Movie Review Into the Blue

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 September 30th, 2005 

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. Into The Blue remakes The Deep with an equally hot star, Jessica Alba, but none of the culture-capturing zeitgeist of the original, unless you count the uncomfortable evocations of the Natalee Holloway case.

Leaving out such unintentional issues, Into The Blue is a surprisingly pleasing 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 Paul 'Sleep' Sleepwalker.  I like to call Paul that for his amazing ability to sleepwalk through any role given to him, no matter how action-packed. 'Sleep' 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 buried 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 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 is the wreck of an airplane filled with millions of dollars worth of cocaine. If they call the cops it's guaranteed to cost them their wreck site. The only option is to try to claim the salvage before the cops, or worse, the drug dealers searching for their lost product, find the missing plane.

My description is slightly more straightforward than what is actually in the film. Director John Stockwell and writer Matt Johnston convolute the whole thing with characters making seriously stupid mistakes that are necessary to introduce the thriller aspect of the story. If these characters had a lick of sense we would have a nice looking movie about underwater salvaging.  That said, there must be a way to bring the bad guys and the thriller aspects into the film without making the lead characters out to be complete dolts.

Director John Stockwell has a talent for working with women in bikinis, as he showed in 2002's Blue Crush and 2001's Crazy/Beautiful, and he shows that talent again in Into The Blue. Jessica Alba is electric even as she plays the put-upon girlfriend forced to carry 'Sleep''s 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.

'Sleep' 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. Neither actor is likely to get an oscar nomination anytime soon but in this doofus plot they are right at home.

The most impressive thing about Into The Blue may be 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 in 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.

From the standard of a solid action-thriller, Into The Blue is way too happy to be taken seriously. However there is much to enjoy here if you are willing to let a few things slide. Into The Blue delights in its own ridiculousness.  From the buried treasure to the cliched drug dealers and the over-the-top heavy performance of Josh Brolin as a rival treasure hunter, the film has a "so bad it's good" vibe.

As I stated before, the film is beautiful to look at, and I'm not just talking about Jessica Alba. I'm talking Jessica Alba in a bikini..... oh and the locations are great too I guess to accompany the phenomenal underwater photography. 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 entirely 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. Now Stockwell relaxes in Jamaica with Into The Blue and his next picture due in 2006, Turistas, is currently scouting locations in the rainforests of Brazil. Apparently this directing gig is pretty sweet.

So just who is the audience for Into The Blue?  Teenage boys, to be sure, and anyone who enjoys watching beautiful people frolic in crystal blue waters thousands of miles away. It's not, however, for movie fans of a more discerning taste. The film is not particularly 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.

Movie Review 12 Rounds

12 Rounds (2009) 

Directed by Renny Harlin

Written by Daniel Kunka 

Starring John Cena, Aiden Gillen, Ashley Scott, Steve Harris, Brian J. White 

Release Date March 27th, 2009 

Published March 27th, 2009 

There is something to say about a movie as energetic and confident as 12 Rounds. Sure, the movie is by few standards a good movie. The plotting is laughable, the performances are wooden, and the screenplay may have been assembled by monkey's with blenders, but the action is kinetic and attention grabbing. Most interestingly, the star is professional wrestling star John Cena, arguably one of the biggest stars on television at the moment. 

WWE superstar John Cena is the star of 12 Rounds as Danny Fischer, a New Orleans police officer about to stumble on a career making bust. He happens to be in the right place at the right moment to bust an international arms dealer, and all around dirt bag named Miles Jackson (Aiden Gillen). Unfortunately, during the bust Jackson's beloved gal Friday is accidentally killed and the baddie vows revenge on Danny.

One year later, Danny and his partner Hank (Brian White) have made detectives thanks to their big bust but they aren't prepared when Miles escapes from federal custody. Soon after his escape, Mile has kidnapped Danny's beloved girlfriend, Molly (Ashley Scott), and has crafted an elaborate series of challenges for Danny to overcome in order to win her safe return. You could say he has 12 Rounds in this fight in order to save his beloved from a cackling mad man bent on revenge. 

12 Rounds of challenges, in fact, that will have Danny racing about like a maniac fighting fires, stealing cars, and rescuing innocent civilians caught unaware that an international arms dealer has made them pawns in an overly complicated revenge scheme. To say that 12 Rounds is derivative of Die Hard and about a dozen other similar trope heavy action flicks would be an understatement. Aside from John Cena's confidently amateurish performance, 12 Rounds would have nothing going for it that wasn't based on nostalgia for the movies that director Renny Harlin is blatantly ripping off. 

If all of this sounds pretty goofball, well it is. It is goofy and that's ok. That really is what 12 Rounds should be. To attempt to take seriously a movie starring a former WWE champion, whose name isn't Dwayne Johnson, and is directed by schlockmeister Renny Harlin, is a fool's errand. 12 Rounds is silly and perhaps not even silly enough. The film is a little up its own backside in the notion of what we are asked to buy into, but with a bar set so low it's more dimwitted than it is egregious or wholly unwatchable. 

The makers of 12 Rounds know they are not making Shakespeare here, they are barely recreating the glory years of Sly Stallone. Renny Harlin and John Cena fully accept their place in the filmmaking world and that gives 12 Rounds a freewheeling air that is almost cheesy enough to be fun. ALMOST. Sadly, the film overstays its welcome by a good 20 minutes or so and by the time that the big helicopter set finale arrives, the cheese has gone cold. 12 Rounds is a bad movie that sadly fails to transcend into full camp potential. Minus that, it's just merely bad and therefore not something I can fully endorse.

Can John Cena act? By the evidence of his first starring role, no, not really, he's got a lot to learn. That said, Cena appears very confident. Cena radiates confidence, not arrogance, genuine confidence. Cena has self-assurance even as he's trapped in a derivative idiot plot. He's giving this role his all and he has an energy to match the intended spirit of 12 Rounds, if not the actual, dreary, final product of 12 Rounds.