With a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score and taking home $269 million at the global box office, Zach Cregger’s Weapons built major buzz before they even set foot in a theater through a marketing campaign that had serious Smile vibes, and No Country for Old Men’s Josh Brolin delivered an incredible performance as Archer (even if the confusing ending may need explaining). However, 20 years before Brolin played a man searching for a group of missing children, he joined <em>Sin City</em>’s Jessica Alba and Fast and Furious actor Paul Walker on a schlock island action-adventure that’s perfect for streaming when you’re tired of doomscrolling.
Directed by Top Gun actor-turned-director John Stockwell, Into the Blue follows four friends as they search for treasure in The Bahamas. Unfortunately for them, they find more than they’re looking for, including Brolin’s Derek Bates—a man desperate to reclaim his stake in the treasure buried at sea. Though critically panned, Into the Blue can be perfect for anyone looking for a flick filled with tight beach bodies, a dubious plot, and action sequences that surprisingly came from someone who directed six episodes of Showtime’s <em>The L Word</em>. Don’t expect a Weapons-grade performance from Brolin in this one, but it can be a great movie to watch if you need a beach vacation.
Into the Blue Dives Into the Sex Appeal
Much of the flick focuses on Jared (Walker) and his girlfriend Sam (Alba). Jared has big plans of marrying Sam, but first, he has to work on getting his boat together to start his own business. Along the way, Jared’s friend Bryce (Scott Caan) shows up with his new girlfriend Amanda (Ashley Scott), and the four of them go on a diving excursion. During their dive, they discover both the contents of an old ship and a plane full of narcotics. From here, the gang has to figure out how they can stake their claim for the pirate ship while avoiding the quite illegal plane. It’s not something you need to think about too much, as Into the Blue clearly wants you to fawn over the main characters, who are constantly and consistently half-naked. Considering this, it could be a steamy movie for a good date night.
One of the more positive aspects of Into the Blue is that there’s plenty of eye-candy, and this isn’t referring to the main cast. Filmed on location in the Bahamas, there are numerous shots of the main characters swimming with aquatic wildlife and gallivanting about underwater. Additionally, Paul Walker does a solid job as Jared, with some even calling Into the Blue his best performance. Though this may be a stretch, one fight scene in particular, where he manages to evade his hunters by hiding under a boat, is one of the better scenes in the flick. Honestly, all four main characters do a great job in their respective roles, and Jessica Alba as Sam makes for one of the actresses’ most rewatchable roles.
Some Scenes Feel as Endless as the Sea
Image via Sony
Of course, Into the Blue is not without its faults (it holds a 20% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, after all). With a one-hour, fifty-minute runtime, it feels like a movie that’s far longer than it is. Some scenes can really drag, especially as the main protagonists swim around in the water on multiple occasions. Considering there’s a good number of sharks and other aquatic life, many of the scenes do look visually gorgeous, yet many of them could also easily shave some minutes off of them. There’s also more than a couple of action sequences that can make Into the Blue a terrible movie to watch if you’re afraid of water, especially in one scene where Sam needs to use an emergency bag for breathing underwater to supply Jared with air via mouth-to-mouth.
Without spoiling anything, another big issue is how they treat Ashley Scott’s Amanda. As she had only met her partner, Bryce, just 12 hours before they landed in the Bahamas, it felt like the movie was severely punishing the character despite Bryce deserving a comeuppance far more. The scene itself will likely get a gasp from you, though it’s also likely to leave a bad taste in your mouth, especially as the characters spend all of two minutes addressing it before going back to their drug plane. It’s not bad enough to warrant Into the Blue going into the worst action movies of all time list, but the scene definitely hurts the movie overall.
Into the Blue Definitely Needed More Josh Brolin
Image via Sony Pictures
As far as Josh Brolin’s role in Into the Blue, he certainly deserved more screen time, as scenes featuring him are few and far between. Serving mostly as a means of pushing the plot towards the end of the movie, you’re not going to see much of Derek Bates. It’s a shame, as he really makes for a terrifying villain. One early scene shows him rudely flirting with Sam in front of Jared while also antagonizing the young man, and you would think this develops further throughout the flick. It does, to a certain extent, but only fleetingly, as Into the Blue focuses on the four protagonists. However, when the character finally does have a good chunk of the screen in the final act,Brolin reminds audiences he can be quite the brooding and imposing figure.
Into the Blue is far from a perfect movie. You’re likely never going to see it on the best action movies of all time list, but there’s plenty of fun to be had. However, those expecting a Josh Brolin-fest are likely going to be disappointed, and the movie itself would likely fare far better overall if it shaved about 20 minutes off of its total runtime. There’s definitely better scary ocean thrillers available on streaming, but those looking for strong performances from a solid cast, goofy action scenes, and enough forced sex appeal to make a showgirl blush can certainly find worse ways to spend two hours. Just make sure your eyes don’t get stuck from frequently rolling them.
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