Into the Blue Ray with Jessica Alba

Author's Rating:

Pros: Beautiful looking especially in Hi Def on Blu Ray

Cons: Cliched plot

The Bottom Line: 
Fun action adventure film.

Author's Review
Alright, from time to time I like to watch a movie for reasons other than brilliant screen writing, fascinating plot and excellent acting.

Some movies are just FUN to watch. Seeing Jessica Alba in a bikini in high definition was reason enough to watch this movie again after I got a PS3.

A plot as thin as Jessica's bikini top

Actually, the plot wasn't that bad. Two couples are in the Carribbean and they find two treasures on the ocean floor, one is ancient pirate treasure, a shipwereck full of gold daggers, dubloons and the like. The other is modern pirate treasure, a crashed plane with a cargo of dozens of packages of cocaine. One couple just wants the pirate treasure from the sunken ship, (Paul Walker and Jessica Alba) and the other is willing to take their chances with the cocaine (Scott Caan and Ashley Scott). You don't have to watch very many movies to know that taking several kilos of cocaine that belongs to someone else may not be such a good idea. The drug dealers that lost the coke figure out where their plane crashed and start to look.

Action ensues as the dealers want back their drugs, and the two couples fight about what should be done, what was done, and what shouldn't have been done. The four leads are all young good looking and provide plenty of eye candy for the entire audience. The plot is similar to 1977's The Deep with Jacqueline Bissett. Nevertheless, it is enough action, adventure and excitement to keep the film moving along at a good pace.

Acting

Paul Walker is actually pretty good as an action lead, I've seen him in a few films so far such as Running Scared and 8 Below. He handles the role as a good guy in a bad spot well here. Jessica Alba isn't a bad actress, but she is quite pretty. I understand that she is near the top of the Maxim Hot 100 this year too. Ashley Scott could have been acted by any other blonde actress. I'm not too sure what to make of James Caan's son, Scott. He did well as the not very smart one here, but doesn't have nearly the screen presence of his more famous father. I'll give him a couple more films.

Cinematography in HD

For a B movie, this is where it truly shines. Aside from plenty of shots of Jessica Alba in her bikini, the undersea portions of this film are beautiful. There are a lot of scuba diving shots with plenty of crystal blue water, tropical fish and deadly sharks to keep your eyes entertained. Into the Blue looks beautiful, and even more so on Blu-Ray.

Sound

This Blu Ray has an uncompressed 5.1 PCM soundtrack and a regular Dolby Digital Soundtrack. THe uncompressed soundtrack makes Dolby Digital sound weak. It really rocks! Subtle effects like bubbles and water make you feel like you are underwater with Walker and Alba, and in scenes with the requisite shootouts, bullets fly from all channels.

Summary

Overall this is an average film. It's fun to watch, it's entertaining, but ultimately pretty average. I gave it three stars, even on Blu-ray.