Into the Blue 2: The Reef

Ninety minutes of attractive people prancing about in bathing and birthday suits. There's some talking and the actors do some stuff, but whatever they were up to wasn't the focus of the film.

Six stars.

Suspenseful and intriguing underwater thriller concerning an innocent couple, Chris Carmack, Laura Vandervoort, get involved in a search for some strange boxes located at the bottom of the sea. They are a pair of professional divers hired to find Columbus' hidden treasure. They descend deep into the big blue without the aid of any kind of breathing apparatus, though sometimes use scubas. While such exuberant optimism characterises the first part of this Hawaii-set thriller, but later on, a strong note of caution emerges and things go wrong.

An underwater thriller with action, fights, tension, violence and grisly killings. This is an entertaining seagoing adventure in which the ocean deep figure prominently, though this time guarding some sunken boxes. The action is plentiful with undersea excitement with terrifying underwater scenes. The briskly sketched roles and fantasy-led storyline have a B movie feel, brazenly supported by the camera's eagerness to exploit the actors' sexual charms. Made mainly as vehicle for the handsome, beautiful main stars: Christopher Carmack, Laura Vandervoort, and they show particularly in the technical excelence of the underwater scenes. They show off their considerable screen presence , both attracttive and slender. Lightweight entertainment notable for sunny outdoors and underwater cinematography, as well as Laura Vandervoort in a bathing suit , a glamorous bikini. In fact, Vandervoort's wiggling rear is the star of many an underwater scene. Along with them, other nice actors as Marsha Thomason, Michael Graziadei, Mircea Monroe , Audrina Patridge and Amanda Kimmel.

Gorgeous photography manages to keep this afloat with fab footage maritime by cameraman Thomas Yatsko. As well as pulsating and exciting musical score by Robert Duncan. The motion picture was professionally directed by Stephen Herek, though nothing special. Herek is a good craftsman with a long career, getting cinematic successes as Critters, Adventures of Bill and Ted, Professor Holland, The three Musketeers, Holy Man, Our little secret , City limits, Dog gone, Rock Star, and directing several episodes of notorious TV series as Mcyver, Hawai 5.0, Dallas, among others. Rating: 4.5/10. Average, but acceptable and passable at times.

I wasn't all that impressed with either 1977's "The Deep" or the film it inspired 28 years later, 2005's "Into the Blue." They were decent oceanic thrillers but that's about it. I liked the actors in both -- Nick Nolte, Robert Shaw & Jacqueline Bisset in "The Deep" and Paul Walker, Scott Caan & Jessica Alba in "Into the Blue" -- but unless you're rabid fans of Bisset and Alba (or the guys) neither film ever rose above the level of average.

2009's direct-to-video "Into the Blue 2: The Reef" is a sequel-in-name-only that successfully builds on the template of those other two films, delivering a far more entertaining experience IMHO.

"Into the Blue 2" simply has a more engaging story, more dazzling filmmaking and better, more numerous bikini-clad babes. In other words, everything that you might be looking for in an island thriller is here, only better than those earlier pictures. Although the main cast is relatively no-name (Chris Carmack, Laura Vandervoort, Marsha Thomason & Dave Anders), they do a splendid job; plus the film is highlighted by two solid cameos of Parvati Shallow ("Survivor") and Audrina Patridge, both incredibly gorgeous. Another highlight is the ultra-serious and thrilling final act, which comprises the last 35 minutes or so. Up to that point the story is pretty much just a fun, light-hearted beach/diving flick. The dramatic change in tone works in the film's favor and keeps it from being one-dimensional.

Since "Into the Blue 2: The Reef" is a direct-to-video release it cost a fraction the expense of "The Deep" and "Into The Blue," the latter of which cost a whopping $50 million, believe it or not. This makes an interesting study: Filmmakers can make better films at a fraction of the cost; it's simply a matter of ingenuity. Hats off to director Stephen Herek, writer Mitchell Kapner and the cast - awesome job!

"Into the Blue 2" was shot in Hawaii whereas the other two were filmed in the Caribbean.

The runtime is 92 minutes.

GRADE: A-

And boy did we find it. From the director of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure comes the sequel nobody wanted from a film that nobody liked. Into the Blue 2: The Reef is bad soap opera dialogue, plot and acting with the egregious tits and arse of a Fast and Furious movie. There's the same underwater shoot padded over six times throughout the entire movie and the glorious use of split screen editing and incongruous and sudden bursts of ear-splitting music from unknown bands so the director could fit a music video's worth of stock underwater footage or bikini volleyball in for several 4 minutes 37 seconds and prevent the entire running time from being 40 minutes and change of actual 'plot'. Characters don't flinch after the people they love are killed, villains disappear, or instead end up acting with their mouths almost entirely shut, and none of it is engaging or interesting or makes a lick of sense. But sandwiched in two parts between a viewing of Ultraviolet, this film looked like Citizen Kane by comparison. Bad but not abysmal. Cheap and crass but not offensive or studio-destroyed. All in all, I guess they all made the exact kind of film they wanted to make, which by that, I mean, a film that allowed everyone to go to the beachside for the entire shoot.

while generally i find it a turn off when seeing 100% "preaty people as utterly unrealistic(this coming from a blonde one myself), for this particular feature it is bearable since it is an exotic adventure movie to start with = all comes down to exercising the imagination.

but the main aspect i truly enjoyed was the music score; great combination of uplifting sounds compounding many musical genres. this is a good movie to watch while preparing to leave for vacation...yes, very commercial at times but the feature does not pretend be more then what it is; a light pure entertaining plot(does not take itself too serious but good enough script to keep viewer in suspense)and full of visually rich cinematography(humans and nature).

if you liked "into the blue 1"-2005 and/or feel in an adventurous mood, then this one is for you.quiet a few scenes are literal rip-offs from the first one. my favorite actress was Marsha Thomason, great touch in moving plot forward . also the ending is not very predictable overall.