In the 1950s, a popular genre of action films was that of the deep sea diving thriller, with titles like Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef.

Here is a contemporary version of this genre with popular star, Paul Walker (The Skulls, The Fast and the Furious) instead of Robert Wagner. Jessica Alba is the principled heroine and Scott Caan, the friend with selfish motives and slippery moral judgements about salvaged goods. The temptation for him is that the treasure is a huge cache of drugs. Director is former action actor, John Stockwell (Blue Crush).

There is lots of underwater photography as the young cast scour the waters for a Civil War ship and as they deal with the drugs. The sleazy villain is British actor, James Frain, but there is also an American villain (who outsmarts the British) played by James Brolin.

There is very little one can say about this kind of film. It aims at its younger niche market. It features personable and attractive (looking) stars. It does, however, take on a moral tone to show that greed and money are not everything and that we can be satisfied with self-respect and love. And who can quarrel with that – even if they do ultimately become millionaires because of their honesty!

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