One of my all time favorites.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

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.

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-

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.

This film has x in it. x stands for a peak-of-irrelevance-person, whose irrelevance i will not undermine by memorizing her name and positively shall not be mistaken for an actress.x is part of a plague that infected television and made real what we would have thought ten years ago is a sick joke: people who have no life watch people having no life.Speaking of sick joke - whose idea was it to hire x as ... no, i correct: INSTEAD of an actress for this movie? Anyhofromthehills, this film has x in it and you just know that is it's terminal flaw. By far not it's only flaw but it's most obvious. Which is - come to think of it - a good thing as it makes you run to the hills and hide from it.