Review of Into the Blue (1997) by Patrick E — 20 Jun 2010

Director John Stockwell manages to create a beautilful looking film with some fantastic underwater shots of sharks, rays and tropical fish but with a script we have seen too many times before and takes over half the film to get going.

The story revolves around the characters played by Paul Walker and Jessica Albo who are ship wreck hunters based in the Bahama's. With the help of his friend ad his grilfriend they stumble across the wreck of 17th century pirate ship worth tens of millions. While investigating the wreck they also stumble across a crashed aeroplane which is full of cocaine. Needless to say they become entangled in a game of cat and mouse with the drug dealers who want their drugs back and the location of the ship wreck.

The first hour of the film consists of the four main characters diving and lazing around on a boat. As already stated the underwater shots are beautiful but nothing of note happens at all. It's all filler for the final half hour which admittedly has some good action and plenty of twists and turns but isn;t enough to make up for the previous hour. More effort should have been made on developing the scrip instead of focusing on the cinematography.

In the end it's a well shot thriller that manages to slightly entertain but offers nothing new. Worth a watch for the final half hour and the great wildlife shots.