September 13, 2024 • 35 mins
In this episode of Shelf Criticism, Stephen dives into the 2005 tropical thriller Into the Blue. Known for its breathtaking underwater cinematography, Jessica Alba in a bikini, and Paul Walker perpetually shirtless, the film has often been dismissed as a shallow Hollywood spectacle. But is there more lurking beneath the surface? Stephen revisits the film, exploring whether it’s just an extended swimsuit calendar or if it holds genuine suspense and storytelling merit. Spoiler alert: It’s better than you remember, but maybe not by much.
As mentioned, check out the site for Shark Angels.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Look, I love you to death.
(00:02):
And the whole flip-flopping board short thing is cute now,
but what about when you're the fat old man sitting at the end of the bar
and nothing in your pocket but sand?
And you're drooling and you're going on and on about how you,
you were the one who found this effort.
Welcome to Shelf Criticism.
Meet your host, Stephen,
a scholar of literature and film by day,
and by night, a cinematic archaeologist
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with a penchant for everything from art house
to popular to outright trash cinema.
Over the past quarter century,
Stephen has amassed an eclectic collection of works
from the world of art,
and has been a pioneer in the field of art
and has been a pioneer in the field of art
and has been a pioneer in the field of art
and has been a pioneer in the field of art
and has been a pioneer in the field of art.
(00:45):
Today, Stephen has amassed an eclectic DVD collection,
now occupying five shelves of a curio cabinet in his living room.
Each week, he bravely selects one of these titles to dissect.
Join him as he unearths everything from obscure gems
to cinematic missteps.
From blockbuster hits to forgotten flops,
each film gets the critical once over it probably doesn't deserve
but will absolutely receive.
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So grab your popcorn and settle in.
It's time to dive into the diverse world of shelf criticism.
Hello once more, my faithful listeners,
and if you're new to this podcast, an extra special welcome.
We hope you like what you hear, maybe enough that you'll stick around
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and go back and check out some past episodes.
I'm sure there's more than one film I've pontificated about
that you've had the pleasure or displeasure of viewing,
and there are many more obscure titles that you might want to take a peek at.
Just allow me to say that I am not responsible for any misery caused
by watching any of the picks.
They can't be all winners.
Case in point, today's film.
To hear it told, even the scenic sapphire expanse of the Caribbean waters
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or the extensive amount of underwater shots
or even the copious amount of time our gorgeous young stars spend
in their bathing suits can best save this film.
It features an up and coming Jessica Alba,
fresh off her success in Dark Angel,
and just after her flop with Fantastic Four,
part of a series of missteps that led to Good Luck Chuck,
Awake, The Eye, and most egregiously, The Love Guru.
That film more or less finished the tailspin of her career at the time.
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Thankfully, she bounced back.
Of course, it also sank Mike Myers for a while
and had the dubious distinction of being the first bad film
I ever saw Sir Ben Kingsley in.
Is Into the Blue as bad as we remember?
Is it really just an excuse to display a bikini clad Alba
and a shirtless Paul Walker for 111 minutes?
Am I yet again sitting in front of my TV wondering what poor life choices
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I made to have me rewatching such a front to cinema?
Well, we're about to find out.
Before I go any further, I do want to make a quick disclaimer,
and I don't know if it will matter or not,
but we are picking up the remnants of the hurricane weather
that just struck the coast.
So if you do hear any pitter pattering in the background,
it is probably the rain.
I've tried to block it out as much as I can and silence it,
but it's still there.
Also, there is a little bit of lightning and thunder every now and again,
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so maybe a kaboom or two will hit us. We'll see.
It is fitting since this film starts off in a hurricane as well, I suppose,
and I hope it just makes for some ambient noise and background
as we talk about this.
So Into the Blue is streaming on Macs,
so if you want to re-submerge yourself in it
or dip your toes in for the first time, you can do just that.
Just hit pause and be sure to join us back on land to talk about it afterwards.
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I know, I'm already making bad nautical puns.
I realize I'm in a habit of saying let's dive into quite a bit as well,
but it's never more fitting than today.
Let's slather on our sunscreen, grab our snorkels,
and plunge into our shelf pick.
2005's Into the Blue.
As I look at the DVD front, I have to say first off,
this film loves the color blue and orange.
Seriously, you see them all over the place.
In the film, on the cover, usually it's a high-key saturated color grading,
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which makes them, as well as a few other shades around them, just really pop.
The cover is no different.
Beneath the title, in a cool blue color, we have a ridiculously striated orange sky.
Walker and Alba in their bathing suits, clearly photoshopped together.
You can also in the background see a helicopter, a guy on a jet ski,
and for some reason, beneath our two top build,
a ghost-like blue luminescent Walker and Alba, presumably underwater, maybe.
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Who knows?
The tagline is at the bottom,
Treasure has its price.
Oh, I'm so intrigued, aren't you?
The DVD back reads,
Adventure never looked this hot.
Edge of your seat thriller.
Earl Ditman.
Wireless magazine.
Red hot action superstars,
Paul Walker and Jessica Alba heat up the screen as two sexy young divers
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who dream of finding hidden treasure.
It is interesting, I find here, that they list Jessica Alba as an action star,
you know, when I typically remember her more as like a romantic comedy person,
but at this point, she probably was.
She had a role in Dark Angel, and of course, Sue Storm in Fantastic Four.
Walker, of course, at this point was mostly known for his roles in Varsity Blues
and the first two Fast and Furious films, so also clearly an action star.
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Back to reading.
When they take some friends, Scott Conn and Ashley Scott,
on an extreme sports adventure,
the last thing they expect to see below the shark-infested waters
is a legendary pirate ship rumored to contain millions of dollars in gold.
But their incredible good fortune is short-lived
as a ruthless gang of deadly criminals get word of what they have uncovered
in the quickest of throwaway scenes to further the plot along, I might add.
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But back to reading.
The discovery of a lifetime could just cost the treasure hunters their lives
in the exciting new thriller from the director of Blue Crush.
And it is so odd, I know every time I critique something about the grammar of these things,
but so the discovery of a lifetime could just cost the treasure hunters their lives,
comma, in the exciting new thriller from the director of Blue Crush.
I'm not even sure if you can call that a dangling participle.
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I'm not sure. It's just so weird, stuck in the end there.
I would have at least just maybe put a new sentence in from the director of the dr-
Yeah, even that would have been a fragment, but anything's better than that monstrosity.
Anyway, all that is written across a band of again, yellow and orange sunset
and another silhouette of a tiny little helicopter against the sun.
Okay, I legitimately just watched this film again yesterday,
and I don't recall a single helicopter.
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I don't know why there are helicopters on this thing.
Beneath there's a blue wave featuring four photos.
Walker and Alba kissing.
Oh, do they kiss? We're gonna talk about that.
Someone who maybe is Walker on a jet ski,
and then Tyson Beckford holding a gun as he leads Walker somewhere.
And then an underwater shot of-
Sharks. Oh, yeah, we're gonna talk a little about sharks today
because they do play a significant role in the film,
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and more importantly, I just freaking love sharks.
The special features include 10 deleted scenes with optional commentary.
If you do have the DVD, you can skip them. Trust me.
Audio commentary with director John Stockwell. I did not listen to that.
Screen tests including Scott Conn, Paul Walker, and Tyson Beckford.
And then diving deep into the blue, making a featurette.
If you do like this film, you'll like the featurette.
Otherwise, again, I would skip it.
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So how I came to own this.
I did see this film in theaters, and I'll go ahead and admit
that I have carried a torch for Jessica Alba for a long time now.
I watched her in Dark Angel and kept up with her career ever since.
When this film was advertised, I knew I was gonna see it.
For starters, I'm a sucker for film set in tropical locations.
There's this sort of mystique to them, the sun, the surf,
the sense that time just moves slower in paradise.
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When I vacation, I like to alternate between beach and big city.
One trip just laying back in the sand and waiting in the waves,
the next a fast-paced exploration of an urban landscape
with melding cultures.
Or I just go to Miami and get both in one fell swoop.
But back to this time, the woman I was dating at that moment
thought Paul Walker was a handsome hunk of masculinity.
I'm straight as an arrow, but I'm inclined to agree.
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So it was a no-brainer. She liked it.
But I also seem to remember her liking anything she saw.
If you are following this podcast and taking notes,
it was the same woman I dated who liked The Notebook and Nickelback.
So I don't know that she had the greatest eye for entertainment,
but again, who am I to judge?
Personally, I think I was on the fence when I watched it.
This is one of my DVDs that I'm going to cover
that I have more than one copy of.
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In this case, I have one that is full-screen edition
and then the Blu-ray edition.
A couple years after seeing the film, I was already teaching,
but as an adjunct.
And for those of you who are unfamiliar with academia,
adjunct is Latin for you jump through all the hoops,
but now you have to really pay your dues.
In short, you teach, but it's part-time, the pay is crap,
and you have no insurance, so you have to have a second job.
Mine just happened to be at Office Depot,
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and I also offered merchandise beyond what one would need
to supply for a business, including a modest selection of DVDs.
Apparently this was due to some deal with Sony, I'm guessing,
because every disc offered was a Sony or Columbia production.
And that deal must have fallen through because one day
I was tasked with putting out price changes,
and I saw essentially every offering on the DVD rack
being marked down to ridiculously low prices.
I think it was like two bucks a disc, something like that,
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but needless to say, I came home with a load,
and I'm sure I'll be reviewing many more in subsequent episodes.
But Into the Blue was one of them, yes,
and at that deep discounted price, as the saying goes,
beggars can't be choosers.
That said, this was the full-screen edition.
Full-screen.
Who in the world has ever wanted to watch a full-screen edition?
I'll tell you, people who don't understand movie-making.
Even back in the day when 1.33 to 1 was what filled
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the entire screen of our giant televisions,
those ones that weighed more than the bricks of gold bullion on the Zephyr,
only the most Philistine wouldn't want the black bars at the top and bottom,
less viewing area, in order to see the panoramic that the director desired.
And no joke, that edition of this film is still wrapped in cellophane
and still has the original $9.99 price sticker from Office Depot
stuck in the upper right-hand corner.
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Instead, I watch the Blu-ray that I own.
How did I wind up with a Blu-ray edition?
I don't remember where exactly, but a year or two after all this happened,
I came across a reissue that was on sale somewhere,
and I think it was Target, but I'm not sure.
All I know is I already knew I had a copy, but that copy was full-screen,
and I just couldn't accept that. You can't have a full-screen.
So if I ever were going to view this film again,
I had to see it the way that the director and God intended it to be seen.
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Plus Blu-ray, that was back when that was still a bit flashy and new.
I didn't have to open this copy upon the re-watch,
or tear away at the wrapping to view it.
I remember my late wife and I did once watch it together.
She thought it was worth seeing.
I think maybe I did too, but over the years it became a bit of a joke for some reason.
When I talked about how I might be a film scholar, but I also could enjoy a bad film,
I would usually end that by saying, I mean, I own Into the Blue, on Blu-ray.
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And again, keep in mind that was still back when Blu-ray was a bit fancier.
So as we move into the critical reception,
we've been talking about how hated this film was, so let's get to actual numbers.
It holds a 21% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Metacritic's a bit nicer, sticking it with a 45 Meta score.
Neither are particularly decent.
The Popcorn Meter, which is Rotten Tomatoes' new name for audience scores,
and almost always a bit kinder to films, holds it at a 57%.
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That's over halfway positive, but if placed in the realm of academia, still a failing grade.
Metacritic, which usually diverges towards the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to the user score,
holds pretty consistent with a 5.9 rating.
In short, I had been perceiving this film as a critical failure,
a shining example of a low point of mid-aught cinema,
and I'm not saying it wasn't, but it wasn't quite as bad as I recall.
By far the best critical zinger comes from Justin Chang writing for Variety,
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quote, not a thriller so much as an extremely violent swimsuit calendar.
I don't care who you are, that's just funny.
And you can only imagine how badly Roger Ebert castigates this film, right?
So let's see, he gives it a what the heck?
Three out of four stars?
It truly is a turvy topsy world.
No, in all seriousness, he says in his intro,
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the movie is written, acted, and directed as a story,
not as an exercise in mindless kinetic energy.
And in his conclusion, he remarks,
it's not an essential film, but if you go to see it, it will not insult your intelligence.
And there's genuine suspense towards the end.
It's a well-made example of the genre that has been cheapened and made routine.
There's evidence the filmmakers spent more time talking about the characters and stories
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than about how special effects would allow them to cheat on the narrative logic.
I did not see that one coming.
And I swear I'm not just saying this because I feel it's safe to do so since Ebert liked it.
I've disagreed with The Godfather on numerous occasions,
but I am inclined to agree here, it's not a half bad film.
Since my man Raj and I, and I think it'd be totally cool of me calling him Raj.
Okay, I take it back.
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Ebert and I are on the same page.
I thought I might look deeper into another critic instead.
Another one I admire, The Washington Post's Anne Hornaday.
She titles this review, Brainless Eye Candy.
Interesting that in three words, she seems to be saying the opposite of Ebert's observation
that this film doesn't insult one's intelligence.
But Hornaday's opening sentence made me snicker as well.
The moral of Into the Blue is simple.
Never get between a shark and his coke stash.
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If she's being figurative, the shark being Josh Brolin's baits,
then there's probably something to that.
If she means the literal sharks, then that's not exactly accurate.
Actually, not at all.
I do have to admit when Jared cuts open the brick of cocaine at one point
and dumps it into the water to keep it away from Bryce, my first thought was,
hey, we've seen Cocaine Bear, a sequel? Cocaine Shark?
Shut up and take my money.
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You listening, Elizabeth Banks?
Like so many of the reviews of this film,
Hornaday claims the film's, quote, chief purpose otherwise seems to be allowing viewers
to ogle some of Hollywood's tannist, buffish young things undulating sexily through the turquoise water.
They also write these sentences so descriptively and just, I mean, they're so well written.
It makes me wonder, are you also enjoying the tannist, buffish young things undulating?
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I mean, obviously I wouldn't.
I can't disagree with what she says.
The marketing focused so heavily on Walker and Alba and their fulsome amount of skin.
And not 10 minutes into the film, there's no doubt this one time at least there's truth in advertising.
Shortly after Amanda steps off the plane, she puts her arm around Sam and says,
I love the Caribbean. Too hot to wear shirts, too hot to wear pants, and we're too hot young ladies.
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Notice you didn't hear me praise the dialogue on this film.
The second half of the film does tamp this down a bit, though it does place the stars instead
in form-fitting wetsuits for a long time.
I'm not sure if it's fair to say it's the sole purpose of the film,
but I will say showing bronze skin is something it deliberately and unapologetically revels in.
Still, when Hornaday and many other critics write this off as a co-ed SI swimsuit issue that moves,
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it makes me wonder if they stopped watching somewhere early on.
I mean, Hornaday does acknowledge the plot, simplifying it to the point she makes it sound ridiculous.
She says, sure, there are sharks, and they are indeed circling ominously around a crashed plane
stuffed to the gaskets with the aforementioned alkaloid stimulant,
which is just down the coral reef from a 19th century ship holding millions of dollars worth of buried treasure.
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Alright, alright, the plot is a little silly, I'll admit it.
She continues, but forget the blow and the bling bling.
End of the Blue is all about the bods.
Paul Walker and Jessica Alba play two earnest, honest, and hot treasure hunters living in the Bahamas.
Scott Kahn and Ashley Scott play two sleazy, avaricious, and hot friends who arrive on the scene
and set a risky scheme in motion involving midnight dives and drugs and ruby-encrusted scabbards.
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It's a cross between a bad episode of Miami Vice and Pirates of the Caribbean,
the creaky Disneyland ride, not the cool Johnny Depp movie.
And here is where Hornaday and I are going to have to part ways.
It does, I agree, feel in some ways like a bad episode of Miami Vice that just moved a few clicks lower longitudinally,
but that's a bad thing?
Don't get me started on Michael Mann.
That's a master craftsman if one's ever been in a director's chair.
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Also, the Pirates films suck, and I know I'm going to get some hate for that, but I said what I said.
Hornaday concludes, John Stockwell, the director, has proved himself a deceivingly smart purveyor of pulp before
in such films as Crazy Beautiful and Blue Crush, but despite some impressive underwater photography
and really pretty fish, his talents fail him with a script that asks Alba to deliver lines like,
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I believe in you more than the prospect of any treasure.
Into the Blue may look cavortingly prettily on deck, but ultimately it deserves to walk the plank.
And again, I'm on tip of hat to that concluding sentence.
I like Hornaday's writing a lot, even though I do seem to almost always disagree with her.
I do want to talk about John Stockwell for a moment.
First off, I just got to say this is the guy that played Cougar in Top Gun and Spider in Losing It,
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and I know Losing It, not losing, Losing It is not a good film, but it was directed by Curtis Hansen, whom I love.
Also, if you watch that film, you will say to yourself, okay, I guess Tom Cruise is capable of aging after all,
just at a much slower rate than an actual human.
I didn't like Crazy Beautiful, though I will admit it had some moments.
I also have to admit I've never seen Blue Crush.
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Stockwell does appear to enjoy going back to tropical locations to shoot.
He also directed Dark Tide, a terrible film with a shoestring budget that I of course own because it's a shark attack film.
It was also the film where Halle Berry and Oliver Martinez met in case anybody wanted a completely useless bit of trivia.
As for Into the Blue, I think it's a well-directed film.
I've already mentioned the high-key saturated color grading that pops in nearly every scene,
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and when it doesn't, the lack of saturation subtly clues the viewer that things just got serious.
It's a gorgeous film.
Much of the film does take place underwater, including with the principal cast.
Alba had a pretty good background in diving, and Walker had at least some experience, which didn't hurt.
Remember that Alba was on the television remake of Flipper before she did all of this, before she even did Dark Angel,
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so she knew a little bit about diving and being in the water.
Still, in interviews, you can find both actors lamenting the difficulties from these shots.
The efforts were not in vain, however. Forget the plot, forget the flesh. This film is a visual feast.
I can't believe I'm about to say this here, but even the shaky cam technique seems to work well in this film.
Hornaday isn't wrong about the dialogue, though.
As already alluded to, I found it to be particularly trite and poorly written.
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The nested narrative, the story of the pirate Tilman Thorpe robbing a wealthy slave owner and fleeing for France during the Civil War,
falling in love with his daughter, sinking the Zephyr along with all her treasure just to throw them off their trail,
to allow them to live happily ever after, it serves as an interesting parallel to our protagonist's journey.
If done well, it could have actually added a rich layer of depth to the story, but instead it comes off a bit hokey.
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That doesn't make it enough to make this film walk the plank.
As far as films go, they're a lot worse. Don't believe me? Just watch some turn-of-the-millennium made-for-TV Canadian films.
I may just know a podcast that gave a couple of them not-too-favorable reviews.
It's more than just the hokey dialogue and some questionable plot points.
I suppose I could accept that a recently sunk plane full of cocaine just happens to be submerged not 20 yards from the most
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treasure-laden ship the Earth ever swallowed centuries earlier, but it does seem convenient.
The twists and turns and big reveals and masterminds are painfully predictable.
Somewhere upon the first viewing, I knew both Roy, who is Sam and Jared's policeman friend, and of course Bates,
were going to do an obvious heel turn. I mean, Josh Brolin is born to play that role.
I didn't really see Amber biting the big one after getting bit by the big one, but being keenly familiar with the concept,
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I knew a Chekhov's Tiger Shark when I heard one mentioned.
Speaking of plot, while I'll admit there is some decent action in this flick, the pacing does drag at points.
The film clocks in at an hour and 51 minutes, and it felt longer, like Oliver Stone's pseudo-history film kind of long.
Thinking back, I'm not even sure what scene should be cut.
The police searching the boat introduces us to Roy, whose role is small but crucial.
(19:08):
The club scene similarly introduces us to Primo as well as establishes that Amber doesn't mind indulging in a little nose candy now and again.
The lengthy free diving scene once Bryce arrives on the island introduces the aforementioned Tiger Shark that will most certainly return.
The stupid scene where Bates has a group of children on a field trip to his boat at least describes what those quote,
mailboxes do, if a viewer even needed to know that, and of course hints that Bates is suspicious about Jared's find of the Zephyr.
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These scenes could at least be trimmed, and I would personally omit the last scene mentioned altogether, including finding that cap in the earlier part.
I already suspected Bates, but at that point I understood he was somehow involved in searching for the sunken plane,
even if Jared thought he was just trying to sneak a peek at his own salvaging project.
Oh, and also, cut down on some of the kissing. Seriously, I get it. Jared and Sam are in love, like super in love.
(19:59):
You have two of the most beautiful people who are on the planet in 2005 as your principal actors, so of course you want them to kiss, but not this darn much.
Not four minutes into the film, they're smacking gums and they just keep over and over again, just swapping slobber.
Even the other characters are sick of it.
Stop kissing. First of all, it's disgusting. Stop kissing. No self-respecting pirate would do that.
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There are also some continuity errors that are just unforgivable.
For instance, early on when Jared steps through on a plank in the rickety boat, Sam kicks off her sandals to step on the boat,
then she actually steps on the boat, and suddenly her sandals are back on.
Then she kneels down to help him, and she's clearly barefoot.
It's unmistakable because we get some close-ups of feet that would make Tarantino jealous.
In the airport scene, as Jared and Bryce are talking, a woman walks behind them.
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We cut away, then cut back, and the same woman walks behind them again.
Right in the center of the frame, it's impossible to miss.
The whole reason the Zephyrs discovered is that Jared loses his watch and goes down to retrieve it, and instead first finds a bottle.
Clearly, he's also found the watch at some point, since he's got it on like a minute later as they're sifting for more sunken artifacts.
But it's never once acknowledged that he found it or put it back on.
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And then again, this film does need to trim every single minute it can.
And I sound so negative. There's plenty in this film to critique, yeah, but I've already praised a lot of it.
I took issue with some of Hornaday's observations. I mean, it's gorgeous to look at. It's well-directed.
I think Ebert is spot-on when he writes that the film, quotes, develops as a narrative, not as a series of action sequences,
and the characters don't mindlessly hurry from one impossible stunt to another, but weigh their options,
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advocate opposing strategies, and improvise when they get in danger.
Though the hokey dialogue does undercut some of its potency, the moral struggle, the Faustian bargain that Jared fights with,
does resonate and make this a nicely camouflaged morality tale about the dangers of temptation.
As far as standout performances go, the caliber of acting in this film is a bit scattershot.
Josh Brolin seems kind of hammy, if I'm being honest.
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Former model Tyson Beckford has an incredible on-screen presence.
I mean, when you see him, you know he's a bad guy.
He mostly just looms and sneers, looking smug. He's better when he doesn't speak, honestly.
And I hate to say this because I don't want to be mean or speak ill of the dead,
but Paul Walker, while he may have been a beautiful creature, was at best a mediocre actor.
He's not bad here, though there are some points where his overacting is kind of evident.
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Ashley Scott gives a solid performance.
She and Alba, of course, know each other well, as Scott was a regular on Dark Angel there for a while.
Looking at her IMDB page, she was also in SWAT, which is one of those really bad action films,
like really, really bad action films, that I watch over and over, but I don't remember her in it, oddly enough.
From there, it mostly looks like she's done a series of TV shows.
I know I've been a stan for Alba since Dark Angel, actually.
(22:36):
And if you haven't seen Idle Hands, it's a criminally underrated comedy horror.
Not a great film, but the concept alone is worth a watch.
The point is, somewhere down the line, not blaming it on Good Luck Chuck, but totally blaming it on Good Luck Chuck,
Alba became known as the ditzy, beautiful girlfriend in everyone's mind.
At the height of her potential, her talent was wasted.
Yeah, I said talent. The woman has some acting chops.
(22:59):
Just because she wasn't given great roles to work with doesn't mean she's bad at her craft.
The reason Sue Storm is such a horrible character in those two films is a result of the script, not her.
Go and watch her in Machete or The Killer Inside Me and tell me you aren't impressed.
Although you might want to ignore Trigger Warning, which is her latest film that debuted on Netflix just a couple months ago.
Not very good.
(23:20):
But if I give this standout performance to her, I just get teased.
Y'all would say I have a widow's celebrity crush and please, I'm so over celebrity crushes.
In 2000 when I was barely able to legally purchase booze, yeah sure, but I'm a crusty old man now.
I don't have celebrity crushes.
Besides, she's happily married and has two children.
Not that I would ever try to lure her away with my rakish charm.
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Besides, Scott Conn kills it as Bryce.
I know what you're going to say. He's an annoying, arrogant meathead.
He's the epitome of what we would now in internet parlance call a Chad.
And you'd be right. He's cocky, starts fights, he's completely morally bankrupt.
He's the main reason they get in this mess in the first place.
Well, we do have Amanda, a good chunk to blame as well.
And speaking of chunks, after Amanda gets a good chunk of her leg bitten off by the tiger shark and dies, he's ready to go right back at it.
(24:10):
When Jared chides him, he coldly says, I only knew her for five days.
Yet at the same time, he is loyal. He's got Jared's back.
Heck, he's about to call in a favor from a mob connected client just to get a loan to outfit Jared with a boat and equipment he would need.
I'm not saying he's likable, but it's clear that he and Jared have been friends for years.
And Jared, perhaps sometimes in spite of himself, likes Bryce.
(24:31):
Conn's ability to infuse Bryce with both charm and repugnance makes him a character you can't help but watch, even as you despise him, which elevates his performance.
Incidentally, you have to go have a peek at him in his latest film, One Day as a Lion.
I mean, I get genetics. I know what that means. Family resemblances. But holy crap.
He is the spitting image of James Conn, his father. It's almost scary.
(24:54):
We'll move on to cultural context.
I can find nothing solid to confirm it, but I have a very strong suspicion that director John Stockwell is a Peter Benchley fan.
Best known for writing Jaws, Benchley did churn out some of the novels, including The Deep.
In 1977, that novel was made into a film starring Jacqueline Bissette, Nolte and Robert Shaw. Yes, as in Captain Quint from Jaws, that Robert Shaw.
(25:17):
The plot involves scuba divers Nolte and Bissette finding some artifacts from a sunken ship, as well as some morphine from the Goliath, a sunken World War II vessel that's off limits to dive since it still contains live explosives.
Without getting too deep, and I swear I don't mean that pun, we find out a recent hurricane has both unearthed the ship and exposed the large morphine supply from the medical banks of the Goliath.
(25:38):
From there, an unscrupulous drug dealer and Shaw's character, who's another treasure hunter, go for the morphine, while the nice innocent couple tries to get artifacts from the old vessel.
Man, it's almost like with a few minor details changed, that's the same plot as Into the Blue.
Oh, and there's also a giant moray eel that serves as an obstacle to everyone's intentions, which makes it totally different because it's an eel and not a tiger shark.
(26:00):
Aside from that, as previously mentioned, a subsequent film from Stockwell, Dark Tide, deals with a great white shark with an attitude.
It's in no way a direct Jaws ripoff, but in a roundabout way, every shark film made after 1974 is a Jaws ripoff.
Of course, after the runaway success of both the novel and the film Jaws, public perception about sharks changed.
Awareness of their presence in the oceans, where they'd always been before, grew keener.
(26:22):
In those extremely rare instances where a shark did attack a human, news outlets across the nation picked it up and ran with it.
And this colored the perception of sharks extremely negatively, and with many of their species being endangered, it hampered conservation efforts.
Everyone wants to save the cute portly pandas, but it's a lot harder to draw up support for a 15-foot torpedo-esque killing machine.
Benchley deeply regretted this, understanding, as I hope most of us do today, that sharks are beautiful, elegant creatures who pose almost zero threat to humans, and are in fact an invaluable part of the ocean's ecosystem.
(26:52):
He dedicated the rest of his life to undoing this perception.
Likewise, I was proud to see End of the Blue attempting to undo some of these misperceptions.
The film begins with Sam in a habitat that, oddly enough, is also a water park, feeding nurse sharks.
She assures us that shark attacks are extremely rare.
Did you ever get bit? Yeah, Genie here got a little too frisky with me one day last year, but for the most part, shark attacks are just a simple case of mistaken identity.
(27:19):
Side note, Sam never goes back to work after that. I mean, Jared is the one who gets fired at the beginning, but Sam just still seems to have the free time to hang out with him and his friends, no care of getting back to feed those poor nurse sharks.
Told you there were some incongruities.
At any rate, we do see a fair treatment of sharks, as Sam and Jared swim along them without trepidation.
Meanwhile, Bryce freaks out and scurries out of the water. He even remarks that one is big and says he looks like Jaws. Again, clearly, benchally having an impact.
(27:45):
Incidentally, if the shark really were that large, it's probably a she, not a he. Sharks are sexually dimorphic, with the females being the larger.
It does shortly fall apart after that, with Sam saying it's the tiger sharks that Bryce needs to worry about.
He actually no.
Although tigers are known to be more aggressive than the reef sharks we see in the beginning of the sequence, there's still statistically a 0% chance of one attacking a person.
(28:06):
I said statistically, yes it happens, but it is so darn rare. And that also goes for bulls, great whites, all the rest of them.
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, the likelihood of being attacked by a shark in the United States is 1 in 11.5 million, and the chance to be killed by a shark is less than 1 in 264.1 million.
To put it in perspective, cows kill 22 people in the United States per year. Cows.
(28:30):
Domestic dogs kill 31.
Beastings kill 53.
You're safe in the ocean, even if there are tiger sharks around.
When a shark does bite, just as Sam says, it's usually because they mistake the person for something else, as happened with Amanda in the film.
Though brief because of the PG-13 rating, we do see nearly all of her hamstring gone on one leg, clearly indicating the shark took a nip and moved on.
(28:51):
Unfortunately, it's so much that she bleeds out, and that's the case with a lot of shark fatalities, pretty much all of them.
They take a nip, realize they don't want it, but that nip just happens to be too much for the person to live through.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that in the climax, the film does at least try to show the two henchmen that get taken by the tiger shark to be due to the fact they were bleeding already.
Even so, that's also a bit of a misconception.
(29:14):
There's so many myths about sharks and blood. Like, no, a shark cannot smell a drop of blood from a mile away.
This is the freaking ocean. Do you realize how many gallons upon gallons of water that is?
Sharks can detect blood in the water from up to 200 yards away, though, which is a concentration of about one part per billion, according to the nonprofit Shark Angels.
And sharks can distinguish between fish blood and human blood.
(29:37):
And again, I reiterate, they have no particular interest in humans. Even if you scrape your knee and get in the ocean, you're pretty doggone safe.
To put this in perspective, director John Stockwell insisted that no CGI sharks were going to be used in this film.
Everyone you see is real. Alba told CBS's early show, quote, Basically any shark in the area came around and they plopped us in the middle.
(29:59):
Giant wild sharks around us all the time through the entire movie. And oddly enough, not a single one of the cast or crew was eaten alive.
Imagine that. It's almost like sharks aren't dangerous. Kudos to Stockwell.
He didn't get every little fact or detail right about the sharks, but he did better than nearly every other film I've seen.
Also in the episode notes, I'll link to the Shark Angels webpage if you'd like to educate yourself more about shark conservation and maybe even toss a little financial aid their way.
(30:24):
You can adopt a Mako shark on there. I'm just saying. Moving on to the trivia, I want to talk just slightly about Paul Walker, because he did, of course, tragically die in a car accident.
That was in November 30th of 2013, and he was just 40 years old.
I didn't plan it this way, but as I record today, September 12th, 2024, it would have been Walker's 51st birthday.
I did see where his daughter Meadow posted a heartfelt tribute today on social media, and I mean, it'll tug at your heartstrings. I don't care how cynical you are.
(30:49):
So here's to remembering him on what would have been his 51st birthday. He was taken from us too soon.
According to IMDb, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever seen around Jared and Sam in many scenes was actually Walker's own dog, whose name was Boone.
And on a somewhat related note, my own precious canine daughter Penny is one half lab and one half Chesapeake Bay Retriever or as I like to call her a Chesa door.
(31:12):
OK, it is time for Shelf Esteem. We have definitely run a bit long, not as bad as I thought we would be. Rain still pitter pattering out there.
So for those familiar, I will re explain it. Those who are here your first time, I'll explain it the first time.
Essentially, there are five shelves on my DVD cabinet. So what I do is use the bartenders model. Good stuff on the top, rot gut on the bottom.
(31:34):
And then you've got second shelf, mid shelf, fourth shelf in between. So I'll just cut to the chase.
It's interesting how our perceptions of film can change or even how our memories of a film's merit differ from reality.
Best I can tell, this is the third time I've watched Into the Blue. I don't recall ever being blown away by it or even particularly liking it, except for the sharks.
I always like sharks. But as I mentioned, Into the Blue somehow became shorthand at some point for me for just a completely reprehensible mainstream film,
(32:01):
particularly when I spoke with my film enthusiasts and when I did, nobody ever batted an eyelash.
I'm going to tell you right now, I'm removing that from my idiom immediately. This is not a bad film. It's not great either.
I certainly won't pull a Roger Ebert and give it a three out of four stars. This is way too generous.
But as I prepared for this episode and gave it another watch, I found myself rethinking that harsh judgment.
(32:24):
I fully expected this to end up on the bottom shelf, but it doesn't belong down there with the red rings of fear and the hustle.
Instead, it goes on...
The middle shelf. Yeah, I'm surprised as you. It's better than fourth shelf fare, like The Breakup or Zebra Lounge or The Avenging Disco Godfather.
Mid shelf films, per my rubric, are good films that have a few flaws or aren't quite as impactful, but still enjoyable and worth your time.
(32:52):
I think everyone would enjoy at least one go around with this film.
And if it's not your cup of tea, well, at least there's always the option to enjoy the scenic views or just ogle a scandal,
a clad Jessica Albin, Paul Walker, like the critics seem to think was the film's main draw.
Coming up next week, we'll still be hanging around the beach, but on the other ocean side,
we're keeping with the Stockwell color palette, abandoning the oversaturated blue for oversaturated orange.
(33:16):
It's a world of spoiled rich kids, troubled aspiring authors and college admissions.
We're going to zip on up the PCH to Orange County.
The film is currently streaming on Paramount Plus, one of the streaming services I don't have.
Not that I watch anything but DVDs anymore, but if you are a subscriber, you can check it out there.
If you do want to watch it and talk about any points or tell me how much you loved or hated End of the Blue,
(33:39):
feel free to shoot me an email at steven at shelf criticism dot com.
Remember, that's S.T.E.P.H.E.N. You can also find the podcast on Facebook at Shelf Criticism.
Don't forget my other podcast, Real Lit, where I'm joined by my colleague, the sensational McKenzie.
You can find that just about anywhere you get your podcast fix, as well as our official website,
realitpodcast.com and social media at Real Lit Podcast.
(34:04):
Remember, that's R.E.E.L. as in a film reel.
And I also can't say too much at this point, but there is something in the works that I think you may enjoy.
I will just say it involves a film that is famous or perhaps infamous for a very dubious reason,
a crossover episode between Shelf Criticism and Real Lit, and maybe even bringing in an executive producer,
(34:29):
another of those Owls of Palace, one who gets a shout out at the end of every Real Lit.
And I'm just going to leave it at that for now until we finalize the details, but you can look for that coming, I hope, in the next couple of weeks.
So all that being said, until next time, DVD aficionados, remember to treat yourself to a little shelf indulgence of your own.
Amelia, sing us home.
(34:50):
Shelf Criticism is an Owls of Palace production.
This podcast is in no way connected with the educational institutions the host is employed by.
The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the host and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other organization with which he is affiliated.
(35:12):
Most images displayed are public domain.
Images and stills from films, descriptions of scenes and passages from books are used for educational and critical purposes
and not for profit and therefore fall under the terms of fair use.
(35:36):
I picked her up last night at the Mercer.
I picked you up last night. Don't start lying already.
I picked you up last night. Don't start lying already.
I'm in love. Serious.
I'm not serious.
Look, I love you to death.
(00:02):
And the whole flip-flopping board short thing is cute now,
but what about when you're the fat old man sitting at the end of the bar
and nothing in your pocket but sand?
And you're drooling and you're going on and on about how you,
you were the one who found this effort.
Welcome to Shelf Criticism.
Meet your host, Stephen,
a scholar of literature and film by day,
and by night, a cinematic archaeologist
(00:23):
with a penchant for everything from art house
to popular to outright trash cinema.
Over the past quarter century,
Stephen has amassed an eclectic collection of works
from the world of art,
and has been a pioneer in the field of art
and has been a pioneer in the field of art
and has been a pioneer in the field of art
and has been a pioneer in the field of art
and has been a pioneer in the field of art.
(00:45):
Today, Stephen has amassed an eclectic DVD collection,
now occupying five shelves of a curio cabinet in his living room.
Each week, he bravely selects one of these titles to dissect.
Join him as he unearths everything from obscure gems
to cinematic missteps.
From blockbuster hits to forgotten flops,
each film gets the critical once over it probably doesn't deserve
but will absolutely receive.
(01:07):
So grab your popcorn and settle in.
It's time to dive into the diverse world of shelf criticism.
Hello once more, my faithful listeners,
and if you're new to this podcast, an extra special welcome.
We hope you like what you hear, maybe enough that you'll stick around
(01:29):
and go back and check out some past episodes.
I'm sure there's more than one film I've pontificated about
that you've had the pleasure or displeasure of viewing,
and there are many more obscure titles that you might want to take a peek at.
Just allow me to say that I am not responsible for any misery caused
by watching any of the picks.
They can't be all winners.
Case in point, today's film.
To hear it told, even the scenic sapphire expanse of the Caribbean waters
(01:51):
or the extensive amount of underwater shots
or even the copious amount of time our gorgeous young stars spend
in their bathing suits can best save this film.
It features an up and coming Jessica Alba,
fresh off her success in Dark Angel,
and just after her flop with Fantastic Four,
part of a series of missteps that led to Good Luck Chuck,
Awake, The Eye, and most egregiously, The Love Guru.
That film more or less finished the tailspin of her career at the time.
(02:14):
Thankfully, she bounced back.
Of course, it also sank Mike Myers for a while
and had the dubious distinction of being the first bad film
I ever saw Sir Ben Kingsley in.
Is Into the Blue as bad as we remember?
Is it really just an excuse to display a bikini clad Alba
and a shirtless Paul Walker for 111 minutes?
Am I yet again sitting in front of my TV wondering what poor life choices
(02:35):
I made to have me rewatching such a front to cinema?
Well, we're about to find out.
Before I go any further, I do want to make a quick disclaimer,
and I don't know if it will matter or not,
but we are picking up the remnants of the hurricane weather
that just struck the coast.
So if you do hear any pitter pattering in the background,
it is probably the rain.
I've tried to block it out as much as I can and silence it,
but it's still there.
Also, there is a little bit of lightning and thunder every now and again,
(02:57):
so maybe a kaboom or two will hit us. We'll see.
It is fitting since this film starts off in a hurricane as well, I suppose,
and I hope it just makes for some ambient noise and background
as we talk about this.
So Into the Blue is streaming on Macs,
so if you want to re-submerge yourself in it
or dip your toes in for the first time, you can do just that.
Just hit pause and be sure to join us back on land to talk about it afterwards.
(03:19):
I know, I'm already making bad nautical puns.
I realize I'm in a habit of saying let's dive into quite a bit as well,
but it's never more fitting than today.
Let's slather on our sunscreen, grab our snorkels,
and plunge into our shelf pick.
2005's Into the Blue.
As I look at the DVD front, I have to say first off,
this film loves the color blue and orange.
Seriously, you see them all over the place.
In the film, on the cover, usually it's a high-key saturated color grading,
(03:44):
which makes them, as well as a few other shades around them, just really pop.
The cover is no different.
Beneath the title, in a cool blue color, we have a ridiculously striated orange sky.
Walker and Alba in their bathing suits, clearly photoshopped together.
You can also in the background see a helicopter, a guy on a jet ski,
and for some reason, beneath our two top build,
a ghost-like blue luminescent Walker and Alba, presumably underwater, maybe.
(04:07):
Who knows?
The tagline is at the bottom,
Treasure has its price.
Oh, I'm so intrigued, aren't you?
The DVD back reads,
Adventure never looked this hot.
Edge of your seat thriller.
Earl Ditman.
Wireless magazine.
Red hot action superstars,
Paul Walker and Jessica Alba heat up the screen as two sexy young divers
(04:29):
who dream of finding hidden treasure.
It is interesting, I find here, that they list Jessica Alba as an action star,
you know, when I typically remember her more as like a romantic comedy person,
but at this point, she probably was.
She had a role in Dark Angel, and of course, Sue Storm in Fantastic Four.
Walker, of course, at this point was mostly known for his roles in Varsity Blues
and the first two Fast and Furious films, so also clearly an action star.
(04:51):
Back to reading.
When they take some friends, Scott Conn and Ashley Scott,
on an extreme sports adventure,
the last thing they expect to see below the shark-infested waters
is a legendary pirate ship rumored to contain millions of dollars in gold.
But their incredible good fortune is short-lived
as a ruthless gang of deadly criminals get word of what they have uncovered
in the quickest of throwaway scenes to further the plot along, I might add.
(05:15):
But back to reading.
The discovery of a lifetime could just cost the treasure hunters their lives
in the exciting new thriller from the director of Blue Crush.
And it is so odd, I know every time I critique something about the grammar of these things,
but so the discovery of a lifetime could just cost the treasure hunters their lives,
comma, in the exciting new thriller from the director of Blue Crush.
I'm not even sure if you can call that a dangling participle.
(05:38):
I'm not sure. It's just so weird, stuck in the end there.
I would have at least just maybe put a new sentence in from the director of the dr-
Yeah, even that would have been a fragment, but anything's better than that monstrosity.
Anyway, all that is written across a band of again, yellow and orange sunset
and another silhouette of a tiny little helicopter against the sun.
Okay, I legitimately just watched this film again yesterday,
and I don't recall a single helicopter.
(05:59):
I don't know why there are helicopters on this thing.
Beneath there's a blue wave featuring four photos.
Walker and Alba kissing.
Oh, do they kiss? We're gonna talk about that.
Someone who maybe is Walker on a jet ski,
and then Tyson Beckford holding a gun as he leads Walker somewhere.
And then an underwater shot of-
Sharks. Oh, yeah, we're gonna talk a little about sharks today
because they do play a significant role in the film,
(06:21):
and more importantly, I just freaking love sharks.
The special features include 10 deleted scenes with optional commentary.
If you do have the DVD, you can skip them. Trust me.
Audio commentary with director John Stockwell. I did not listen to that.
Screen tests including Scott Conn, Paul Walker, and Tyson Beckford.
And then diving deep into the blue, making a featurette.
If you do like this film, you'll like the featurette.
Otherwise, again, I would skip it.
(06:43):
So how I came to own this.
I did see this film in theaters, and I'll go ahead and admit
that I have carried a torch for Jessica Alba for a long time now.
I watched her in Dark Angel and kept up with her career ever since.
When this film was advertised, I knew I was gonna see it.
For starters, I'm a sucker for film set in tropical locations.
There's this sort of mystique to them, the sun, the surf,
the sense that time just moves slower in paradise.
(07:05):
When I vacation, I like to alternate between beach and big city.
One trip just laying back in the sand and waiting in the waves,
the next a fast-paced exploration of an urban landscape
with melding cultures.
Or I just go to Miami and get both in one fell swoop.
But back to this time, the woman I was dating at that moment
thought Paul Walker was a handsome hunk of masculinity.
I'm straight as an arrow, but I'm inclined to agree.
(07:27):
So it was a no-brainer. She liked it.
But I also seem to remember her liking anything she saw.
If you are following this podcast and taking notes,
it was the same woman I dated who liked The Notebook and Nickelback.
So I don't know that she had the greatest eye for entertainment,
but again, who am I to judge?
Personally, I think I was on the fence when I watched it.
This is one of my DVDs that I'm going to cover
that I have more than one copy of.
(07:49):
In this case, I have one that is full-screen edition
and then the Blu-ray edition.
A couple years after seeing the film, I was already teaching,
but as an adjunct.
And for those of you who are unfamiliar with academia,
adjunct is Latin for you jump through all the hoops,
but now you have to really pay your dues.
In short, you teach, but it's part-time, the pay is crap,
and you have no insurance, so you have to have a second job.
Mine just happened to be at Office Depot,
(08:10):
and I also offered merchandise beyond what one would need
to supply for a business, including a modest selection of DVDs.
Apparently this was due to some deal with Sony, I'm guessing,
because every disc offered was a Sony or Columbia production.
And that deal must have fallen through because one day
I was tasked with putting out price changes,
and I saw essentially every offering on the DVD rack
being marked down to ridiculously low prices.
I think it was like two bucks a disc, something like that,
(08:31):
but needless to say, I came home with a load,
and I'm sure I'll be reviewing many more in subsequent episodes.
But Into the Blue was one of them, yes,
and at that deep discounted price, as the saying goes,
beggars can't be choosers.
That said, this was the full-screen edition.
Full-screen.
Who in the world has ever wanted to watch a full-screen edition?
I'll tell you, people who don't understand movie-making.
Even back in the day when 1.33 to 1 was what filled
(08:54):
the entire screen of our giant televisions,
those ones that weighed more than the bricks of gold bullion on the Zephyr,
only the most Philistine wouldn't want the black bars at the top and bottom,
less viewing area, in order to see the panoramic that the director desired.
And no joke, that edition of this film is still wrapped in cellophane
and still has the original $9.99 price sticker from Office Depot
stuck in the upper right-hand corner.
(09:15):
Instead, I watch the Blu-ray that I own.
How did I wind up with a Blu-ray edition?
I don't remember where exactly, but a year or two after all this happened,
I came across a reissue that was on sale somewhere,
and I think it was Target, but I'm not sure.
All I know is I already knew I had a copy, but that copy was full-screen,
and I just couldn't accept that. You can't have a full-screen.
So if I ever were going to view this film again,
I had to see it the way that the director and God intended it to be seen.
(09:38):
Plus Blu-ray, that was back when that was still a bit flashy and new.
I didn't have to open this copy upon the re-watch,
or tear away at the wrapping to view it.
I remember my late wife and I did once watch it together.
She thought it was worth seeing.
I think maybe I did too, but over the years it became a bit of a joke for some reason.
When I talked about how I might be a film scholar, but I also could enjoy a bad film,
I would usually end that by saying, I mean, I own Into the Blue, on Blu-ray.
(10:02):
And again, keep in mind that was still back when Blu-ray was a bit fancier.
So as we move into the critical reception,
we've been talking about how hated this film was, so let's get to actual numbers.
It holds a 21% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Metacritic's a bit nicer, sticking it with a 45 Meta score.
Neither are particularly decent.
The Popcorn Meter, which is Rotten Tomatoes' new name for audience scores,
and almost always a bit kinder to films, holds it at a 57%.
(10:26):
That's over halfway positive, but if placed in the realm of academia, still a failing grade.
Metacritic, which usually diverges towards the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to the user score,
holds pretty consistent with a 5.9 rating.
In short, I had been perceiving this film as a critical failure,
a shining example of a low point of mid-aught cinema,
and I'm not saying it wasn't, but it wasn't quite as bad as I recall.
By far the best critical zinger comes from Justin Chang writing for Variety,
(10:50):
quote, not a thriller so much as an extremely violent swimsuit calendar.
I don't care who you are, that's just funny.
And you can only imagine how badly Roger Ebert castigates this film, right?
So let's see, he gives it a what the heck?
Three out of four stars?
It truly is a turvy topsy world.
No, in all seriousness, he says in his intro,
(11:11):
the movie is written, acted, and directed as a story,
not as an exercise in mindless kinetic energy.
And in his conclusion, he remarks,
it's not an essential film, but if you go to see it, it will not insult your intelligence.
And there's genuine suspense towards the end.
It's a well-made example of the genre that has been cheapened and made routine.
There's evidence the filmmakers spent more time talking about the characters and stories
(11:34):
than about how special effects would allow them to cheat on the narrative logic.
I did not see that one coming.
And I swear I'm not just saying this because I feel it's safe to do so since Ebert liked it.
I've disagreed with The Godfather on numerous occasions,
but I am inclined to agree here, it's not a half bad film.
Since my man Raj and I, and I think it'd be totally cool of me calling him Raj.
Okay, I take it back.
(11:55):
Ebert and I are on the same page.
I thought I might look deeper into another critic instead.
Another one I admire, The Washington Post's Anne Hornaday.
She titles this review, Brainless Eye Candy.
Interesting that in three words, she seems to be saying the opposite of Ebert's observation
that this film doesn't insult one's intelligence.
But Hornaday's opening sentence made me snicker as well.
The moral of Into the Blue is simple.
Never get between a shark and his coke stash.
(12:18):
If she's being figurative, the shark being Josh Brolin's baits,
then there's probably something to that.
If she means the literal sharks, then that's not exactly accurate.
Actually, not at all.
I do have to admit when Jared cuts open the brick of cocaine at one point
and dumps it into the water to keep it away from Bryce, my first thought was,
hey, we've seen Cocaine Bear, a sequel? Cocaine Shark?
Shut up and take my money.
(12:40):
You listening, Elizabeth Banks?
Like so many of the reviews of this film,
Hornaday claims the film's, quote, chief purpose otherwise seems to be allowing viewers
to ogle some of Hollywood's tannist, buffish young things undulating sexily through the turquoise water.
They also write these sentences so descriptively and just, I mean, they're so well written.
It makes me wonder, are you also enjoying the tannist, buffish young things undulating?
(13:04):
I mean, obviously I wouldn't.
I can't disagree with what she says.
The marketing focused so heavily on Walker and Alba and their fulsome amount of skin.
And not 10 minutes into the film, there's no doubt this one time at least there's truth in advertising.
Shortly after Amanda steps off the plane, she puts her arm around Sam and says,
I love the Caribbean. Too hot to wear shirts, too hot to wear pants, and we're too hot young ladies.
(13:27):
Notice you didn't hear me praise the dialogue on this film.
The second half of the film does tamp this down a bit, though it does place the stars instead
in form-fitting wetsuits for a long time.
I'm not sure if it's fair to say it's the sole purpose of the film,
but I will say showing bronze skin is something it deliberately and unapologetically revels in.
Still, when Hornaday and many other critics write this off as a co-ed SI swimsuit issue that moves,
(13:49):
it makes me wonder if they stopped watching somewhere early on.
I mean, Hornaday does acknowledge the plot, simplifying it to the point she makes it sound ridiculous.
She says, sure, there are sharks, and they are indeed circling ominously around a crashed plane
stuffed to the gaskets with the aforementioned alkaloid stimulant,
which is just down the coral reef from a 19th century ship holding millions of dollars worth of buried treasure.
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Alright, alright, the plot is a little silly, I'll admit it.
She continues, but forget the blow and the bling bling.
End of the Blue is all about the bods.
Paul Walker and Jessica Alba play two earnest, honest, and hot treasure hunters living in the Bahamas.
Scott Kahn and Ashley Scott play two sleazy, avaricious, and hot friends who arrive on the scene
and set a risky scheme in motion involving midnight dives and drugs and ruby-encrusted scabbards.
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It's a cross between a bad episode of Miami Vice and Pirates of the Caribbean,
the creaky Disneyland ride, not the cool Johnny Depp movie.
And here is where Hornaday and I are going to have to part ways.
It does, I agree, feel in some ways like a bad episode of Miami Vice that just moved a few clicks lower longitudinally,
but that's a bad thing?
Don't get me started on Michael Mann.
That's a master craftsman if one's ever been in a director's chair.
(14:54):
Also, the Pirates films suck, and I know I'm going to get some hate for that, but I said what I said.
Hornaday concludes, John Stockwell, the director, has proved himself a deceivingly smart purveyor of pulp before
in such films as Crazy Beautiful and Blue Crush, but despite some impressive underwater photography
and really pretty fish, his talents fail him with a script that asks Alba to deliver lines like,
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I believe in you more than the prospect of any treasure.
Into the Blue may look cavortingly prettily on deck, but ultimately it deserves to walk the plank.
And again, I'm on tip of hat to that concluding sentence.
I like Hornaday's writing a lot, even though I do seem to almost always disagree with her.
I do want to talk about John Stockwell for a moment.
First off, I just got to say this is the guy that played Cougar in Top Gun and Spider in Losing It,
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and I know Losing It, not losing, Losing It is not a good film, but it was directed by Curtis Hansen, whom I love.
Also, if you watch that film, you will say to yourself, okay, I guess Tom Cruise is capable of aging after all,
just at a much slower rate than an actual human.
I didn't like Crazy Beautiful, though I will admit it had some moments.
I also have to admit I've never seen Blue Crush.
(15:59):
Stockwell does appear to enjoy going back to tropical locations to shoot.
He also directed Dark Tide, a terrible film with a shoestring budget that I of course own because it's a shark attack film.
It was also the film where Halle Berry and Oliver Martinez met in case anybody wanted a completely useless bit of trivia.
As for Into the Blue, I think it's a well-directed film.
I've already mentioned the high-key saturated color grading that pops in nearly every scene,
(16:23):
and when it doesn't, the lack of saturation subtly clues the viewer that things just got serious.
It's a gorgeous film.
Much of the film does take place underwater, including with the principal cast.
Alba had a pretty good background in diving, and Walker had at least some experience, which didn't hurt.
Remember that Alba was on the television remake of Flipper before she did all of this, before she even did Dark Angel,
(16:44):
so she knew a little bit about diving and being in the water.
Still, in interviews, you can find both actors lamenting the difficulties from these shots.
The efforts were not in vain, however. Forget the plot, forget the flesh. This film is a visual feast.
I can't believe I'm about to say this here, but even the shaky cam technique seems to work well in this film.
Hornaday isn't wrong about the dialogue, though.
As already alluded to, I found it to be particularly trite and poorly written.
(17:08):
The nested narrative, the story of the pirate Tilman Thorpe robbing a wealthy slave owner and fleeing for France during the Civil War,
falling in love with his daughter, sinking the Zephyr along with all her treasure just to throw them off their trail,
to allow them to live happily ever after, it serves as an interesting parallel to our protagonist's journey.
If done well, it could have actually added a rich layer of depth to the story, but instead it comes off a bit hokey.
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That doesn't make it enough to make this film walk the plank.
As far as films go, they're a lot worse. Don't believe me? Just watch some turn-of-the-millennium made-for-TV Canadian films.
I may just know a podcast that gave a couple of them not-too-favorable reviews.
It's more than just the hokey dialogue and some questionable plot points.
I suppose I could accept that a recently sunk plane full of cocaine just happens to be submerged not 20 yards from the most
(18:22):
treasure-laden ship the Earth ever swallowed centuries earlier, but it does seem convenient.
The twists and turns and big reveals and masterminds are painfully predictable.
Somewhere upon the first viewing, I knew both Roy, who is Sam and Jared's policeman friend, and of course Bates,
were going to do an obvious heel turn. I mean, Josh Brolin is born to play that role.
I didn't really see Amber biting the big one after getting bit by the big one, but being keenly familiar with the concept,
(18:46):
I knew a Chekhov's Tiger Shark when I heard one mentioned.
Speaking of plot, while I'll admit there is some decent action in this flick, the pacing does drag at points.
The film clocks in at an hour and 51 minutes, and it felt longer, like Oliver Stone's pseudo-history film kind of long.
Thinking back, I'm not even sure what scene should be cut.
The police searching the boat introduces us to Roy, whose role is small but crucial.
(19:08):
The club scene similarly introduces us to Primo as well as establishes that Amber doesn't mind indulging in a little nose candy now and again.
The lengthy free diving scene once Bryce arrives on the island introduces the aforementioned Tiger Shark that will most certainly return.
The stupid scene where Bates has a group of children on a field trip to his boat at least describes what those quote,
mailboxes do, if a viewer even needed to know that, and of course hints that Bates is suspicious about Jared's find of the Zephyr.
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These scenes could at least be trimmed, and I would personally omit the last scene mentioned altogether, including finding that cap in the earlier part.
I already suspected Bates, but at that point I understood he was somehow involved in searching for the sunken plane,
even if Jared thought he was just trying to sneak a peek at his own salvaging project.
Oh, and also, cut down on some of the kissing. Seriously, I get it. Jared and Sam are in love, like super in love.
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You have two of the most beautiful people who are on the planet in 2005 as your principal actors, so of course you want them to kiss, but not this darn much.
Not four minutes into the film, they're smacking gums and they just keep over and over again, just swapping slobber.
Even the other characters are sick of it.
Stop kissing. First of all, it's disgusting. Stop kissing. No self-respecting pirate would do that.
(20:22):
There are also some continuity errors that are just unforgivable.
For instance, early on when Jared steps through on a plank in the rickety boat, Sam kicks off her sandals to step on the boat,
then she actually steps on the boat, and suddenly her sandals are back on.
Then she kneels down to help him, and she's clearly barefoot.
It's unmistakable because we get some close-ups of feet that would make Tarantino jealous.
In the airport scene, as Jared and Bryce are talking, a woman walks behind them.
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We cut away, then cut back, and the same woman walks behind them again.
Right in the center of the frame, it's impossible to miss.
The whole reason the Zephyrs discovered is that Jared loses his watch and goes down to retrieve it, and instead first finds a bottle.
Clearly, he's also found the watch at some point, since he's got it on like a minute later as they're sifting for more sunken artifacts.
But it's never once acknowledged that he found it or put it back on.
(21:06):
And then again, this film does need to trim every single minute it can.
And I sound so negative. There's plenty in this film to critique, yeah, but I've already praised a lot of it.
I took issue with some of Hornaday's observations. I mean, it's gorgeous to look at. It's well-directed.
I think Ebert is spot-on when he writes that the film, quotes, develops as a narrative, not as a series of action sequences,
and the characters don't mindlessly hurry from one impossible stunt to another, but weigh their options,
(21:30):
advocate opposing strategies, and improvise when they get in danger.
Though the hokey dialogue does undercut some of its potency, the moral struggle, the Faustian bargain that Jared fights with,
does resonate and make this a nicely camouflaged morality tale about the dangers of temptation.
As far as standout performances go, the caliber of acting in this film is a bit scattershot.
Josh Brolin seems kind of hammy, if I'm being honest.
(21:52):
Former model Tyson Beckford has an incredible on-screen presence.
I mean, when you see him, you know he's a bad guy.
He mostly just looms and sneers, looking smug. He's better when he doesn't speak, honestly.
And I hate to say this because I don't want to be mean or speak ill of the dead,
but Paul Walker, while he may have been a beautiful creature, was at best a mediocre actor.
He's not bad here, though there are some points where his overacting is kind of evident.
(22:14):
Ashley Scott gives a solid performance.
She and Alba, of course, know each other well, as Scott was a regular on Dark Angel there for a while.
Looking at her IMDB page, she was also in SWAT, which is one of those really bad action films,
like really, really bad action films, that I watch over and over, but I don't remember her in it, oddly enough.
From there, it mostly looks like she's done a series of TV shows.
I know I've been a stan for Alba since Dark Angel, actually.
(22:36):
And if you haven't seen Idle Hands, it's a criminally underrated comedy horror.
Not a great film, but the concept alone is worth a watch.
The point is, somewhere down the line, not blaming it on Good Luck Chuck, but totally blaming it on Good Luck Chuck,
Alba became known as the ditzy, beautiful girlfriend in everyone's mind.
At the height of her potential, her talent was wasted.
Yeah, I said talent. The woman has some acting chops.
(22:59):
Just because she wasn't given great roles to work with doesn't mean she's bad at her craft.
The reason Sue Storm is such a horrible character in those two films is a result of the script, not her.
Go and watch her in Machete or The Killer Inside Me and tell me you aren't impressed.
Although you might want to ignore Trigger Warning, which is her latest film that debuted on Netflix just a couple months ago.
Not very good.
(23:20):
But if I give this standout performance to her, I just get teased.
Y'all would say I have a widow's celebrity crush and please, I'm so over celebrity crushes.
In 2000 when I was barely able to legally purchase booze, yeah sure, but I'm a crusty old man now.
I don't have celebrity crushes.
Besides, she's happily married and has two children.
Not that I would ever try to lure her away with my rakish charm.
(23:43):
Besides, Scott Conn kills it as Bryce.
I know what you're going to say. He's an annoying, arrogant meathead.
He's the epitome of what we would now in internet parlance call a Chad.
And you'd be right. He's cocky, starts fights, he's completely morally bankrupt.
He's the main reason they get in this mess in the first place.
Well, we do have Amanda, a good chunk to blame as well.
And speaking of chunks, after Amanda gets a good chunk of her leg bitten off by the tiger shark and dies, he's ready to go right back at it.
(24:10):
When Jared chides him, he coldly says, I only knew her for five days.
Yet at the same time, he is loyal. He's got Jared's back.
Heck, he's about to call in a favor from a mob connected client just to get a loan to outfit Jared with a boat and equipment he would need.
I'm not saying he's likable, but it's clear that he and Jared have been friends for years.
And Jared, perhaps sometimes in spite of himself, likes Bryce.
(24:31):
Conn's ability to infuse Bryce with both charm and repugnance makes him a character you can't help but watch, even as you despise him, which elevates his performance.
Incidentally, you have to go have a peek at him in his latest film, One Day as a Lion.
I mean, I get genetics. I know what that means. Family resemblances. But holy crap.
He is the spitting image of James Conn, his father. It's almost scary.
(24:54):
We'll move on to cultural context.
I can find nothing solid to confirm it, but I have a very strong suspicion that director John Stockwell is a Peter Benchley fan.
Best known for writing Jaws, Benchley did churn out some of the novels, including The Deep.
In 1977, that novel was made into a film starring Jacqueline Bissette, Nolte and Robert Shaw. Yes, as in Captain Quint from Jaws, that Robert Shaw.
(25:17):
The plot involves scuba divers Nolte and Bissette finding some artifacts from a sunken ship, as well as some morphine from the Goliath, a sunken World War II vessel that's off limits to dive since it still contains live explosives.
Without getting too deep, and I swear I don't mean that pun, we find out a recent hurricane has both unearthed the ship and exposed the large morphine supply from the medical banks of the Goliath.
(25:38):
From there, an unscrupulous drug dealer and Shaw's character, who's another treasure hunter, go for the morphine, while the nice innocent couple tries to get artifacts from the old vessel.
Man, it's almost like with a few minor details changed, that's the same plot as Into the Blue.
Oh, and there's also a giant moray eel that serves as an obstacle to everyone's intentions, which makes it totally different because it's an eel and not a tiger shark.
(26:00):
Aside from that, as previously mentioned, a subsequent film from Stockwell, Dark Tide, deals with a great white shark with an attitude.
It's in no way a direct Jaws ripoff, but in a roundabout way, every shark film made after 1974 is a Jaws ripoff.
Of course, after the runaway success of both the novel and the film Jaws, public perception about sharks changed.
Awareness of their presence in the oceans, where they'd always been before, grew keener.
(26:22):
In those extremely rare instances where a shark did attack a human, news outlets across the nation picked it up and ran with it.
And this colored the perception of sharks extremely negatively, and with many of their species being endangered, it hampered conservation efforts.
Everyone wants to save the cute portly pandas, but it's a lot harder to draw up support for a 15-foot torpedo-esque killing machine.
Benchley deeply regretted this, understanding, as I hope most of us do today, that sharks are beautiful, elegant creatures who pose almost zero threat to humans, and are in fact an invaluable part of the ocean's ecosystem.
(26:52):
He dedicated the rest of his life to undoing this perception.
Likewise, I was proud to see End of the Blue attempting to undo some of these misperceptions.
The film begins with Sam in a habitat that, oddly enough, is also a water park, feeding nurse sharks.
She assures us that shark attacks are extremely rare.
Did you ever get bit? Yeah, Genie here got a little too frisky with me one day last year, but for the most part, shark attacks are just a simple case of mistaken identity.
(27:19):
Side note, Sam never goes back to work after that. I mean, Jared is the one who gets fired at the beginning, but Sam just still seems to have the free time to hang out with him and his friends, no care of getting back to feed those poor nurse sharks.
Told you there were some incongruities.
At any rate, we do see a fair treatment of sharks, as Sam and Jared swim along them without trepidation.
Meanwhile, Bryce freaks out and scurries out of the water. He even remarks that one is big and says he looks like Jaws. Again, clearly, benchally having an impact.
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Incidentally, if the shark really were that large, it's probably a she, not a he. Sharks are sexually dimorphic, with the females being the larger.
It does shortly fall apart after that, with Sam saying it's the tiger sharks that Bryce needs to worry about.
He actually no.
Although tigers are known to be more aggressive than the reef sharks we see in the beginning of the sequence, there's still statistically a 0% chance of one attacking a person.
(28:06):
I said statistically, yes it happens, but it is so darn rare. And that also goes for bulls, great whites, all the rest of them.
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, the likelihood of being attacked by a shark in the United States is 1 in 11.5 million, and the chance to be killed by a shark is less than 1 in 264.1 million.
To put it in perspective, cows kill 22 people in the United States per year. Cows.
(28:30):
Domestic dogs kill 31.
Beastings kill 53.
You're safe in the ocean, even if there are tiger sharks around.
When a shark does bite, just as Sam says, it's usually because they mistake the person for something else, as happened with Amanda in the film.
Though brief because of the PG-13 rating, we do see nearly all of her hamstring gone on one leg, clearly indicating the shark took a nip and moved on.
(28:51):
Unfortunately, it's so much that she bleeds out, and that's the case with a lot of shark fatalities, pretty much all of them.
They take a nip, realize they don't want it, but that nip just happens to be too much for the person to live through.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that in the climax, the film does at least try to show the two henchmen that get taken by the tiger shark to be due to the fact they were bleeding already.
Even so, that's also a bit of a misconception.
(29:14):
There's so many myths about sharks and blood. Like, no, a shark cannot smell a drop of blood from a mile away.
This is the freaking ocean. Do you realize how many gallons upon gallons of water that is?
Sharks can detect blood in the water from up to 200 yards away, though, which is a concentration of about one part per billion, according to the nonprofit Shark Angels.
And sharks can distinguish between fish blood and human blood.
(29:37):
And again, I reiterate, they have no particular interest in humans. Even if you scrape your knee and get in the ocean, you're pretty doggone safe.
To put this in perspective, director John Stockwell insisted that no CGI sharks were going to be used in this film.
Everyone you see is real. Alba told CBS's early show, quote, Basically any shark in the area came around and they plopped us in the middle.
(29:59):
Giant wild sharks around us all the time through the entire movie. And oddly enough, not a single one of the cast or crew was eaten alive.
Imagine that. It's almost like sharks aren't dangerous. Kudos to Stockwell.
He didn't get every little fact or detail right about the sharks, but he did better than nearly every other film I've seen.
Also in the episode notes, I'll link to the Shark Angels webpage if you'd like to educate yourself more about shark conservation and maybe even toss a little financial aid their way.
(30:24):
You can adopt a Mako shark on there. I'm just saying. Moving on to the trivia, I want to talk just slightly about Paul Walker, because he did, of course, tragically die in a car accident.
That was in November 30th of 2013, and he was just 40 years old.
I didn't plan it this way, but as I record today, September 12th, 2024, it would have been Walker's 51st birthday.
I did see where his daughter Meadow posted a heartfelt tribute today on social media, and I mean, it'll tug at your heartstrings. I don't care how cynical you are.
(30:49):
So here's to remembering him on what would have been his 51st birthday. He was taken from us too soon.
According to IMDb, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever seen around Jared and Sam in many scenes was actually Walker's own dog, whose name was Boone.
And on a somewhat related note, my own precious canine daughter Penny is one half lab and one half Chesapeake Bay Retriever or as I like to call her a Chesa door.
(31:12):
OK, it is time for Shelf Esteem. We have definitely run a bit long, not as bad as I thought we would be. Rain still pitter pattering out there.
So for those familiar, I will re explain it. Those who are here your first time, I'll explain it the first time.
Essentially, there are five shelves on my DVD cabinet. So what I do is use the bartenders model. Good stuff on the top, rot gut on the bottom.
(31:34):
And then you've got second shelf, mid shelf, fourth shelf in between. So I'll just cut to the chase.
It's interesting how our perceptions of film can change or even how our memories of a film's merit differ from reality.
Best I can tell, this is the third time I've watched Into the Blue. I don't recall ever being blown away by it or even particularly liking it, except for the sharks.
I always like sharks. But as I mentioned, Into the Blue somehow became shorthand at some point for me for just a completely reprehensible mainstream film,
(32:01):
particularly when I spoke with my film enthusiasts and when I did, nobody ever batted an eyelash.
I'm going to tell you right now, I'm removing that from my idiom immediately. This is not a bad film. It's not great either.
I certainly won't pull a Roger Ebert and give it a three out of four stars. This is way too generous.
But as I prepared for this episode and gave it another watch, I found myself rethinking that harsh judgment.
(32:24):
I fully expected this to end up on the bottom shelf, but it doesn't belong down there with the red rings of fear and the hustle.
Instead, it goes on...
The middle shelf. Yeah, I'm surprised as you. It's better than fourth shelf fare, like The Breakup or Zebra Lounge or The Avenging Disco Godfather.
Mid shelf films, per my rubric, are good films that have a few flaws or aren't quite as impactful, but still enjoyable and worth your time.
(32:52):
I think everyone would enjoy at least one go around with this film.
And if it's not your cup of tea, well, at least there's always the option to enjoy the scenic views or just ogle a scandal,
a clad Jessica Albin, Paul Walker, like the critics seem to think was the film's main draw.
Coming up next week, we'll still be hanging around the beach, but on the other ocean side,
we're keeping with the Stockwell color palette, abandoning the oversaturated blue for oversaturated orange.
(33:16):
It's a world of spoiled rich kids, troubled aspiring authors and college admissions.
We're going to zip on up the PCH to Orange County.
The film is currently streaming on Paramount Plus, one of the streaming services I don't have.
Not that I watch anything but DVDs anymore, but if you are a subscriber, you can check it out there.
If you do want to watch it and talk about any points or tell me how much you loved or hated End of the Blue,
(33:39):
feel free to shoot me an email at steven at shelf criticism dot com.
Remember, that's S.T.E.P.H.E.N. You can also find the podcast on Facebook at Shelf Criticism.
Don't forget my other podcast, Real Lit, where I'm joined by my colleague, the sensational McKenzie.
You can find that just about anywhere you get your podcast fix, as well as our official website,
realitpodcast.com and social media at Real Lit Podcast.
(34:04):
Remember, that's R.E.E.L. as in a film reel.
And I also can't say too much at this point, but there is something in the works that I think you may enjoy.
I will just say it involves a film that is famous or perhaps infamous for a very dubious reason,
a crossover episode between Shelf Criticism and Real Lit, and maybe even bringing in an executive producer,
(34:29):
another of those Owls of Palace, one who gets a shout out at the end of every Real Lit.
And I'm just going to leave it at that for now until we finalize the details, but you can look for that coming, I hope, in the next couple of weeks.
So all that being said, until next time, DVD aficionados, remember to treat yourself to a little shelf indulgence of your own.
Amelia, sing us home.
(34:50):
Shelf Criticism is an Owls of Palace production.
This podcast is in no way connected with the educational institutions the host is employed by.
The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the host and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other organization with which he is affiliated.
(35:12):
Most images displayed are public domain.
Images and stills from films, descriptions of scenes and passages from books are used for educational and critical purposes
and not for profit and therefore fall under the terms of fair use.
(35:36):
I picked her up last night at the Mercer.
I picked you up last night. Don't start lying already.
I picked you up last night. Don't start lying already.
I'm in love. Serious.
I'm not serious.
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