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INTO THE BLUE October 9, 2005 Into the Blue is the Aquaman movie that will never be made. The season-long running gag in Entourage involves James Cameron directing Adrian Grenier as Aquaman, but if there’s one thing Into the Blue made clear, it’s that Paul Walker is the best man for the role. Not only does the blonde-haired, blue eyed, and chiseled Walker look the part, he practically portrayed Aquaman; he could hold his breath underwater practically indefinitely and found himself fighting drug dealers and salvage pirates 60 feet below sea level. Walker even had finny friends; the sharks in the movie don’t attack Paul Walker, but they will attack Walker’s enemies when he needs them to. Jessica Alba also makes a much better Aquagirl than Mandy Moore would. I thought Into the Blue was a disappointment. For something to be disappointing, there have to be expectations, and yes, I had some. I’m a fan of director John Stockwell, who has made two of the better movies in the last five years dealing with young female characters, crazy/beautiful and Blue Crush, the latter being a well-crafted and underrated pop movie about female surfers. Into the Blue had a bad script that dived headlong into the waters of absurdity without an oxygen tank and Stockwell couldn’t save the movie from it. Acting-wise, Scott Caan and Ashley Scott were smarmy and terrible, mostly terrible. Walker was exactly what he always is. The best performance of the leads came from Jessica Alba, with a big assist coming from her bikinis. Seriously, this is probably the smoothest and most balanced performance Alba has given in any of the movies she’s done. When the question of whether Jessica Alba can act is raised, I'll defend that I watched her grow into the role of Max Guevara and she did some layered and subtle work on her two seasons on Dark Angel. I'm not saying Alba turned into Meryl Streep by any means, but she was better here than she has been in her last few movies. Compared to her performances in Honey, Sin City, and Fantastic Four, Into the Blue is her cinematic coming out party. If she needed advice on which of her performances to put in her reel, I’d tell her to add Into the Blue clips to her Dark Angel clips. (She should pretend Honey never existed like the rest of us try to.) - John Orquiola
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