Into The Blue (2005) -versus- The Deep (1977)

I have to confess that going into see Into The Blue I didn't have a lot of confidence, but my 13-year-old had heard good things from friends and so we went. I really liked it. I realize that "Rotton Tomatoes" says it's mostly rotten, but I think most of those critics are wrong. It accomplished what it set out to do, did it with directorial style, and the script was better than most.

"We are so damn hot. Just admit it."

Into The Blue is about a couple of lovers who live on a leaky boat in the Bahamas, have crummy jobs and dream of buried treasure. They find some, but it's right next to a crashed plane-load of cocaine. As they say, complications ensue. But they're logical complications, sometimes made out of greed, sometimes out of friendship, and they work.

It did occur to me while watching this movie that the plot seemed familiar. The movie that Peter Benchley wrote after Jaws got the nation's attention is the one -- The Deep. That movie is about a couple of lovers who are scuba diving off Bermuda who come upon the remains of a sunken vessel that was carrying jewels only it's next to a sunken World War II ammunition ship filled up with a cargo of morphine.

We've got treasure right next to drugs in both films. The good guys want the treasure and the bad guys want the drugs. Both have sex stars of their times in the leads: Jessica Alba today and Jacqueline Bisset back then. Both woman have to cope with some icky moments: Jessica has to hack a man's hand off with a machete and Jacqueline gets massaged with chicken blood against her will.

There's a sidebar for me here. The two main characters (guys, anyway, played by Paul Walker and Scott Caan) in Into The Blue are named Jared and Bryce. My son's name is Jared and I'm Bryce. That was weird.

Reasons to rent The Deep: Robert Shaw back as a gruff seaman, Lou Gossett as a bad guy and the aforementioned chicken blood bathing scene. But don't expect a compelling story. It wasn't all there in the beginning and it hasn't improved with age.

Into The Blue. Because it could have been done as just a videogame on water but instead was written, directed and acted as a real honest-to-God story.