Into the Blue (PG-13, 2005)

Happy but restless with their bohemian life in the Bahamas, Sam (Jessica Alba) and Jared (Paul Walker) live in a trailer. He's a treasure hunter who spends most of his time bailing water out of his rickety rusty boat, she instructs crowds at a Seaworld-style theme park as to the dining habits of sharks. Formerly employed by Bates (Josh Brolin), Jared still has dreams of the big score, but wants to do it the right way, an aim encouraged by breadwinner Sam and pooh-poohed by his jet-setty frat boy-type best friend Bryce (Scott Caan). A lawyer for drug dealers back home, Bryce arrives for a vacation with a girl he met the night before, Amanda (Ashley Scott). The two couples set out to enjoy their weekend, diving, sunning, and partying. Amid the pretty undersea imagery -- fish, coral, clear water -- they find a downed plane full of cocaine bricks (and a few dead, black bodies). They also discover a really old shipwreck, which might be a legendary pirate's ship. In order to get enough money to excavate the treasure with the proper equipment, Bryce and Amanda decide to collect and sell the cocaine. This leads the entire crew into a conflict with the local drug runners, very hard and mean men who think nothing of shooting associates through the chest.

INTO THE BLUE doesn't even pretend to be serious. Beautiful and very blue, the movie features frequent views of lithe young bodies in scant clothing. Granted, stars Alba and Walker look fabulous -- they're famous for doing just that. And they both spend much time in under- and swimwear.

But the plot is tedious enough and the underwater scenes clichéd enough to undermine such glib self-understanding. And so the movie is less easily forgivable for its excesses, much less its corny characters (for instance, a brutal kingpin (James Frain looking gaunt and sleepless), sly club-owner (Tyson Beckford), hapless island cop Roy (Dwayne Adway). And oh yes, the sharks. Though Sam is a professional expert on their habits and diets, and she and Jared are comfortable swimming among the non-man-eating sorts hanging round the treasure site, you can't really make a movie with sharks in it and not feature a couple of harrowing incidents.