Sebastian (Chris Carmack) and his girlfriend Dani (Laura Vandervoort) are living the good life as dive bums in Hawaii, leading dive tours off of the various reefs, and wherever else the tourists who hire them want to go. But, Sebastian, man, he wants something more, y’know? He figures there’s got to be more to life, and Sebastian has been busy designing their "someday boat," the boat of their dreams that they’ll build someday…like maybe when they find the wreck of the San Cristobal, a sunken ship that contained more wealth in her holds than they could possibly imagine. But things are looking up when Sebastian and Dani meet up with a wealthy couple named Carlton and Azra, who initially just hire them for a dive, but they soon all become such good friends. Oh yeah, right. And then the fun really begins.
Much like the original Into The Blue, the storyline here
is really concerned less with actually seeking a treasure (nor with even telling
a decent story at all) than it is more with showing the latest young Hollywood
babes in bikinis. Lauren Vandervoort, best known for playing Supergirl on the TV
series Smallville, takes over from Jessica Alba, who starred in the first film. And while Vandervoort does wear a bikini very well, she also has an engaging screen presence that helps her to rise above the weak material she has to work with. And any actress who’s willing to run barefoot through city streets while dressed only in a hospital gown--as Vandervoort does in one scene here--deserves kudos for simply being a real trouper.
David Anders and Marsha Thomason, as Charlton and Azra, are the other standouts
in the cast, and both are dependable actors who have been seen by TV viewers
before. Anders played the villainous Adam Monroe in the second season of Heroes,
while Thomason appeared as Naomi Dorrit on LOST. They make the most of their
thinly written characters, who already start out as being sketchy at best. This
is the main problem for me with Into The Blue 2: The Reef: in addition to being
predictable, there’s also virtually no mystery to solve, thanks to the
filmmakers constantly tipping their hand. And without a good mystery to keep
the viewer engaged, director Stephen Herek replies on the flat, soap opera-like
subplot of the on again, off again relationship of Mace and Kimi, a pair of
secondary characters. Why not have the main characters go through a crisis in their relationship--one
that’s resolved by them working together to solve the film’s main mystery?
Oh, but when you consider that ITB2:TR is basically a direct to video film that’s made for a pittance of the original, it’s easy to assume that the filmmakers weren’t aiming very high to begin with. The film is enjoyable in a strictly low-rent Baywatch sense, in that you can ogle young, scantily-clad hard bodies--and, let’s face it, that was pretty much the whole reason for the existence of the first Into The Blue, as well. And if MGM is planning on doing a series of these films--with each displaying the latest young nubile starlet in the skimpiest of swimwear--then where’s the harm in that? If MGM’s smart, they should take a page from the Sports Illustrated playbook and release these cheesecake epics during the winter months. A respite from the harsh cold with babes in bikinis? They’ll have a major hit on their hands.
--SF
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