Treasure hunters out of their depth

Into The Blue starts out looking suspiciously like a remake of The Deep starring the cast of Hollyoaks, but then turns into a half-decent action-adventure caper.

Set in the Bahamas, the story centres on a hard-up young diver and treasure hunter, played by the impossibly cute Paul Walker, and his wide-eyed girlfriend, the no less adorable Jessica Alba.

The pair get sucked into a sinister web of international drug dealers and local gangsters after Walker's best friend, a 24-carat jackass, shows up with a new girlfriend in tow, and the four discover the wreck of a plane on the seabed with $100 million of cocaine inside.

Directed by John Stockwell, the film is not only derivative, it's littered with glib dialogue, offering penetrating insights such as: 'Winners make rules - losers live by them.'

You also have the sneaking suspicion that the four young leads may have been picked more for their ability to model swimwear than their acting talents.

Luckily, in the second half, things perk up and the film gets seriously scary - imagine Jaws meets Dead Calm and you've got the picture. The final underwater fight scene is look-away gory.

Into The Blue
Cert: cert15