“’Beautiful cinematography, hip characters and a thrilling and entertaining storyline. I actually enjoyed this sequel much more than the original film.”
© 2009, 20th Century Fox. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Into the Blue 2: The Reef
DURATION: 92 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: The Into The Blue 2: The Reef DVD is presented in widescreen with English Dolby Surround 5.1 sound.
COMPANY: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
RATED: PG-13
RELEASE DATE:Â April 21, 2009
Directed by Stephen Herek
Produced by David Brookwell, David Buelow, Sean McNamara, Charles Winkler
Executive Produced by Sara Berrisford, Hudson Hickman, Craig Roessler
Director of Photography: Tom Yatsko
Underwater, Director of Photography: Don R. King
Music by Robert Duncan
Edited by Robin Russell
Production Design by Jonathan A. Carlson
Starring:
Chris Carmack as Sebastian
Laura Vandervoort as Dani
Marsha Thomason as Azra
David Anders as Carlton
Audrina Patridge as Kelsey
Mircea Monroe as Kimi
Michael Graziadei as Mace
Mark Kubr as Milos
Rand Holdren as Avery
Ride the wave of extreme ocean adventure as Into the Blue 2: The Reef tells the white-knuckle tale of scuba divers Sebastion (Chris Carmack) and Dani (Laura Vandervoort), a sexy couple thrown into precarious waters when they are promised big money in exchange for leading dives along a treacherous Hawaiian reef. At the hands of dubious clients, the young couple is plunged into danger and an ultimate test of their diving skills, as well as their love, strength –and will to live.
“Into the Blue 2: The Reef” is the sequel to the 2005 film starring Jessica Alba and Paul Walker. This straight-to-DVD release stars recognizable talent from popular television series in a suspenseful thriller in the seas featuring beautiful cinematography from Hawaii.
Taking the helm of director is Stephen Herek who has directed “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, “The Mighty Ducks”, “101 Dalmatians” and the Director of Photography is Thomas Yasko who worked on “The Day After Tomorrow”, “Alias” and “Felicity” and underwater cinematography work by Don R. King who has worked on films and television series such as “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, “LOST”, “Lords of Dogtown”, “Cast Away” and “Riding Giants”.
Overall, I was thinking this may be a low budget indie film but actually, this film was better than what I was expecting. Read on.
The film kicks off with a message that there are millions of dollars of treasure in the ocean waiting to be found. We see two large containers being dropped into the ocean.
The film then begins in Honolulu, Hawaii. The person who dumped the large containers goes to meet with a few guys in suits expecting to get paid. But because he dumped the containers and altering the schedule of those container shipments to the customer, he is killed.
We are then taken underwater in the blue ocean as Sebastion (Chris Carmack from “The O.C.”) and his wife Dani (Laura Vandervoort from “Smallville”) are dive surfing with a model. We learn that the group own a snorkling business that rents out equipment for clients. For Sebastion, doing this line of work for people’s vacations is not a line of work he wants to do forever.
For Sebastion, there are countless treasures in the ocean that he has been in search of for a long time but one that he has been searching for four years is the Spanish ship “San Cristobal” which sunk somewhere near the North Reef and is rumored to have sunk in the ocean with a lot of treasure.
Sebastion believes that if he finds this treasure, this will give him and his wife the opportunity to live a better life.
Sebastion hangs out with his friend and employee Mace (Michael Graziadei from “Young and the Restless” and “90210”) and his girlfriend Kimi (Mircea Monroe from “Drive”), Dani’s best friend, who are a couple that have a difficult relationship because Avery tends to mess around with other women. Where Mace and Kimi have a crazy relationship, Sebastion and Dani are very much in love.
While at work, they are visited by Carlton (David Anders from “ALIAS” and “HEROES”) and Azra (Marsha Thomason from “LOST”), a couple who wants to hire them for diving in the North Reef for a week because they are looking for the San Cristobal.
Of course, Sebastion has been trying for several years to find it but Carlton happens to have a map which may lead them to the treasure. So, both Sebastion and Dani agree to help the couple. The four go on various diving expeditions to find treasure.
We then get to see some of the beach life as all six individuals enjoy the beach. Dani and Kimi and Sebastion and Mace get involved in separate beach volleyball competitions. Sebastion and Mace go against their main diving competitors, Avery (Rand Holdren) who dates a girl named Kelsey (Audrina Patridge from “The Hills”) who loves to lecture him when he gets into trouble by messing around with women.
While at a club, a random guy hits on the women and grabs the arm of Azra and Azra quickly puts him in a headlock. This raises the first red flag for Dani who becomes suspicious.
The following day we learn that Carlton is not really looking for the San Cristobal. He actually helps big clients smuggle treasure to other locations. Both Carlton and Azra tell Sebastion and Dani that if they help them find the two containers, they will earn $500,000. Also, we learn that if Carlton doesn’t find the containers in a week, the men will kill them. The reason why he is willing to pay them a lot of money is part of an apology because the men who hired him know the names of Sebastion and Dani and their lives are in danger too.
So, now both Sebastion and Dani are forced to help Carlton and Azra find the two containers but while they are at sea, Avery takes notice and he starts looking to find whatever they are looking for.
With their lives threatened, Dani convinces Sebastion that they must look to see what is in those containers and why their lives are being threatened. Something terrible could be in those containers and that they need to check them without bringing Carlton and Azra along.
Thus, the two take their boat out to see late at night to dive and see what those containers are. What they find in the containers are not treasure but a bomb. When they return from their boat after the dive, they are greeted by Carlton and Azra have been hiding in their boat and are ready to kill them.   Carlton tells him that in container one is the casing and in container two is a nuclear warhead. One without the other is useless but together creates a powerful weapon.  Their goal is to create a second Pearl Harbor.
Will Sebastion and Dani be able to get some help or escape to safety or will they get killed by these terrorists?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Into the Blue 2: The Reef” is presented in widescreen and was filmed in High Definition. Picture quality for the film is actually quite nice as it was filmed in Oahu, Hawaii and they hired one of the best diving camera crews in Hawaii. Thus you get really beautiful shots of the group diving and coming across the reefs and various marine life. Most of the film is shot outdoors, so you really get a good taste of Hawaii through the cinematography.
As for audio, the film is presented in English Dolby Surround 5.1 sound. The majority of the film is front channel heavy with the film being dialogue and at times music driven. If anything, the music creates the atmosphere during the action sequence. Overall, dialogue and music is quite clear and easily heard.
Overall, the DVD looked and sounds really good but because this film was shot in HD, I would imagine that the picture quality to be much better if this film was released ala 1080p High Definition on Blu-ray.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The following “Into the Blue 2: The Reef” special features are included:
- “Get Wet†Featurette – (11:42) This featurette shows how the underwater scenes were filmed. Interview with Director Stephen Herek and the talent. Learning how the main cast had to go through scuba driving training. We learn how the guys enjoyed it, for Laura Vandervoort, she watched a shark attacks documentary and thus was a bit scared of sharks. As for Marsha Thomason, being from the UK and with thick hair, she wasn’t a water person. Interviews with Day Vinson, the scuba instructor and learning about the crash course lessons for the talents. Interviews with Producer Hudson Hickman in regards to why Hawaii was chosen versus Catalina. Interviews wtih Don R. King (Underwater Unit: Director of Photography) and how he and Director Herek communicated and directed while Herek was viewing a monitor on a ship. An enjoyable and interesting featurette.
- “Run For Your Life†Featurette – (6:42) In the film is an action chase scene in which Laura Vandervoort had to run around Hawaii. Director Stephen Herek talked about how he wanted to capture get a “Run Lola Run” type of feel between Vandervoort and Thomason’s characters running in Hawaii. Vandervoort’s character Dani had to run barefoot for long distances, but overall watching her, she was so excited to do an action scene thus she gave it her all for that scene. Featuring an interview with Producer Craig Roessler.  Interviews with Director Stephen Herek, actress Laura Vandervoort and Marsha Thomason and Director of Photography Thomas Yatsko.
- “Back To The Beach†Music Video – (1:40) A short behind-the-scenes music video of shooting the beach volleyball and club scene, plus the lovemaking and scuba diving scenes and showing the talents having fun on the set.
Overall, I’m a sucker for beach films, especially when it comes to cinematography in Hawaii. So, I may be a bit biased because “Into the Blue 2: The Reef” looks absolutely beautiful.
If anything, it was quite interesting to see the cast for the film of stars from popular television shows together. The main talents of the film did a very good job and Chris Carmack and Laura Vandervoort definitely had great chemistry while David Anders and Marsha Thomason definitely have that star power from being in “ALIAS”, “HEROES” and “LOST” which definitely peaked my interest when I first saw these two together.
Many people are wondering how Audrina Patridge of MTV’s “The Hills” is featured and first, I will say that Audrina’s appearance in the film is short and her scene is not major. But knowing how popular “The Hills” stars have become, I suppose that it works out to be a small positive cameo for the film which has many TV stars, so it all works out. If anything, her role is actually quite humorous and her cameo seems to have been tacked onto the storyline to reach that demographic who are fans of her and the series.
“Into the Blue 2: The Reef” overall was actually entertaining. It was much better than I expected and for a film that was created with a smaller budget than the original and done with a shorter schedule, from what they were able to accomplish in Hawaii and Catalina, I felt everything worked out and there was no sign of “low-budget” indie film cheapness.
Again, the talent are people from popular television shows with the exception of Patridge who is in a drama reality show but overall, everyone did a pretty good job. Also, watching the special features, everyone was quite enthusiastic to take part in the film, so that was pretty cool!
If there was any problem that I had with the film, it was regarding Azra’s character at the end. Her actions and her mentioning “the war”. So, I wish things were a bit clear about her character and that final scene with her.
Overall, the first film didn’t really have me expecting much for the sequel but after watching “Into the Blue 2: The Reef”, I enjoyed the film. Â Again, since this film was shot in High Definition, I hope 20th Century Fox considers releasing this film on Blu-ray because the cinematography is just beautiful.
All in all, “Into the Blue 2: The Reef” is an entertaining film worth checking out!