Role to Pay the Rent." Brolin hams it up and looks like he's having a good time, and why shouldn't he? He gets to go home to Diane Lane every night.
This is not exactly original material, but director John Stockwell ("Blue Crush") handles it well, keeping a light tone throughout and taking full advantage of the gorgeous setting. He knows he's making a B-movie, but he does it well, adding enough intrigue to the mix that you'll never exactly be bored. He shows a deft hand at handling action scenes and even manages to keep Alba and Walker from embarrassing themselves during the few quiet scenes. The underwater photography is top-notch, too. Screenwriter Matt Johnson composes scripts that are so amusing even Paul Walker can't quite mangle them, although God knows he tries.
The combination of Paul Walker and Jessica Alba is never going to rival Gable and Lombard, but the two actually do create, dare I say, some nice chemistry. I know, I know: I'm as surprised as you are, but they work well together. And the fact that they are half-naked helps things along during the slow spots.
Even as a piece of exploitation fluff, "Into the Blue" leaves a bit to be desired in certain spots. Some of the editing is sloppy, and the plot seems to have trouble kicking into gear. The climactic violence, complete with severed limbs and a brutal shark attack, while impressively mounted, is a little too graphic and left a bad taste in my mouth.
These are mere quibbles: the truth is that "Into the Blue," while not likely to end up on any AFI lists, is one of the more enjoyable movies of a year filled with solemn, uninteresting blockbusters. Had it come out in the summer, it could have gone through the roof. Watching it in the fall is an odd, but not unpleasant, experience. It's an effective piece of counter-programming as audiences head into a fall full of big, heavy movies. Is it art? No. Is it fun? Yes. And there's nothing wrong with a little bit of fun.
Grade: B
