*note from webmaster - One feels the need to comment on these reviews. This film was, to say the least, not the critics "darling" for the Fall of 2005. Still, we are certain that every work has it's audience. For us here at AJF, we admit to be a devoted audience to yes - everything James Frain may be choose to be a part of. We stand firm in our opinion that James Frain is at least one small pearl in this big clam.

It was a bit of work to find reviews which didn't completely hate "Into the Blue", and virtually none which actually mention James Frain (perhaps a good thing?), but here is what we found...

San Francisco Chronicle

FALL FILM PREVIEW

FALL MOVIES

Hugh Hart
Sunday, September 4, 2005

Into the Blue (Sony/Columbia/MGM) Undersea adventure, bumped from its original July release date, casts Jessica Alba ("Sin City") into the sea with a bikini. She and Paul Walker ("The Fast and the Furious") play treasure hunters who get in over their heads after they discover a legendary shipwreck in the Bahamas. However, trouble lurks in the form of sharks and a gang of hard-core smugglers. Scott Caan, Ashley Scott, Josh Brolin and James Frain co- star for director John Stockwell ("Blue Crush").

for full article: San Francisco Chronicle

Into the Blue
2005 - US - Action/Adventure
Type: Features Distributor: MGM Release Date: September 30, 2005
Rating: PG13 (for intense sequences of action violence, drug material, some sexual content)
Starring: Scott Caan, Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Ashley Scott
Directed by: John Stockwell
PLOT DESCRIPTIONGreed turns an idyllic vacation into a nightmare in this action drama. Jared Cole (Paul Walker) makes his living salvaging wreckage from ships off the coast of the Bahamas. He shares a rattle-trap trailer home with his girlfriend, Samantha "Sam" Nicholson (Jessica Alba), a shark expert who works at a nearby resort. While both are happy with their lives in the islands, Jared dreams of finding a major score and living the high life.

One day, Jared and Sam are paid a visit by Bryce Dunn (Scott Caan), a childhood friend of Sam's who is now doing very well as a lawyer. Bryce and his girlfriend, Amanda (Ashley Scott), have come to the Bahamas for a few days of diving and fun, and Sam and Jared show them the waters while making use of his yacht. While diving with Sam, Bryce, and Amanda, Jared discovers the wreckage of a plane used to smuggle drugs, and thinks he may have found the big score he's always dreamed of.

While Sam persuades Jared that the cargo is too risky to move, Bryce and Amanda think there's a fast buck to be made, and team up with Primo (Tyson Beckford), a local underground entrepreneur, to fence the contents of the plane. However, Bryce and Amanda have underestimated just how dangerous Primo and his henchmen can be, and now Sam and Jared must come to their rescue. Into the Blue was directed by John Stockwell, who previously took filmgoers to the seashore with the surfing drama Blue Crush. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

CAST FOR 'Into the Blue'

Paul Walker - Jared Cole
Jessica Alba - Samantha 'Sam' Nicholson
Scott Caan - Bryce Dunn
Ashley Scott - Amanda Collins
Josh Brolin - Derek Bates
Tyson Beckford - Primo
Dwayne Adway - Roy
James Frain - Reyes
Chris Taloa - Quinn

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Peter Guber - Executive Producer
John Stockwell - Director
David Zelon - Producer
Matt Johnson - Screenwriter
Ori Marmur - Executive Producer
Matt Luber - Executive Producer
Pete Zuccarini - Underwater Photography, Second Unit Director
Shane Hurlbut - Cinematographer
Paul Haslinger - Composer (Music Score)
Maia Javan - Production Designer
Leesa Evans - Costume Designer
Louis G. Friedman - Executive Producer
Dennis Virkler - Editor
Nicolas de Toth - Editor

Into the Blue

Greed blinds the characters, but it may be the stars' pulchritude and the tropical scenery that blinds viewers in "Into the Blue."

Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Scott Caan and Ashley Scott play young friends and divers who discover a shipwrecked treasure on the ocean floor. Unfortunately, nearby there's a crashed plane filled with illegal cargo, so the quartet will have trouble getting their booty out before the smugglers looking for the plane arrive. John Stockwell ("Blue Crush") directed the action film, which also stars such easy-on-the-eyes actors as Josh Brolin, James Frain and Tyson Beckford.

from Monsters & Critics in the UK:

Movies Columns

The Unseen Movie Review: Into the Blue

By Robert Dixter Sep 27, 2005, 7:14 GMT

The other option this weekend is Into the Blue with Paul Walker and Jessica Alba. I've seen tons of commercials for this film and I can't tell you the first thing about the story other than it stars two hot people. The ads don't sell the plot at all, unless the story is about a bikinied Jess and shirtless Walker. There are sharks, some skin, a little action and it probably all wraps up in under 90 minutes.

It seems pretty formulaic to me, but the one thing that is drawing me to possibly see it is Scott Caan. This guy has to be one of the most natural and comfortable people on film. Admit it, you went to Ocean's Eleven for George and Brad but the best part of the film was really Scott and Casey Affleck. Scott seems like he belongs on film and doesn't appear to be acting at all. Could he play the lead in A Beautiful Mind? Probably not, but then again they weren't offering Vin Diesel that role either.

Considering Scott's dad is James Caan, the only Godfather actor who actually moved into the Playboy mansion, you would think he would be doing dumb roles in bad films. He definitely has been in a few clunkers, but always seems to be having a good time. So Scott, keep doing what you're doing and maybe one day you too will move into Hef's house.

Into the Blue

dir John Stockwell
scr Matt Johnson
with Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Scott Caan, Ashley Scott, Josh Brolin, Tyson Beckford, Dwayne Adway, James Frain, Chris Taloa, Gill Montie, Ramon Saunders, Zach Capetola
release US 30.Sep.05, UK 21.Oct.05
05/US MGM 1h40
There aren't nearly enough preposterous thrillers that involve gorgeous young stars wearing very little clothing. And this entertainingly silly underwater adventure is filmed with a lushness that puts them right in the middle of a National Geographic-type documentary about tropical reefs. Still, there are two disappointments: first, a seriously silly plot takes over and, second, it wasn't shot in Imax.

Jared and Sam (Walker and Alba) have a scruffy-happy life in the Bahamas. He's a dive instructor and part-time treasure hunter; she's a shark trainer at an ocean park. Then Jared's lawyer buddy Bryce (Caan) comes to visit with his girlfriend du jour (Scott), and on a snorkelling trip they find both a mythical shipwreck and a recently crashed airplane full of cocaine. But doing the right thing is a bit complicated, and soon they're running from thugs (Beckford and Frain), the local cop (Adway) and the competition (Brolin).

Stockwell clearly has a thing for fit young stars in swimwear (see Blue Crush), and he knows how to shoot them. This film is absolutely gorgeous to look at, in every sense of the word, really making the most of the tropical undersea setting and the physical fitness of the cast. Speaking of whom, the actors have very little to do besides looking sexy and young and excited at the prospect of unfathomable riches or sudden death. So they're fine, really. Extremely watchable and actually rather convincing in a way the plot never is.

The film is much more interesting when it's looking at the lives of 20-somethings struggling to make ends meet (note the creaky truck, leaky boat, hurricane ravaged beach shack) and to make the right decisions, or when it's concentrating on the dazzling sea, sky, sun, snorkelling and so much tanned skin that it sometimes feels like soft porn. Then the thriller plot kicks in: villains, cops and sharks--oh my! The dilemma is intriguing, but the way it plays out is just far too ludicrous and formulaic, with action scenes directed in a far-too chaotic way, that we just long for more zany jet ski antics.

Featuring Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Scott Caan, Ashley Scott, Josh Brolin, Tyson Becksford, James Frain, Dwayne Adway
Directed by John Stockwell
MPAA rating -- PG-13
Review by Chuck O'Leary

The new underwater treasure-hunting thriller Into the Blue plays like a contemporary reworking of the very good 1977 underwater treasure-hunting thriller The Deep, and will surely invite comparisons with anyone old enough to remember The Deep.

Both films are about deep-sea scuba divers hunting for long lost treasure on the ocean floor who inadvertently discover a fortune in lost narcotics and then find themselves threatened by drug smugglers.

The Deep is still a better and classier thriller, and Jessica Alba and Ashley Scott frequently being shown in skimpy bathing suits throughout Into the Blue never comes close to generating the heat of seeing Jacqueline Bisset in a wet T-shirt in The Deep, but Into the Blue is nevertheless a pleasant surprise that far surpasses expectations.

Who would have thought a movie starring Paul Walker and Jessica Alba to be this entertaining? But even though Walker and Alba get top billing, it's Scott Caan who steals the show. Caan, son of the fine veteran actor James Caan, has definitely inherited some of his father's charisma and rough-around-the-edges charm.

Coincidentally, Into the Blue also stars Josh Brolin, another second-generation actor with a famous James for a father.

In the film, Walker plays Jared, a 29-year-old "dive-bum" living in the Bahamas with an adoring girlfriend named Sam (Alba). She's gorgeous and doesn't seem to mind that Jared is perpetually broke. All guys should be so lucky.

The action starts when an old friend of Jared's named Bryce comes to visit the Bahamas with his latest girlfriend, Amanda (Scott). Bryce is a defense attorney "in debt to the wrong people" who immediately sees dollar signs when the four friends inadvertently discover a crashed plane on the ocean floor full of bags of cocaine.

Also located in the same area of ocean are the ruins of a ship sunken centuries ago called the Zephyr. Bryce and Amanda avariciously want to retrive and sell the cocaine for a quick profit, while the more sensible Jared and Sam would rather stick to trying to claim the sunken treasures. But how else than profiting from the cocaine sale can the four friends afford the equipment necessary for such a salvage job?

As played by Caan, Bryce is the kind of reckless, slick-talking scoundrel who's virtually a neon sign flashing trouble, but who's somehow likable enough to always make you want to believe in him against your better judgement. Caan played a similar trouble-prone hustler in his solid directorial debut, Dallas 362, which recently premiered on DVD, and is definitely worth a look.

Into the Blue was directed by former actor John Stockwell (best remembered from John Carpenter's Christine), and he does a skillful job of generating suspense and keeping things moving at a fast clip. Stockwell's direction is almost strong enough to overcome some of the lapses in logic, especially too often letting characters remain underwater too long without the proper breathing apparatuses.

After a while, you'd think Walker's character was the offspring of Kevin Costner's gilled Mariner character from Waterworld.

While it won't make anybody forget The Deep, or Jackie Bisset's wet T-Shirt, Into the Blue is undeniably exciting and much better than a movie with this many young, buff bodies should be.

* note from webmaster - Okay, not a pleasant review - but one which actually mentions James, so here you go...

Into the Blue

A Film Review by James Berardinelli

RATING - 1 out of 4 stars
United States, 2005
U.S. Release Date: 9/30/05 (wide)
Running Length: 1:50
MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Violence, profanity, sexual situations, drugs)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Cast: Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Scott Caan, Ashley Scott, Josh Brolin, James Frain
Director: John Stockwell
Producer: David Zelon
Screenplay: Matt Johnson
Cinematography: Shane Hurlbut, Peter Zuccarini
Music: Paul Haslinger
U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures

On some level, I feel that I should have been able to enjoy Into the Blue. It has all the elements one would expect from a "so bad it's good" feature: cheesy dialogue, a script that could have been written by two chimpanzees, acting that would make a high school drama teacher cringe, and lots of tight female bodies poured into tiny bikinis. Despite all of that, however, I found Into the Blue to be a real trial, although it appears to have a weird ability to suspend time. Every time I checked my watch, the hands seemed to be in the same place. Director John Stockwell, who has a fetish for movies with "blue" in the title (he also was in charge of Blue Crush), may not have found a formula for entertainment, but he has discovered a means to slow time. That would be a good thing if Into the Blue was less tedious.

Jessica Alba may be one of the hottest young things working in Hollywood, but she can't act. This year, she has appeared in a trio of movies (the previous two were Sin City and The Fantastic Four), and has failed to show any noteworthy thespian skills. Still, when it comes to screen presence and eye candy, it's hard to beat Alba. Few actresses look better in a skimpy suit, and Stockwell is smart enough to highlight this early and often. Unfortunately, to get the benefits of 90-odd minutes of Alba in a bikini, it means enduring the same amount of time in the presence of Paul Walker and Scott Caan. Then there are the stretches of film when neither Alba nor Ashley Scott is on screen. That's when Into the Blue sinks to uncharted and unwelcome depths.

The story takes us to the Bahamas where a quartet of divers makes a remarkable find: the possible wreckage of the Civil War-era ship Zephyr. If legitimate, this could make Jared (Walker); his girlfriend, Sam (Alba); his brother, Bryce (Caan); and Bryce's new squeeze, Amanda (Scott), stinking rich. But there are complications. The water is infested with sharks and there's a downed drug plane nearby. As Jared tries to figure out how to legitimatize his Zephyr claim, Amanda does a little topless sunbathing, Sam pouts about ethics, and Bryce tries to sweeten the pot by selling the drugs in the plane. Unfortunately, the criminal mastermind (James Frain) he contacts is the guy who owned the cocaine in the first place.

Alba is bad, but her co-stars are worse. Stockwell can't get a decent performance out of any of them. Even the sharks seem to be hamming it up. Into the Blue might be more enjoyable as a silent film. Not only would that spare us countless passages of purple prose, but it would distill the movie to its essence: bikini-clad actresses and some impressive underwater photography. Honestly, some of those shots of multi-hued tropical fish are impressive. Somehow, though, I don't believe that the producers of Into the Blue intended admiration of Butterflyfish to be a major marketing point.

It's probably worth wondering how Into the Blue ended up being released at the end of September, when screen fare is supposed to be improving, rather than during the dregs of August, when the average picture deserves a place in Davey Jones' Locker. Maybe I underestimate the appeal of Alba or (god forbid!) Walker. Or perhaps someone at Sony was enthused about this lame tale of intrigue, drugs, and scuba diving. That latter seems unlikely until one considers that this studio was responsible for both Bewitched and Man of the House. As a tourism advertisement for the Bahamas, Into the Blue doesn't fare much better. Sure, the islands have pretty fish and prettier girls, but they also have pesky things like man-eating sharks and ill-tempered drug lords. Better to watch the Bahamas from afar - only not in this particular movie.

2005 James Berardinelli

from deeper blue.net:

'Into the Blue' Review

16 October 2005

By John Liang

Warning: this review may contain spoilers, so for those of you film buffs for whom this is important, stop reading now.

Jessica Alba said it best earlier this week when she appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, describing INTO THE BLUE as a "fun popcorn thriller." And that's pretty much what it is. It ain't gonna win any Oscars (with one possible exception, to be mentioned below), but I'm sure it'll get some heavy rotation on the Spike channel or VH1's "Movies That Rock."

But I didn't go to see it for the acting. Or the intricate (NOT!) plot, which can be summarized thusly: Paul Walker's character is a recently fired divemaster, and his character's girlfriend, played by Jessica Alba, plays a marine biologist who works at the Atlantis resort. Scott Caan plays Walker's friend who comes to visit with a girlfriend (Amanda Scott) he acquired 48 hours before. They find a sunken treasure, as well as a sunken airplane loaded with cocaine. Pretty soon, they're up against some brutal drug smugglers who want to know where their plane is, and one can pretty much guess the rest. But like I said, that's all immaterial.

I went to see it for the diving scenes, and in that department, I was quite pleasantly surprised. Yeah, I had read the articles about the filming of the movie at Stuart Cove in the Bahamas in PADI Sport Diver and Scuba Diver magazines. About how nearly all of the cast and crew had gotten themselves scuba-certified during the filming, About how actor Scott Caan had increased his freediving max from 30 feet to 100 feet. About the stunt divers, among them freediver Meghan Heaney-Grier. About how Stuart Cove had used its experience with sharks to help create some fun scenes of sharks chowing down on a baddie. I had watched both versions of the movie trailer multiple times.

But all of that just gave the merest hint of what was actually in the movie itself.

I'd say at least one-half of the film's scenes were shot underwater or on the water. If there's any small chance for an Oscar for this movie, it might be for the cinematography. It showed the beauty of the ocean in all its forms, with great use of light. Never once did I see any extra bubbles from the numerous support and safety divers whom I'm sure were present. I literally could not tell when the stars themselves were replaced by their stunt doubles.

For the scuba diving scenes, I can understand why PADI is doing some cross-marketing with this movie. There are instances of the correct form of buddy breathing as well as of divers being chided by the authorities for not flying a dive flag from their boat. There are also scenes of the main characters diving with the full-face-mask underwater communications systems.

For those of you spearos out there, there are scenes of the baddies using band-type spearguns with funky exploding shotgun-shell tips. The guns themselves are not the James Bond pneumatic-type, they're real rubber band spearguns that are shown being loaded the correct way. And Paul Walker's character at one point appears to use a Hawaiian sling and one of those funky shotgun shell-tipped spears to neutralize one baddie.

The thing about the scuba scenes, though, was that they felt somewhat utilitarian, as if they were used to put forward the idea of underwater work, of using the scuba rigs as a means to an end (salvage, photography, combat).

The freediving scenes, however - of which there were several, not counting the end credits - put forward the idea of pleasure, of fun, of acrobatic beauty, of being truly one with the ocean. Granted, they didn't show anybody breathing up before a dive, and there was even a line by one of the characters talking about a "three-minute breath hold."

Another pro-freediving motif in the movie was that during a couple key underwater scenes, the actors wearing long fins appeared to be moving faster in the water than those in short fins, a fact that freedivers shouldn't find surprising. While Scott Caan's character appeared to use scuba fins during most of his dive scenes, Walker and Alba were always shown diving in long fins - whether breath-hold or scuba.

The best part of it all was the entire end credits, which showed the main characters cavorting underwater in masks, fins and snorkels. It made me wish I could just brush the credits aside just to watch them freedive.

And the movie's Web site (http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/intotheblue/) has short video clips of the actors freediving, which is kinda cool. My final thought for this movie is a fervent hope that the producers include lots and lots and LOTS of extra footage and "making of" documentaries with the DVD release on all the underwater aspects of the film, with one segment solely dedicated to freediving. And if "Ocean Men" were to be included as an extra, I'd be in seventh heaven.

So will I see this movie on the big screen again? Sure, just to be able to immerse myself in suspended disbelief while watching some of the best underwater filmmaking I've ever seen.

Into the Blue - official film site

IMDB link for Into the Blue