Into the Blue 2: The Reef (2009 Video) User Reviews

Much better than I expected

[davebartle · 6/10 · 9 November 2021]

I started the movie expecting to turn it off because it was so bad. Instead, I watched to the end and quite enjoyed it.

It.is not a movie that requires deep intellectual thought and never aspires to be. Instead it is.a popcorn flick with good looking people searching for treasure and it delivers on this.

If you just want to spend a couple of hours enjoying something light and entertaining, this is a good option.

not bad

[coffeeblack · 5/10 · 18 April 2009]

i thought i would give this movie a chance because i must admit i really enjoyed the first. i went in with my expectations low and after the viewing i must admit i was'nt sorry. this movie is just OK. into the blue 1 was pretty good so a sequel was hard to do. the story was fine if not a little outdated and the acting was fine apart from a few silly actors letting the side down.

as u can probably tell there is not a lot to write about this apart from that if you enjoyed the first 1 then you will probably enjoy this as well...just not as much.

give it a try and let me know if my rating of fair or unfair;)

How hard would it have been to cast an actress willing to take her top off?

[MBunge · 4/10 · 10 July 2011]

Oh boy, this is the sort of film that makes you feel sorry for Hollywood screenwriters. I mean, everybody's got to pay bills, so you figure you'll take a job writing the direct-to-DVD sequel of Jessica Alba movie. How bad can it be? And then your producer says you've got to write a part for an MTV reality star, create an entire second set of characters because the leading lady won't take her top off, inject an Iraq/Afghanistan war theme into the movie because somebody wants to pretend they're relevant and to top it off, you've got to jerry rig an ending out of spit and bailing wire when the production runs out of money. No wonder writers drink…and so many of them commit suicide.

Sebastian and Dani (Chris Carmack and Laura Vandervoort) are a young, impossibly good looking pair of lovers who run a diving business in Hawaii. They've spent years looking for a famed shipwreck, with only a single doubloon to show for it. Then one day, they're hired by an international couple who say they're looking for the same ship wreck. Carlton and Azra (David Anders and Marsha Thomason) are wealthy and mysterious and turn out to have a hidden agenda. And then they have another agenda hidden under that which gets explained in a scene that is literally jaw droppingly stupid.

In the midst of all that, a few girls show their breasts, there's some nicely filmed underwater scenes and the movie rolls out a total of 8 montages to kill time. Yes, I said 8 montages. The rule in cinema is generally that more than 2 montages means your film sucks, but 8 takes it to a completely different level. 8 montages moves beyond considerations of good and bad and almost turns this motion picture into a force of nature, like an earthquake or Galactus.

Now, this is a talented enough cast, director Stephen Herek looks like he knows what he's doing and the dialog isn't atrocious, but this script is dragged to the bottom of the sea by way too many creative requirements. Here's the most obvious one. The folks who made Into The Blue 2: The Reef wanted there to be nudity, and naked breasts do show up at regular intervals. Usually the lead actress is a big part of that, but these guys gave that part to Laura Vandervoort, who refused to get nude. She's beautiful and a decent actress and all that, but not being willing to take your clothes off should be a deal breaker for this kind of role. So, writer Mitchell Kapner was tasked with inserting a secondary female character into the story to do the nudity that Vandervoort wouldn't, which also required the insertion of a secondary male character so she'd have someone to do a sex scene with.

To his credit, Kapner tries to give those secondary characters their own storyline but it detracts from both the two leads and the villainous couple they face off with. It's this obtrusive third wheel that boggles up the plot, takes away characterization time from the stars of the show and it's blazingly obvious that it's only in the film because Vandervoort wouldn't show her glorious ta-ta's.

The screenplay is burdened with too many other things like that, from two painfully bad scenes with Audrina Patridge from MTV's The Hills to a treasure hunting movie ludicrously morphing into an espionage flick with an anti-war message to an ending so cheaply pulled off it can't possibly have been the original idea. This production spent a good chunk of money shooting a lot of expensive underwater footage and then it's big, explosive conclusion is almost Ed Woodian in its staging and execution.

I haven't seen Into The Blue, though I'm fairly certain Jessica Alba doesn't take her clothes off in it. Maybe if she had, these producers would have felt compelled to get an actress who would do the same, which would probably have made Into The Blue 2: The Reef significantly better. She didn't, so they didn't, so it's not.

Average Sequel

[killbill_28 · 4/10 · 15 February 2010]

My first review of 2010 is "Into The Blue 2: The Reef". The story is about two divers played by Chris Carmack and Laura Vandervoort who love to explore hidden treasures at a bottom of a local reef. One day after a day of exploring they are approached by a couple played by David Anders and Marsha Thomason. They tell the young divers that they want to hire them to explore the reef and find a rare artifact about Columbus' hidden treasure that is reported at the bottom of the reef.

Next day the four dive to the bottom of the reef and of coarse after a whole day of diving they find nothing. A few more days past and the two hired divers found out that they a part of a major deadly plot in which they can't escape otherwise they will be killed. They were hired to find two big containers. One contains a nuclear reactor and the other contains a core.

The movie also has a back story about another person (brother of the lead character) trying to patch things up with his girlfriend, I reckon this part of the story was a waste of time, this also includes a very steamy sex scene between the couple which to me is a complete waste and wasn't needed to be shown.

However apart from that, this movie does have some good underwater photography and the colors blend in well which is why it receives 4 stars. Into The Blue 2 is a sequel only by name. None of the original actors or characters return, it has a dumb plot, stupid characters and a boring climax.

Brainless but looks good

[dbborroughs · 4/10 · 1 May 2009]

Brainless film about a good looking but brainless couple who decide to live their dream and take people on diving tours. The pair almost instantly make the wrong choice of customers and get mixed up with some people seeking to recover the items that we see falling to the ocean floor during the opening credits sequence. Great looking direct to video movie could have been so much better if it wasn't so interested in primarily looking good. Performances are serviceable and the plot is actually not bad, or would have been had the director and producers not redirected the plot into making sure we see lots of shapely people in bathing suits (or in what I'm guessing the reason for the "unrated" moniker a few fleeting bare breasts). The film never generates any tension nor rises above the level of a forgettable TV movie. If you get roped in to seeing this you won't pluck your eyes out since the eye candy is pleasant but we really need to stop producers from making films that are excuses to have a paid vacation.

Good plot but things thrown in for no reason

[jordac02 · 4/10 · 31 May 2010]

I loved the first movie but this one seemed to grasp sexual content and nudity too much, one scene was thrown in just for this content. It did not move the plot forward and it did not define a single character. It was only shown so the viewer could see nude women. However, this movie did a great job with filming. In action scenes it showed many shots that would make us respect Sebastion even more. The whole film also contributes to the ending where Sebastion and Dani come out on top and defeat the villains. The movie also makes me respect Dani more too because she was suspicious of their new clients the whole time. I respected Dani much more after this film. I also loved the beach volleyball scene that was so intense!

I can't believe that I actually sat through this.

[Evolution-X · 3/10 · 30 June 2013]

Oh my goodness, where do I start? I remember hearing about this movie back in 2009 when I saw it on a shelf at Target back then. I remember being curious about it because I kind of enjoyed the first movie but in some ways, I was a little iffy about it. I remember wanting to watch it but I didn't buy it until October of last year but I didn't actually watch it until a few weeks ago, and man, I really wish that I didn't.

I am going to say this: I have SOMEWHAT of a thing for unrelated direct-to-video sequels. I know that a lot of them turn out not to be so good. Some are watchable. Some just happen to have the name slapped on it and it's the same thing but it turns out to be really bad. Few are actually good, and this is not one of those movies. It was really bad.

Now I am not going to deny that the movie has a lot of eye candy. It had some great visuals of Hawaii, great underwater sequences and of course, great looking women. Laura Vandervoort, Mircea Monroe, Marsha Thomason, Audrina Patridge, even some of the other female characters who we didn't get to know were all smoking hot. However, that's as far as I can go when it comes to the positives. Now on to the negatives.

The plot is almost a replica of the first film, yet there were some differences. The other couple in this one were more like a comic relief couple and didn't get them into the trouble that the couple in the first one did. Plus, it felt kind of predictable who the villains were. Right at the beginning, I kind of sensed that the British people were going to be revealed as the villains more than halfway through the movie but I saw it coming from a mile away. Second, what was the point in the little anti-war subtext that came out of left field? I understand that they tried to differ from the first one being the "illegal treasure" that is found at the bottom of the ocean was a nuclear weapon as opposed to drugs, but why bomb Hawaii? Also, another thing that I thought that was badly done was when they killed off Mircea Monroe's character. I get that in a lot of movies, there has to be at least one casualty in the protagonist group, but I really didn't think that her character needed to be iced unless the writers wanted it to resemble the first film. But in the first film, the reason the other girl died was because she got bit by a shark but she was somewhat of an antagonist anyway. This movie, on the other hand, didn't have a reason to kill her off and then later on, have a little funeral for her and then it was like it didn't happen. The actor could have shown that he was more broken up about his girlfriend's death than he actually did.

There are some more negative things that I could point out. One, the henchman who can't swim. I kind of chuckled when I saw that part when he was drowning at sea. Also, the mini subplot with Audrina Patridge's character coming up and talking all fast was really pointless and her boyfriend wasn't even a major character in the movie. Also, Laura's character making a fast recovery from hypothermia. Okay, I can let that one slide because it was a plot device and she had to go back to her boyfriend and friends eventually. But wait, this was a major goof if I ever saw one and I am sure I am not the only one who saw this: after she ran into a cop and her boyfriend's rival, they take the guy's boat to go find her boyfriend and friend. But that's not the bad part, the bad part is that we last saw her wearing a hospital gown but when we saw her meet up with her friends, we see her wearing a different shirt and you see the bikini string coming out of the shirt collar. Okay, for one thing, she wouldn't had enough time to go and change her shirt because she had to meet her friends to help them. Even she did have enough time, the best thing she could do is just get a shirt, not a bikini top along with it. I thought that was a major error when I saw it.

I could really go on about how bad this movie is. The first movie wasn't special either, but I found it entertaining in some areas. This movie, on the hand, had so many errors and it suffered from bad writing and bad directing. Some of the acting was decent, particularly from the villains, but other than that, it was a bad movie. Don't ever waste your time watching this movie.

So awful I'm still laughing.

[maryanne-stuartwilliam · 1/10 · 18 March 2011]

If you think that maybe this movie is not as bad as the reviews say....don't, unless you want to laugh at really really bad movie- making. If you think that maybe this movie is not as bad as the reviews say....don't, unless you want to laugh at really really bad movie- making. If you think that maybe this movie is not as bad as the reviews say....don't, unless you want to laugh at really really bad movie- making. If you think that maybe this movie is not as bad as the reviews say....don't, unless you want to laugh at really really bad movie- making.If you think that maybe this movie is not as bad as the reviews say....don't, unless you want to laugh at really really bad movie- making.If you think that maybe this movie is not as bad as the reviews say....don't, unless you want to laugh at really really bad movie- making.If you think that maybe this movie is not as bad as the reviews say....don't, unless you want to laugh at really really bad movie- making.

Baywatch in movie form

[bitbucketchip · 6/10 · 25 October 2021]

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.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film at a friend's house with some good company and the express intention of watching a very bad movie.

[Offworld_Colony · 2/10 · 6 February 2020]

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.

Quite a bit better than the first one (and "The Deep")

[Wuchakk · 8/10 · 31 March 2011]

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-

not bad at all

[beregic · 6/10 · 29 April 2009]

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.

B-movie stuff

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 5 July 2022]

Sebastian (Chris Carmack) and Dani (Laura Vandervoort) run a dive boat in Hawaii. Unreliable Mace (Michael Graziadei) and his long-suffering girlfriend Kimi (Mircea Monroe) are their best friends. They are hired by Carlton (David Anders) and Azra (Marsha Thomason) to look for the legendary wreck of San Cristobal.

I kinda like the treasure hunt and then a bikini volleyball game breaks out. At that point, it becomes a battle between all the B-movie aspects that the movie insists on adding, and the thrilling story of the underwater search. I actually like the treasure hunt. David Anders is a good villain. In the end, the B-movie stuff does overwhelm.

Major Disappointment

[drew-96229 · 1/10 · 5 June 2022]

Huge Disappointment because I was expecting Treasure. "...6 Billion in sunken treasure..." is on the screen at the beginning of the movie. The first movie was about sunken treasure, this was about anything but... Filmed in Hawaii which is hardly known for sunken treasure. The 1 star I gave was for Laura Vandervoort.

Love the Diving part...

[smokehallic · 7/10 · 21 April 2009]

The picture starts perfectly and initially it was so excited but the main thing starts at the middle of the film, where the villains come into the picture. Initially started off after the villains come in is they wanted to search the Sand Cristobal which the hero and the heroine are searching for 4 years and after some time they turns the real story of the lovely couple into a disaster by telling what they actually wanted. But in the starting itself they will show us that two huge boxes are thrown into the ocean which is the main theme of the story. The villain people come to search them and take them home but ....

Cheers....

Great movie

[lostbeach9765 · 10/10 · 24 September 2012]

Come on give me a break , some people wouldn't know a good movie if it bit them in the... well you figure it out . For one thing there wasn't that much skin in the movie as some would exaggerate that it does also no it doesn't have A list actors in it . The movie was very entertaining . I loved the first one too. I was setting myself up to be disappointed in the 2nd one but was surprised. The acting was great for non A-list actors very entertaining and great story. I learned along time ago to not listen to reviewers . If you like ocean movies which I do, judge for your self . Just cause I like ocean movies doesn't mean I like them all. I have seen some really bad ones but this is not one of them. I bought this one for my DVD collection to go right beside the first one that was also a great movie. I only gave this 10 stars cause of the bad reviews it received that it didn't deserve at all . It may not really be a 10 but its well over average. Watch it !